by W. J. May
Kraigan’s eyes lit with surprise, silently asking a million questions. But in the end, he settled only on one. The most important. The one he was most frightened to ask. “Simon’s sentencing…”
It was Simon now, Rae noticed. Not ‘Dad’ for him either.
She turned without thinking and stared back at the basement door. The frame was now completely empty; all the loose planks had been cast down the stairs. Simon must still be sitting there, wondering what exactly had happened. Or maybe knowing what had. Rae had no idea what her father was and wasn’t capable of anymore. Shoot, she couldn’t even remember what tatù he was carrying now.
“What happened with his sentencing?” Kraigan asked again.
“I asked the court to let him live.” Her eyes glazed over as she forced her mind forward, unwilling to imagine him for a second more. “They agreed. Life in prison.”
Considering he was a man who wore his every violent emotion on his sleeve, Rae was actually having a hard time deciding how Kraigan felt about the news. The relief was palpable, that much was clear. But it was shadowed with so many other things, twisted with so many conflicting emotions, that it was hard to tell for sure.
After a moment of standing there, he finally bowed his head. “Thank you,” he said simply. “For doing that.”
Rae couldn’t respond. Standing there now, she had no earthly idea whether she’d made the right decision.
Judging by Samantha’s reaction, she’d have to say no.
Exhausted and devastated, she nodded curtly and moved to make her way down the hall to the living room
She hadn’t gotten more than three steps, when Kraigan caught her by the sleeve. “Rae…”
She turned around in surprise, staring up at him. There was an uncertainty in his voice she’d never heard before, and an uncharacteristic blush was coloring the tops of his cheeks.
“I know…I know he’s a terrible man. I know it’s hard to have him in the house.”
Her surprise doubled, but she kept it to herself. He was trying to go somewhere with this, trying very hard to work it all out. A little sisterly patience was in order.
“I don’t…” He breathed hard through his nose, fighting back waves of doubt and an overwhelming feeling of frustration. “I don’t…”
“I know.” Rae put her hand on his arm, squeezing it gently as he forced himself to look her in the eye. They stared for a moment before she let out a soft sigh. “I know.”
Then, in possibly the strangest turn of events to happen that fateful night, he slipped his hand into hers. For a second they both looked down, staring at their interlaced fingers. It was the first time brother and sister had ever shown such affection, and it would probably be the last. But there was something quite natural about it. Right then in the moment.
A faint smile lit Rae’s face as she gave his fingers another squeeze. Maybe there was hope after all.
Then brother and sister made their way down the hall to the living room.
Hand in hand. Together.
* * *
The atmosphere in the living room had grown rather subdued by the time they made their way inside. Although Molly and Luke had joined them again, no one was in much of a mood to plan or strategize. Apparently, they were still reeling from the things they’d seen and heard in the basement. Rae could almost see the wheels turning inside everyone’s mind. What had she done? What had she forced them to do? Was she turning into her father?
Everyone looked shocked. Not the least of which her best friend.
“What happened to you down there, Jules?” Molly asked quietly, swiveling around in her chair to look at Julian. The two of them usually sat together at these sorts of meetings. It was a subconscious habit, one that had been established long ago. “I’ve seen you have powerful visions before. I’ve seen them make you bleed. But I’ve never seen anything like that.”
The others nodded, all remembering that strange translucent glow.
He pulled in a deep breath, trying to gather his thoughts despite looking so exhausted. He looked on the verge of losing consciousness. “I don’t really know.” He spoke quietly, considerately, his lips working it out as he went. “Rae needed it done, needed to show Simon the picture. So, I guess it kind of just… happened.”
Rae shook her head, profoundly touched by such an innate show of loyalty. “You blow me away,” she said sincerely. “Honestly, Jules. There’s no one better.”
Angel smiled proudly and took his hand while Devon flashed him a faint grin from across the room.
Julian, predictably, looked incredibly uncomfortable with all the attention. “Yeah, but, given what Simon said when he saw it,” he circled them back on point, “I think we’re going to have an even worse time with this girl than we thought.”
The group shuddered as one, and murmured their agreement.
How were they supposed to dissuade a girl whose father Simon had kidnapped and tortured? A girl whose very existence was forced into the world at gunpoint? Who never even stood a chance?
“I don’t know.” Rae shook her head, suddenly feeling very tired. “A part of me thinks that we should just stick a bow on him and leave him out by the gate. Toss in a tag with Samantha’s name on it.”
“Well, that wouldn’t be very sporting of you, would it?”
The entire room jumped as a voice piped up from the corner. At the same moment, the very girl in question melted into view.
“Don’t get up,” Samantha said quickly, teasingly polite, “and no powers either. We wouldn’t want to have a repeat of our last little encounter, would we?”
Rae felt the blood drain from her head. The mirror reflection showed her very pale, and no matter how hard she tried she couldn’t catch her breath. “Sam-mantha…how’d you get in here?”
Perhaps the better question would have been: how long have you been in here?
From the looks of things, it had been quite a while. There was a little stash of empty candy wrappers littering the floor around her, and judging by the heat rings on the table beside her she’d reheated the same cup of coffee almost a dozen times.
“Easy,” she grinned, “I walked inside. You actually opened the door for me,” she nodded her head at Gabriel, “but I asked you to forget the whole thing. The same way I asked all of you to simply not see me for…” she checked her watch, “the last few hours.”
The second she said the words, she faded again from view. There was a collective gasp as the gang twisted around to find her, unable to leave their chairs. But less than a minute later, she popped back into sight. Giggling like a little kid.
“I wanted to listen in, you see.” She kicked up her feet and set them on a nearby ottoman, completely ignoring the looks of shock and fury all around her. “I figured sooner or later you guys would figure out this whole thing was because of me. And then start working on one of your famous plans to bring me down.” There was a strange giddiness about the way she said it. As if she had imagined being in the room for one of these legendary meetings many, many times before. “A girl’s gotta protect herself by any means necessary.” She shrugged and crossed her ankles. “Of course…I had no idea I’d be stumbling into the jackpot.” She turned her taunting smile to Rae, freezing her there with her eyes. “Diving back into my past, making Julian bring it out into the future? That epic showdown with your dad?”
“You were there?” Devon asked through clenched teeth. “You saw all that?”
Samantha flashed him a bright smile, as brave as a girl at the zoo staring through the glass at a caged lion, unable to escape. “I sure did. It was some pretty cinematic stuff!”
Rae wondered if Samantha had been downstairs when she’d summoned the memory. Maybe Samantha had even held her hand so there was skin on skin contact. Rae couldn’t remember, no matter how hard she tried.
“Then why do this?” Julian interjected, breaking Rae’s thoughts. There was a dangerous glow to his eyes that the others rarely saw, a chilling malice that faded
even Samantha’s smile. “If this whole thing is about Simon, getting revenge for what he did, then why not kill him right there? We obviously couldn’t have stopped you.”
At this pronouncement, she leaned forward with sudden excitement. “Oh, because this isn’t just about Simon anymore, is it?” Her eyes flickered around the circle, staring at each one of them in turn. “It’s about all of you.”
“Us?” Molly was the only one still struggling helplessly to get up from her chair, unable to take the confinement for even a second more. “Why the hell is it about us?”
As usual, Samantha was more than willing to share. “Because Simon’s a monster.” The word rang out true and clear around the room. No one would think to contest it. “He’s evil to the core, and although he should be killed a thousand times over for what he’s done—at this point—no one can realistically expect any different. But you?” Her eyes cooled, filling the others with sudden dread. “You should know better.”
With that ominous declaration she slowly kicked back in her chair, staring around the room with dark anticipation. Paired with an equally dark smile.
“And I intend to teach you all that lesson, right now.”
Chapter 11
“Let’s begin, shall we?”
As far as super-villains went, talking with Samantha was nothing like conversing with Cromfield.
Rae almost laughed out loud at the comparison.
To start, Cromfield played the long game. Gabriel and Angel were living evidence of that. Every move was carefully calculated and planned years in advance. And no matter what cards he might be holding, there wasn’t a chance in hell that he would ever show you a glimpse of his hand.
Samantha was different.
Call it a next-generation progression. Call it the arrogance of youth. Whatever the reason, the girl felt absolutely no need whatsoever to sensor herself. She lived moment to moment, making up the steps as she went along. Perfectly willing to tell anyone her master plan, simply because, even if they knew exactly what it was, there would be nothing they could do to stop it.
It was a point she was having the time of her life driving home.
“For starters, I think we should all get on the same page.” Samantha leapt lightly from her chair, and began pacing in a little circle around the room, stopping occasionally to pause behind each of their chairs. Like a bizarre game of duck-duck-goose. More like morbid, Rae thought. “That way, I know what you’re all thinking, you know what I’m thinking…” She flicked her wrist in the air. “It just makes the most sense moving forward. In fact,” she came to a sudden stop, frozen between Luke and Molly, “I think from now on…honesty is our best policy.”
At first, Rae could feel no change. Glancing around the room, she could tell the others were still waiting for it as well. But then, with a little prickling in the base of her skull, she began to feel it happening. It was like being drunk, but without the alcohol. That complete lack of censorship. An inability to mask even the most mundane details. No matter how hard she tried.
Rae’s body fought it. Skipping through tatù after tatù to break the connection, and each time coming up empty-handed.
It was absolutely terrifying. To have one’s entire life reduced to an open book. One just waiting for your greatest enemy in the world to pick up and read.
But Samantha had slightly different plans…
“Well,” she clapped her hands, looking satisfied, “now that we got that behind us, I guess we should move on to the—”
“This is the girl?” Kraigan interrupted, staring Samantha up and down. He was strapped to his chair like the rest of them, unable to leave if his life depended on it. Yet there was still something very frightening in the way he spoke. The same way you wouldn’t venture too close to a junkyard dog, regardless of the leash. “Doesn’t look like much.”
The others tensed, waiting for the fallout, but Samantha looked nothing short of delighted.
“You’re the only one I haven’t met yet.” She skipped lightly across the room and came to a stop in front of his chair—safely out of arm’s reach. “Kraigan, isn’t it?”
He nodded curtly. Whether he wanted to or not.
“Tell me, Kraigan,” she leaned an inch closer, her eyes dancing with wicked mischief, “since I didn’t see you after the trial…where exactly did you go?”
He hesitated, bracing slightly against the chair. “I went…”
A wide smile stretched across her face as she leaned closer still.
“Come on,” she said coaxingly, “tell me. I can keep a secret.”
His eyes flashed pure murder, but he had no choice but to comply. “I went to my mother’s grave,” he said softly, tightly.
A surge of emotion welled up in Rae’s heart as Samantha tilted her head back and laughed uproariously. Every part of her was aching to break free, aching to wipe that smirk off the kid’s face once and for all. But the decision was no longer her own. Like an angry puppet, she could do nothing but sit there and watch, as deadly little Samantha played with the strings.
“You see, that is exactly what I don’t understand.” Her eyes danced as she returned to her chair, kicking back as if the two of them were chatting it up like old friends. “How the heck you could still love Simon even after what he did to your mother.”
A feral growl shook Kraigan’s shoulders. “You have no idea what he did.”
“I know he didn’t care about your mom,” she replied bluntly. “I know she was just as expendable to him as my parents were. I know that Rae was born out of love, but you were nothing more than a sick little experiment.” Kraigan’s hands curled up into fists, but just as he opened his mouth with a furious reply she held up a hand. “Don’t bother. I think we both know it’s true.”
Like someone was physically moving him, his mouth snapped shut. He glared at her with wild, unbridled rage but could do nothing more than sit.
“Samantha,” Rae murmured desperately, “don’t do this. You’re angry with me. Not them. I’m the one who advocated for life. I’m the reason he’s not dead.”
Samantha slowly rotated around.
Rae gazed steadily back at her. “Let it be about me,” she pressed. “Let the rest of them go. You can tell them to just walk away. Forget this ever happened. You know they’ll do it. You know it’s the right thing to do.”
Samantha laughed humorlessly. “And when has a Kerrigan ever been concerned with doing the right thing?”
Rae reined in her frustration, trying her best to appear calm and reasonable. She’d spent most of her life trying to do the right thing. Samantha didn’t get that. “You can still stop this—”
“And you’re wrong again,” Samantha interrupted. “This has never just been about you. The whole lot of you operate as a team. Everyone knows it. Unified decisions, and all that. Blah, blah, blah. That means that every time you do something crazy—like, say, keeping your murdering father alive—it’s the rest of them who have to pay the price.”
Rae fell silent, but it had nothing to do with Samantha. It was of her own accord.
It was a sore spot.
One that she dealt with all the time. One that she and the gang had discussed many, many times. They were always reassuring. She always terrified she was going to get them killed.
“No. Every person sitting here is just as responsible by now as you are.” Samantha’s eyes lit up with a sudden sparkle. “But I’d be willing to bet…that not all of them are as okay with that as they’ve led you to believe.”
Like a kid in a candy store she rotated in a slow circle, looking at each one of them in turn.
Then she came to a sudden stop. “You don’t see this as your fight at all, do you? In fact, I bet you resent the hell out of it.”
There was a hitch in Angel’s breathing and she cringed into her chair, refusing to acknowledge the question but unable to look away.
“You and your brother already won your fight,” Samantha continued relentlessly. “You were born
into terrible circumstances, like me, but fought your way free. This is supposed to be your clean slate. A fresh start. One that comes with an entire future.” Her lips curled up in a knowing smirk. “But then came Rae.”
Angel shifted nervously in her chair, her eyes flickering to Rae in spite of herself. “Rae comes with that future,” she said evasively. “She’s Julian’s best friend.”
Samantha shook her head, knowing Angel could only avoid the truth for so long. “She’s the only thing standing between you two,” she countered. “Between you and the life you’ve always wanted. Every time you think you’ve put it all behind you, Rae Kerrigan shows up with another hair-brained scheme and your boyfriend goes running after her.”
Angel clenched her jaw, glaring with all her not-inconsiderable might. “It’s not like that—”
“And you’re forced to just follow along. Otherwise you’d get left behind. Otherwise Julian would have to choose between her and you, and you’re not sure you want to know what he’d say.”
“Rae didn’t ask for her problems, and they’re not limited to her alone,” Angel fired back. “I may not agree with everything one hundred percent of the time, but she’s just doing what she thinks is right. Even if—” She stopped cold, terrified of what she’d been about to say.
Samantha said it for her. “—Even if it’s a huge mistake?”
A cold silence fell over the room.
Then Angel hung her head, and Samantha grinned.
“That’s what I thought.”
“That’s enough!” Julian strained forward as far as he could manage, coming up just short of Angel’s chair. “What the hell kind of game is this?! Angel and Gabriel have history with Simon that goes back even farther than yours. Of course you can’t expect her to just jump on board—”
“Well, that’s fairly predictable,” Samantha silenced him with a teasing finger, pressing it up against his lips, “the boyfriend swoops in to the rescue. Always protecting her. Always saving.” Her eyes danced with wicked excitement as she knelt in front of his chair. “But tell me, Julian…do you ever regret it?”
