“I love it. I wouldn’t have before... I know that. But—”
“It lets you get lost enough to think.”
“Yeah. And I’ve never been on my own like this. I’m a real adult at forty-three. Paying my own bills and all.” She rolled her eyes to say how silly it was, but Rainy could also see Braithe’s true pleasure in these facts, as well. She’d split from Stephen after they got back from Vegas. Rainy hadn’t seen her after they parted ways at the airport.
Grant had met her as she walked through, rushing, running, holding her in all the right ways. Braithe had stayed with Tara for a few weeks before moving to New York, where her sister’s family lived. Stephen put the house up for sale a month after. He and Grant still spoke occasionally, but after everything that had happened, he moved to Montana and was living with a new woman.
“Nice ring.” Braithe nodded at her finger.
“Thanks.” It was simple: an emerald cut on a gold band. She’d chosen a plain gold band for her wedding ring and now wore them paired and with pride. Grant said he would have married her even if she’d rejoined the cult. It was a terrible joke, and he’d apologized for days. Either way, they were happy.
“Your hair is pretty badass that length, if you don’t mind me saying.”
Rainy smiled her most genuine smile. “I most certainly don’t mind you saying,” she teased. She’d learned that the best way to honor her mother was through her life, not the length of her hair. She’d cut it to her chin in the “baddest” bob and never looked back.
“You sure you don’t want to do the interview? It might be good to talk about it.”
Braithe shook her head, but it was the look of horror in her eyes that made it clear to Rainy: she would never talk about what happened. “I was caught in it, but that’s your story to tell. Besides, there’s nothing more that I want than to move on with my life and put all that behind me. I lost so many things through that experience.”
Rainy nodded. Her wine arrived. Tomorrow she was doing a TV interview with a morning show on what the media was calling Tauredia. In the wake of Taured’s death—which the police had easily seen was self-defense on Rainy’s part—what was left of the compound had dissolved, those remaining members detained and Taured’s cult the subject of multiple documentaries and podcasts currently in production. Everyone wanted to talk to Rainy, the woman who’d gotten away from it all and taken down the leader. The floppy disk and the photos she’d stolen all those years ago were now part of ongoing investigations into the dark side of the web and Taured’s part in it. Taured had sent their photos to other email addresses, and those recipients were now being investigated, too. The only reason she’d agreed and flown to New York to do the interview was to raise awareness about women in positions like the one her mother had been in.
Viola, who still felt bitter about being left out of the Vegas saga, insisted on coming to New York.
“Bitches aren’t leaving me out of the action anymore. Baby is coming!”
“I still can’t believe we made it out of that alive. And I still can’t believe you didn’t have a better plan.”
Rainy smiled. Act now, think later had worked for her, but barely.
“I wasn’t really given much time to plan. But I had a couple backups.”
“Like the note at the soup station?” Braithe’s eyebrows were all the way up, her smile repressed.
“Well, sure.” The note at the soup station was a favorite topic on the blogs. Rainy liked to pretend she didn’t see the memes of the chowder bowl with the scared face holding a Help, Police! I’m Chowder! sign.
“I also wrote a note on the fifty dollars I slipped to the clerk at that corner store,” she offered.
“I guess...” Braithe looked less than impressed, and Rainy snort-laughed into her palm.
“Rainy!”
Susan had confirmed her story to the police and, miracle of miracles, still had the fifty dollars to show them when they questioned her. It was a backup plan, but one in which she’d meant to clear herself of any wrongdoing. Around the margins and in any clear space she’d written:
I am Rainy Ives. I’m being held captive along with Braithe Mattson. Anyone who reads this should contact police about Taured, the man from Friendship, Nevada: second-degree murderer, forced-labor conspiracy, attempted sex trafficking, possession of child porn, racketeering conspiracy, wire-fraud conspiracy. It’s because of him we are here. I’ve got proof.
“But, Rainy, he didn’t have anything to do with Ginger, not at that point, in that way. And not until you pulled him into it by emailing him.”
“He had everything to do with Ginger.”
“Yeah, I get what you’re saying. But I hope you get what I’m saying, too.”
“I did what I thought was right in the situation.”
“You planned on trying to kill him or you thought Ginger would do it for you?” Braithe wasn’t being accusatory; Rainy recognized her need for answers.
“I gambled. I knew Taured would come and I knew one of them would die as a result of it. I figured I’d have a chance at the other one. At the time, I didn’t know who exactly Ginger was. All I knew was that he’d been at the compound at the same time as me. And if he was doing these atrocities, it was because Taured had nurtured him toward them. Either way, I had one to deal with the other.”
“It’s like you’re giving Ginger a pass.”
“He’s dead, isn’t he?”
At those words, Braithe’s face smoothed into what Rainy perceived as relief. She nodded. She took a sip of her water, not meeting Rainy’s eyes for several minutes. Then she said, “I’m glad he’s dead. I don’t care if that makes me a bad person. He was a monster.”
“Why?” Rainy asked. “Why was he a monster?”
Braithe was angry now, but not at Rainy. “He fucking kidnapped me, he tied me up and drugged me. I can’t sleep. I wasn’t sure who I was before, but I’m less so now. I hate him.”
Rainy made a noise in the back of her throat. “Well, I’m glad Taured’s dead...he was a monster.” She tried to clear the emotion out of her voice but gave up on it; it was just the two of them at the table today, and she owed Braithe her truth. “He kidnapped my mother and in turn kidnapped me. He tied me up, he drugged me, he took photos of me that he used to blackmail my mother. But I can sleep now...now that he’s dead. I don’t feel bad about that, either, because he was the first monster. And I ended him.”
Summer had been there for all of it. She saw what he did to the minds of those children and what he’d tried to do to her. If you weren’t there, you couldn’t speak on it.
Rainy decided that there was very little difference between her and Ginger; she’d just chosen to put her anger in a different place. She’d gone to the source and shut off the tap. Braithe would reject the idea of her being like Ginger, but there it was.
Braithe nodded. “Everything else happened like you said it did?”
“Pretty much.”
Braithe stared at her, hard, before nodding.
And then she was looking over Rainy’s shoulder at Viola, jumping to her feet to greet their friend.
“Let’s welcome back Rainy Ives, the woman who took down Tauredia.” The host had big teeth. She nodded around at her unseen audience before turning to Rainy, growing serious.
“Why did you risk your life instead of walking away from Braithe?”
“It was fight or flight, and I was tired of flying. Braithe was there because of me, because Ginger happened to see her with me that night. I didn’t see another option, because Sara saved my life all those years ago. And once someone has extended that courtesy, the wealth of gratitude never goes away.”
“Do you regret not going back for Sara? And do you think it would have made a difference if you had?”