by C. S. Starr
“That’s irrelevant.” Lucy shook her head. “East is tied up with that new kid around Old South Carolina that’s been blowing things up with all the fertilizer. They’re not going to come after us, and now that I’ve seen West—”
“You only know what you’ve been told. Who knows what’s going on over there.”
Lucy had some good sources in East. She’d made sure of it a long time ago, since they were a bigger threat to her little world than anyone else, and not a power she was willing to work with, since they were on opposite ends of every spectrum. “East is not going to be a problem.”
“I hope not,” Cole muttered. “Zoey’s asleep?”
Lucy yawned and nodded. “She is.”
“I think she was a little jealous of the way that Tal guy looked at you. She mentioned it a little while ago. I told her it was tit-for-tat with all the looking she does, and not to be stupid. He’s not even hot.”
Lucy wondered why she’d missed these looks that apparently happened beyond the obvious ogling. “Why would she be jealous? She knows I’m not interested.”
“Because she likes to get all the looks. You know that. She needs constant validation, and you’re terrible at giving her that.” He stretched his arms out in front of him and rested his palms on his knees. “Honestly, I have no idea how you two haven’t drowned in your dysfunction.”
“You know me. I thrive on dysfunction,” she murmured. “She’s just insecure sometimes. We’re good. You don’t have to worry about us.”
“I worry about everyone, all the time. You know me,” he countered. “I just think if either of them had knocked on her door tonight instead of mine, you two wouldn’t be having the same rational conversation that we are.”
“She wouldn’t do that.”
“Wouldn’t she?” He quirked his eyebrow. “Must I remind you of her and—”
The leader of Campbell stiffened, as her brother reminded her of something she preferred to forget. “I wish you wouldn’t bring that up. It was a long time ago.”
“You don’t give her what she needs, and I’m not talking about what Bull’s packing. You don’t elevate her onto the pedestal she desperately wants. The guys she fucks do, because she’s your girlfriend, and it’s good for their egos. It’s a circular problem. Break the cycle, Sis.”
“Leave me alone,” she said with a sigh. “It’s been a long day.” Lucy decided at that moment she’d include Cole in the capacity he was best. He was a wonderful judge of character. He’d always helped her figure people out, and once she had information from him, she was pretty good at handling almost anyone. She wasn’t as good at figuring out people’s motivations, although she was becoming better.
Or possibly just more cynical.
“Is he gay? Connor? I can never tell. Terrible gaydar.”
Cole thought about it. “I think he’s like most people. He thinks he’s one thing but he could probably change his mind under the right circumstances.”
“And the other guy? Tal? What do you think about him?”
“Well, he lives with his cousin. He’s intellectual, I guess. I don’t think he’s gay, although his close relationship with Connor seems pretty serious—in a fucked up way. There’s some dependency issues there. I think they’re on the outs a little. Seven year itch maybe.” He smiled. “I think Tal is the behind-the-scenes guy. That might mean the behind the scenes aren’t so good, if he’s stressed. Maybe they’re broke.”
Lucy smiled back. “I thought that too.”
“I think he’s more open to negotiating than Connor is. He probably leans a bit more left, so he’s the one you should try to be cordial to.” Cole reached for the bottle of wine and topped off his glass. “They’re leaving tomorrow.”
“I told them to. There’s no point in them being here.” She leaned her head on her twin’s shoulder, and he wrapped an arm around her. “I’m not in a rush to take out West,” she whispered. “I can wait a little while, until things get worse, and it’s easier for us. Our reserve is growing, but I don’t want it to feel strained, you know?”
Cole nodded. “Good. I don’t think there’s going to be an offensive from West. It wouldn’t be smart.”
“Agreed,” she nodded, as she stood. “I think I’m going to go to bed.”
Cole stood as well, and kissed her forehead. “Night, Sis.”
She wrapped her arms tightly around his waist, and relaxed into his embrace. “You know I need you, right? More than anything?”
He rested his head on the top of hers. “I do.”
“I’ll see you in the morning. We’ll get rid of these assholes and maybe go swimming in the river after we sort through some correspondence?”
There was always so much correspondence. They both sighed at the thought.
“Let’s just go do something together. The correspondence can wait. Maybe we can make Zoey do it so she feels important.”
The Campbell twins smiled the same knowing grin.
“Love,” Lucy whispered, as they parted ways after locking the front door. It was their word. They’d exchanged it every night since they’d first learned to speak it.
Cole smiled back, a twinkle in his eye that Lucy adored. “Love.”
Chapter 4
August 2001
Fort Macleod, Alberta
Lucy looked around the crowded emergency room for a seat, but saw nothing available. It wasn’t a big hospital, but it seemed like everyone in town was there, most of them grey and coughing or accompanying someone that was grey and coughing. The wait to check in was about thirty people long, and the hospital receptionist barked ignored commands, and tried to maintain some order. She was failing miserably.
The small girl zoned out for a moment, and she tried to process everything she was feeling. She was distracted by the blood running down her thighs, sticky and warm.
Cole squeezed her hand tightly. “Come on, Ce. We need to find a doctor, or someone important. Someone that can help.”
The pain between Lucy’s legs made it uncomfortable to walk, but she did so anyway, finally desperate enough to put herself in the care of someone else, someone that would hopefully be able to deal with the situation better than she was.
A nurse paused and looked at the two of them critically, there without anyone else. Without an adult. Lucy realized that she was young; close in age to her sixth grade teacher who had just finished school.
“We’re not taking in kids,” she said sympathetically. “I heard the police station was.”
“I’m...” Lucy took a deep breath, hoping the words wouldn’t catch in her throat. “I’ve been hurt.”
The nurse bent down and checked her vitals. “You seem all right to me. Better than most of the people in here.”
Tears streamed down her face and Cole let out a haggard sob, the night having taken its toll on him. “Our grandfather hurt her,” he said, with a firmness Lucy had never heard from him. “We need help.”
The nurse’s face screwed up at the desperation in their faces, took them into a small examination room and closed the door. “Look, unless there’s something medical I can do for you, you’re not going to get much help here. People are dying all over the place. You picked a bad time to do a brave thing…what’s your name?”
“Lucy Campbell,” she answered in a small voice. “Please, we need somewhere to go. We can’t go back there…he...” she took a deep breath, her eyes pleading with the nurse. “There’s blood.”
The nurse sat down in the task chair and cradled her face in her hands. Lucy knew that she hadn’t slept in a long time from the bags under her eyes. She looked at them both critically, her eyes stopping on Lucy’s faded Simpson’s t-shirt. Her expression tightened, and she opened her mouth a couple of times before words came out. She crooked her finger, beckoning them closer.
“I wish I could help you, but I can’t. I’m going to tell you something, and if the world turns itself to right, I’ll deny ever saying it, you hear me?” She scanned their
faces as they nodded at her. “You do what you have to do. No one’s going to stop you now, and probably not for a long time.”
September 2012
Los Angeles, West
“So the money is…” Tal quizzed Leah for what felt like the thousandth time.
“Buried under the stairs at the old Scientology Center. I got it,” she nodded. “But I think you’re kind of taking this to extremes.”
“I hope I am,” he said with a shrug. “But if I’m not, you’ll be happy you have it. Just like the other money—”
“Our seed fund.” Leah beamed, peering out over their garden.
It had been a rough summer, beginning a week after they returned from Campbell and had to squash a small rebellion in Orange County. Two days after that, a series of forest fires devastated the Angeles forest, which was bad for general morale, and took a lot of resources to get under control. During that time there were a few more uprisings, which Tal knew had made a lot of people think, and not in ways that were favorable to their current situation.
Still, it was only a small part of the population who were taking it to such extremes. Small pockets of resistance, who really didn’t know what they were resisting at all. They’d just heard things were better, and wanted more. They didn’t understand the costs associated with actually making things better. General consensus was that the revolutionaries were whiny brats whose solutions wouldn’t be any better than the current situation.
Connor had done a great job of putting that rumor out into the masses, and people were actually buying it.
“I was at the market yesterday, and people were saying that they were happy with Connor. Happier than they’ve been in a while.”
Tal nodded, aware that the dropping of taxes on booze had certainly increased his popularity in some circles. “I know he’s trying. But things have a way of falling apart when you’re least prepared. I just want to make sure you’re okay. We’re okay.”
Leah hugged him tight. “I know. And I’m grateful that you think like that. We all need to think like that a bit more.” She looked up at him. “You’ll be home for dinner?”
Tal nodded. “I should be home by seven, since we’re going to Fresno for the election.”
“Bring Connor if you want. I’ll make lots. I’ve got a bunch of tomatoes. I’ll make something with those.”
“I’ll ask,” Tal nodded. “Call if you need me?”
She nodded, a troubled look crossing her face. “Call if you need me.”
Leah had been distant since he returned from Campbell a couple of months earlier, and he flip-flopped between loving and hating it. He knew she was doing a lot of thinking, but she wasn’t telling him what about, which was unlike her. She’d taken to crawling in bed with him in the middle of the night, sometimes looking for something, and sometimes just to sleep, but other than that, they weren’t communicating much. When he asked her what was up, her response was usually to change the subject, but Tal knew she was worried about their security, and there wasn’t much he could do about that. He had his concerns too, but Fresno was thriving.
“It’ll be fine. Fresno is fine.”
“Not reassuring,” she muttered, grabbing his hand. “Has Juan cooled down yet? Is he driving you?”
Tal shook his head. “We’re driving ourselves.”
Connor had fucked things up with Juan a few days earlier by causing a fuss over a little questionable overtime that he’d marked down and made some rather unflattering comments about the mother of his two children in a moment of anger, which left Connor with a swollen lip and without a driver or a pilot.
In a rare moment of fury, Tal had completely and utterly lost his cool on Connor. It was not the time for them to be pissing off people they’d known since they were kids, and their history with Juan went back almost as far as their history with each other, since Juan’s mother, Lupe, had been Connor’s nanny until her death. Juan was as laid back as they came, and his jumping on him had been an entirely ridiculous way to deal with something that was likely innocent enough. It was a few hundred dollars. If Juan wrote it down, he probably needed it.
Even if he didn’t, it wasn’t like Connor couldn’t spare it. Tal didn’t know why he gave a shit.
After picking him up, Connor started off the drive quiet, which made it fairly obvious that he wasn’t over their fight. He also turned up Dance Mix ’96, which was the album Tal hated more than anything ever recorded.
“The fuck?” Tal finally snapped. “Look, just fucking say it, whatever it is you need to say.”
“You’re supposed to be on my side, and you’re not.”
“What are you talking about?”
Connor finally turned down the music. “You didn’t have my back with Juan.”
Tal answered with a groan and an eye roll. “Jesus, Connor, it was like two hundred dollars, and he’s a friend. He’s got kids to feed.”
Connor glared from the passenger seat. It wasn’t about the money. They both knew that. It was that he’d attempted to take something from Connor that wasn’t his. If Juan had asked for the money, Connor would have been likely to give it to him willingly, with no repayment required. Connor wasn’t an easy person to ask favors of though, and the costs were usually high.
“Don’t ever think I’m someone that’s to be taken advantage of, Tal. It doesn’t matter that we’ve known each other since we were kids. I’d ruin you too.”
“Fuck, you’re melodramatic. You’ll ruin me?”
“It’s about trust. It’s not about the money. I don’t give a fuck about the money.”
“Well, I’m not going to fuck you over, so I guess you don’t have to worry,” Tal muttered. “Now enough with the cold shoulder.”
His cold shoulder was met with a hearty punch. “Fine, asshole. We’re good.”
“Good,” Tal muttered. “We’ve got enough problems without creating unnecessary ones between us.”
Connor nodded and Tal could see relief flood his face “We’re good man. We’re good.”
The election went fine. The right man won. Connor and Tal were revered guests, and it was after dark when they began their drive back to Los Angeles.
They’d just passed Bakersfield when Connor’s phone rang. The look of surprise on his face when he answered caught Tal off guard.
“Campbell? What? He’s gone?”
“Who is it?” Tal mouthed.
“Rosa.”
Rosa was a shitty actress Connor paid a lot of money to in order to give him the run-down of the goings on in Campbell. She’d been up there for a couple of years, after living in Los Angeles for a long time, and Connor trusted her. They’d dated for a while. Tal had never had great love for Rosa, and he’d suggested Connor fire her after their visit. She was manipulative and would do anything for fame, which was likely how Connor had talked her into moving to Campbell.
He pulled over on the side of the road and put the car phone on speaker. “Slow down. Okay, say it again.”
“Cole Campbell’s presumed kidnapped by East. Everyone up here is fluttering around like it’s the biggest thing since the adults died. There’s talk that they’re viewing this as an act of war. They’re like arming up and shit.”
Immediately, Tal’s feelings on the subject were unclear and his mind raced to reach conclusions. It could go one of a few ways for them, if Campbell and East went to war. Either way, they were the next logical choice for the winner to devour, but it did buy them some time. Or maybe Campbell and East would destroy one another, and leave them the spoils.
“How do they know it was East?” Connor questioned, raising his eyebrows at Tal.
“There’s some sort of letter ordering them to disarm, and merge territories, or he gets it. Cole. I guess there were some pictures too, of him all tied up and looking rough.”
Tal and Connor frowned at one another. “What’s the buzz up there?” Tal asked. “What are they going to do?”
Rosa cleared her throat. “Well, it’s not like
I’m close enough to know exactly, but they’re not going to do what they’ve been asked to do, that’s for sure.”
“Okay, well, keep us posted,” Connor said, an amused look on his face. “That’s an interesting turn of events.”
The President of West hung up his phone and tossed it on the dash. “Shit.”
“Shit indeed,” Tal replied, still processing what this meant for them. “That’s a pretty extreme thing to do.”
“I guess they were smarter than us and realized there wasn’t much reasoning with her. It was only a matter of time before she turned her attentions east, and they’re all Canadian up there, no matter how things have changed. They’ll side with her, and her communist—”
“Socialist.”
“Whatever,” Connor rolled his eyes. “What do we do? This has the potential to change the game.”
That it did, Tal thought. “I don’t know. I think we need to sit on it, and really think things through. She made it very clear that she wasn’t interested in working with us, but this could change things. We don’t want to work with East. Even her shit system is better than their utilitarian bullshit.”
Connor shrugged. “Maybe? Let’s sleep on it. We’ll meet up tomorrow morning and decide. Immediately, I think we should re-approach Campbell and see how this changes things for them. Fuck East. There’s no way we’re adhering to their system.”
“Nor will Lucy Campbell with ours.”
“Maybe we deal with the other brother.”
“Maybe he’s more of a douchebag than her,” Tal said, chuckling. “Can a woman be a douchebag?”
“That chick can be whatever she wants,” Connor replied, laughing. “I should go up there and console her.”
