Paladin - Jericho's Boys #1 - Ch. 21 & 22 (Patreon)

Home stretch. Massively unedited. Please ignore what's probably a hot mess. Last chapters coming soon.

Chapter 21

Arsen

Arsen gave Ever one long, last look, then kissed his hair and slipped out of bed. He would be upset when he woke to find Arsen gone, but it had taken so long to get Ever to sleep. Arsen just couldn’t bring himself to wake him now that he was sleeping so hard, starfished on his stomach, mouth open, drooling adorably onto Jericho’s guest pillow.

Arsen shoved his legs into the sweatpants he’d left pooled on the floor and pulled on a hoodie, not bothering to zip it up. The others were already gathered, scattered around the living room, likely waiting on him. They could wait another minute. He walked to the kitchen and poured himself a black coffee, taking a sip and wincing as the bitter liquid burned its way down.

After another sip, he shuffled back to the others, not sitting on the couch, but on the arm, looking out over the sea of faces. Asa and Avi sat side by side on the couch, Seven, Lake and Cree stuffed in beside them, not looking terribly upset by the close proximity.

Felix was on the floor in a pair of flowy black pants and a tank top, cleaning his nails with a butterfly knife. Zane lay between his legs, head on his thigh. Arsen couldn’t imagine trusting anyone enough to have a blade dangling over his head like that, but Zane was unfazed.

Other than Felix, everyone else looked like they’d crawled out of bed and straight to Jericho’s living room. Most were in sweats and t-shirts. All but Levi. He wore his uniform from the convenience store, having likely come straight from work. Nico sat on the floor with Levi, staring up at Jericho and Atticus expectantly.

“What’s the word?” Seven finally asked. “Did you talk to Daddy?”

Arsen’s lips twitched as the others laughed. It was no secret that Seven had taken a liking to the Mulvaney patriarch, the first time they’d met. The fact that the man was married really hadn’t slowed his crush any.

Atticus nodded. “I did. He brought up something that hadn’t occurred to me yesterday during our initial meeting. Though it should have. Traffickers have victims. Victims often stashed away in places where they are totally dependent on their captors.”

Arsen’s stomach clenched. Why hadn’t that occurred to him? He felt sick at the thought of more kids just like Ever trapped somewhere, waiting to be sent into a life of misery and servitude. “Fuck.”

“He’s not willing to sanction his sons’ participation until he knows if there are victims and where they’re located to ensure their safety.”

“So what do we do?” Arsen asked.

“We need someone on the inside to talk,” Felix said, like it was obvious.

Maybe it was. Arsen hadn’t been on his game since the fire. Everything had happened so fast that he was still reeling. His mind just kept coming back to what might have happened had Ever not been awake.

“It’s not that easy,” Lake said.

He was right. Gangs only survived by loyalty and that loyalty came from fear. The potential for retaliation from their own members usually trumped getting the shit beat out of them by strangers.

Usually.

Arsen sat forward, dropping his elbows to his knees before scrubbing his hands over his face. “These guys are hard to break, man. They get jumped into these gangs. They’re beat half to death by their own crew.”

Avi smirked. “I don’t know. We’re pretty persuasive when we need to be.”

“I mean, the last 4Loco shitbag we tortured sang like a fucking canary as soon as a blowtorch was involved,” Seven reminded him.

Arsen winced. That 4Loco shitbag had shown up to kill all of them and had almost gutted Arsen in the process. They’d gotten the jump on him but just barely and only because there were far more of them than him and he hadn’t been prepared.

“Yeah and I still have the scar to prove it,” Arsen said, hand floating to his side without thought.

“Come on, firestarter,” Asa teased. “You telling me you don’t want a little payback for these fuckers trying to flambe you and your boyfie?”

It wasn’t about that. Of course, he wanted revenge. He wanted all of them dead. He’d said as much yesterday. He just didn’t think it would be as easy to break one of them as the others thought.

Atticus cleared his throat. “The good news is Calliope has identified the cops involved. Luckily, there’s only three with a paper trail leading back to the crew.”

Arsen frowned. It had been less than a day? What had changed? “I thought you said she was having a hard time following the money to the cops being paid off?”

“That’s cause the money was flowing in the opposite direction. We thought the gang was paying off the cops to look the other way, but it's the cops who are paying the gang to do their dirty work for them. Once she realized that, she was able to run them down pretty quickly despite their countermeasures,” Atticus said.

“Who are they?” Cree asked.

Cree’s adoptive father was a former cop. Now, he was a drug addict, hooked on prescription pills following being injured in the line of duty. He’d been a piece of shit before the drugs, but he was worse now. And his mother spent all her time praying as if that would somehow fix the problem she refused to believe existed. It’s why Cree tried to never visit home. He didn’t think of them as his real parents anyway.

“Two detectives and the police chief,” Jericho said, voice grim.

“You want us to take out a police chief?” Nico said, eyes wide. “People are going to be all over three dead cops, Coe. Four if you count the guy Arsen already took out.”

“You think its an accident that we haven’t heard dick about that guy? No. Even if they do suspect he’s dead, they’re keeping it quiet because they can’t afford questions either,” Asa said. “Trust us, this isn’t our first rodeo.”

“One missing cop isn’t the same as three dead cops. And even if they don’t find the body, nobody is going to ignore a missing police chief. Especially not with three other detectives gone too.”

“That’s where I come in,” Zane said, waving a hand lazily from the floor. “Calliope is going to make it look like one of the detectives ‘anonymously’ forwarded me information due to a guilty conscience, asking me to break the story about a mysterious cartel with a local gang and even the police chief in their pocket.”

Arsen frowned. A cartel? For all the crime in their neighborhood, the cartel was blissfully far removed from them. Sure they were likely somewhere in the 4Loco supply chain, but not close enough to be local.

“Do you think that will work? Blaming it on some random cartel activity?” Levi asked. “I mean, won’t the cops try to find out who killed their people even if they were dirty?”

Zane scoffed. “You would think, but that’s not what will happen. We’ve seen it a million times before.”

“Yeah, they just need all the loose ends tied up in a believable story,” Asa said.

Felix nodded. “We point them towards an easily digestible boogeyman, the Keyser Soze of our story, and we make these murders look like retaliation for ratting them out to Zane. A story Zane can spin any way he wants.”

“Won’t they investigate? Look for this mysterious cartel?” Arsen asked.

“Jamesville PD?” Felix asked. “Hardly. They lack the resources and this is a bad look for them. They’re going to be under fire for having four dirty cops in one small police force. The local politicians will want to bring in new management immediately and then pretend the whole thing never happened.”

Zane nodded. “An investigation drags things out. They’ll want to close this case and move on as quickly and quietly as possible. That’s why we’re giving them the cartel. It’s an easy out. Nobody blinks about cartel violence and its also not shocking when nobody is ever punished for the crime.”

“What about the Feds?” Lake asked. “Won’t this draw their attention?”

Avi made a face. “Debatable. But if it does…we have connections. Let’s dive off that bridge when we get to it.”

“Yeah, right now we need to find someone who will spill all the intimate details of the operation,” Asa said. “Leave us to handle the cover up.”

“Who has that kind of information that would be willing to talk?” Atticus asked. “Not everyone in the gang can be privy to everything in their operation, no?”

“They’re not a very big crew,” Seven said. “I would imagine when moving human cargo, you need all hands on deck. Even if they’re taking women and children primarily, not everyone is gonna go without a fight. There’s guards, lookouts, enforcers, handlers. They can’t afford to not have everyone pull their weight.”

Arsen glanced at the closed bedroom door, grateful Ever was still asleep. Hearing them so casually discuss the captivity of these victims would probably only make him feel worse and he was already swimming in unnecessary guilt. None of this was his fault. But it had taken forever to convince him of that.

“So who’s the weakest link in the organization?” Lake asked.

“Cherry,” Jericho said without hesitation, his expression grim.

Arsen’s eyes went wide. But before he could say anything, Levi said, “What? Wait…You want us to torture a girl?”

He didn’t sound opposed to the idea, more surprised. Torture wasn’t really something they had to do in their line of work. At least when they weren’t teaming up with the Mulvaney’s. Usually, their jobs were like Jennika. Quick and quiet. In and out. Torture wasn’t something any of them enjoyed. At least…not as far as Arsen knew.

Jericho gave him a flat stare. “No, I want you to torture a gang member who happens to be a girl.”

“Not to sound like a misogynist, but isn’t she just…like one of their girlfriends? What makes you think she’d know anything?” Nico asked.

“You wouldn’t know she was anyone’s girlfriend the way she was all over Arsen,” Felix quipped.

“Yeah, but now we know she was probably just finding excuses to come check us out for them,” Cree said.

“Male or female, Cherry is the weakest link. She’s easily recognizable and she’s been running with them since she was a teenager,” Jericho said. “She most likely knows where the bodies are buried, literally and metaphorically.”

“Couldn’t she be one of their victims?” Nico asked. “Like, maybe she was trafficked too. Especially if she started running with them in high school. She definitely used to be a pro at one point.”

Nobody asked how Nico knew that. He had intimate knowledge of the sex workers in the area and not because he liked to frequent their establishments. Nico’s mom was an exotic dancer and an escort when he was a kid. He had a soft spot for the industry.

Seven sighed. “I don’t know, man. Torturing a girl—especially one who potentially used to be a victim themselves? That feels wrong.”

“Know what happens when those girls age out?” Felix asked. “They become recruiters. Conning people like my sister into falling into their trap so they can go on to be victims. I have no sympathy.”

“If you guys don’t want to do it, we will,” Asa said, sounding unbothered. “My brothers and I don’t give a shit what they got going on in their pants. We’re equal opportunity monsters. If she wants to play with the bad guys, she gets to suffer the consequences.”

Avi shrugged. “Yeah, if she helps snatch children from their homes and sells them to people like Jennika, then fuck her. She crossed the line. Every bad guy has their villain origin story. We don’t really give a fuck. If they meet the rules, we get to torture and kill them. That’s just how it is.”

Arsen wasn’t particularly excited about the prospect of torturing anyone, male or female, but if there were other victims, ones they could leave in danger by taking out an entire crew in one go, Arsen would do what he had to do. Ever was priority number one. If the only way he felt safe was them killing everyone from the pawns to the King, Arsen would clear the whole chessboard. He didn’t care who he had to hurt.

“But she knows we know it was her who set the fire. It’s hardly like we can give her a call and ask her if she wants to go for coffee,” Atticus reminded them.

“She knows you; she doesn’t know us,” Avi said. “They have to have a base of operation, no?”

“That dive bar on 5th with the pool tables. The one that’s open til five am. I walk past it on my way home from the night shift. They’re always hanging out on the corner there.” Levi said, his irritation obvious. “I’m sure they’re slinging dope out of there too. They have to maintain that cover even if they’ve moved onto more lucrative revenue streams.”

Asa looked at Avi and grinned. “Wanna go play some pool?”

“You think these people won’t know who you are?” Atticus asked.

Jericho gave Atticus a fond smile. “I didn’t know who you were until Arsen hunted you down for me. Your names are far more familiar than your faces. Especially in our neighborhood. Nobody expects a Mulvaney around there.”

Asa and Avi shrugged. “Great. So we’ll acquire the target, get the info and let you know what we find.”

“Uh-uh,” Arsen said. “No way you’re doing this without me.”

“Or me,” Felix said.

“Or us,” Lake said, swinging his finger between the others.

“Or me.”

Everyone turned to see Ever, standing in the doorway of the bedroom still looking sleep dazed. Sometimes, he looked like a lost little boy.

Arsen shook his head. No way were they compounding on Ever’s trauma. “No, besenok. You’re not coming with us for this.”

Ever stared at him. “I am. You guys are doing this for me. I’m going to be there.”

“You really want to watch us torture someone, gumdrop?” Felix asked.

Ever’s gaze flicked to Felix, expression the coldest Arsen had ever seen it. “Yeah. I really, really do.”

Avi clapped his hands together, delighted. “Sounds like a full house. We’ll be in touch when we have her and a location that will accommodate the whole family.”

Chapter 22

Ever

The venue they chose was far from the city, a large concrete structure was an imposing silhouette in the darkness, a large concrete monstrosity set in the middle of a large parking lot. They’d driven through a dozen desolate streets.

Ever hated the place on sight. Something about the place made Ever feel this imposing sense of dread deep in his belly. He didn’t say that though. It had been hard enough getting Arsen to agree to let him come along.

The door of the facility was heavy iron and it made a horrible racket when Arsen and Seven pulled it open. Arsen said the whole building belonged to the Mulvaney’s. One of several properties purchased behind a wall of paperwork and left empty for their personal use.

As they entered, Ever’s head was on a swivel, taking in rust colored stains on the concrete floors and walls, and large, industrial machines that were as baffling as they were terrifying. There were only windows along the very top of the two story building, leaving it feeling a little like a tomb. Large plastic sheeting separated the rooms, but provided just enough privacy to make it feel like something terrifying lurked around every corner.

“What is this place,” Ever asked, voice barely above a whisper, half afraid he might wake whatever ghosts still lingered in the place.

“Meat-packing plant,” Arsen said, the same time Felix said, “A slaughterhouse.”

Slaughterhouse? “What’s a slaughterhouse?”

“It's where they kill and butcher animals for meat,” Felix said. “Only now we use it to butcher bad guys.”

Felix, Lake and Seven had cleared their schedule when the call came in, refusing to be left behind. Levi and Nico had gotten stuck at work. Cree had opted out of the torture. Ever didn’t know him well, but he liked him. He was a gentle, quiet soul.

Arsen fixed Felix with a pissy look. Felix shrugged. “What? It is. Why are you trying to coddle him? He’s about to watch us torture a girl to death, I think we’re past the kid gloves. No?”

Ever’s stomach churned. Arsen really didn’t want Ever there. He’d made that really clear. But he’d been overruled, first by Jericho, then by Atticus, who assured him that Ever was entitled to help punish his abusers and that in the end it would be cathartic. Ever hoped they were right. At the moment, he just didn’t want to throw up. There was a weird scent in the air, like iron and rot and it was making him sick.

Asa popped his head around a corner and waved them back through the clear flaps. Ever held back a shudder as he noticed strange dark spots on the cold plastic as they pass through it. They ended up in a large tiled room filled with stainless steel counters and a large table. Ever’s eyes went to the large drain on the floor beneath it.

Cherry was on that table, eyes darting around, but otherwise perfectly still. She was naked, but someone had used plastic to cover her head, chest, and hips. When Avi saw them staring, he waved a hand over her. “Like it? Very Dexter-like, no?”

Ever didn’t know who Dexter was or why he strapped people to tables, but he couldn’t imagine it was for anything good. He looked at the others, who loitered around the room. Jericho and Atticus stood off to the side, a large brown bag open beside them. Seven went to stand with them. Lake and Felix moved closer to Cherry on the table.

“What’s happening? Where am I? Why can’t I move?” Cherry asked in rapid succession.

It was only then that Ever realized she couldn’t move her head. Was she just now starting to realize her predicament?

Atticus glanced up from his phone. “I’ve given you a paralytic. Just from the neck down, of course. We need you to be able to talk.”

“And scream,” Asa added, unrolling a black cloth, revealing a bunch of wicked looking weapons that made Ever’s stomach swoop.

The twins and Atticus were so…calm. Felix and Jericho too. They looked almost…bored. Ever didn’t know how to wrap his head around it. How could these people be the same people who had helped him at every turn? How could they be so calm?

“You should be thanking us,” Avi said. “At least you can still blink.” He hovered over her. “For now. If you don’t tell us what we want to know, I have these bad boys here.” He held up two strangely shaped metal contraptions. “These hold your eyelids open. Do you know what happens when you can’t blink?”

Ever’s eyes burned like it was him on the table. He didn’t know how anyone could put those things in someone’s eyes and he didn’t want to know. Apparently, he wasn’t alone.

Seven shuddered. “Aw, man. I hate eyeball stuff.”

Asa ignored Seven, clearly not done tormenting Cherry. “It only takes about four minutes of not blinking for you to be in agony. In another hour, you’d be going crazy not just from the pain but from the constant signal from your brain begging you to blink. After a few hours things get really gruesome…wanna hear about it? Or maybe we should just let you see for yourself.”

Avi snorted, putting his face in her line of sight. “See for yourself…get it?”

“What the fuck is happening?” She cried, a broken sob ripping from her lips. A lump formed in Ever’s throat, regretting his decision to attend almost immediately. “I didn’t do anything. You got the wrong person.”

“Who said you did anything? Guilty conscience?” Felix asked.

“Yeah, maybe we just like to torture people for fun?” Avi quipped. He picked up a scalpel and nicked her forehead, smiling when she hissed and a drop of blood beaded from the wound. “Did you ever think about that?” he tsked. “No, cause you only think about yourself.”

“You people are fucking insane,” she wailed. Ever’s gaze followed the drop of blood down the bridge of her nose, wincing as it pooled in her left eye, making it look eerily blue. She caught Ever’s gaze. “Let me go. Please? I’ll do anything.”

Ever caught his bottom lip between his teeth, gnawing on it. Maybe this was a bad idea. Arsen’s hand caught him under the chin, pulling his focus. “Why don’t you go stand with Seven?”

Ever nodded, floating closer to the taller boy.

“Please,” Cherry begged again, louder this time.

“Offer declined,” Atticus said, drolly. “You’re not getting out of this so you can do away with the hysterics. They’re not going to sway us. We don’t care how much you cry. Hell, my brothers actually kind of like it.”

Ever’s jaw dropped as Cherry’s whole demeanor changed. She immediately stopped crying, her face going from terrified to sullen fast enough to give Ever whiplash. “You people are fucking insane,” she snapped.

“Tell us something we don’t know,” Asa said, waving a hand.

“How about that you guys are already dead. My crew will fuck you up when they hear about this,” Cherry promised.

“Sure, Jan,” Lake said, voice dripping with sarcasm.

Ever didn’t know who Jan was either. It was like he was in a play where nobody had given him the script.

“I want to play, too,” Felix said. Ever’s eyes went wide as Felix hopped up on the table in one graceful move, straddling Cherry’s hips. “Hey, girl.”

Avi handed him a small box.

She sneered at him. “What are you going to do? Give me a makeover?”

Goosebumps erupted along Ever’s skin as Felix’s smile widened. He opened the box. Ever’s mouth went dry as he watched him pluck something from the box, placing each one over his fingers. They looked like…claws. Metal claws.

Felix locked eyes with her. “Funny you should say that…”He swiped two fingers across her face, quick as a snake, laughing when blood flowed down her cheeks. “Oh, look at that…You look better already.”

Real fear crept into Cherry’s eyes, not the fake hysterics from moments before, but real actual terror. “Is-Is this because of the fire?” she stuttered. “We knew it wouldn’t kill you. We knew there was an alarm. It was just to get your attention.”

Felix leaned over her, squeezing her bloody face, the claws digging into her skin. “Mission accomplished, bitch.”

“Yeah, I think its safe to say you have our unwavering focus,” Seven said from his spot beside Atticus.

Ever made a sound of frustration. When were they going to ask their questions? He’d just do it himself. When Ever stepped into her line of sight she blinked rapidly, like she was unable to process how he was a part of this. “Are there others?” he asked, point blank.

“Other what?” she snapped, giving him that dismissive once over she had the day they’d first met.

Except this time, Ever had the upper hand. He ignored her nasty look, his voice calm and quiet. “Other victims. Like me. Where are they?”

She rolled her eyes, but said nothing.

“Roll your eyes at him again, and I’ll pluck them from your skull and give them to him as a Christmas present,” Felix promised.

“You-You’re not really going to hurt me,” she said, her voice wavering. “If you do, my crew will kill you. All of you.”

Jericho laughed, speaking for the first time. “When we’re done, there won’t be enough left of your crew to even realize you’re missing.”

“And we’re most definitely going to hurt you,” Avi said coldly. “How much and for how long, depends entirely on you.”

Asa nodded. “You have a lot of sins to atone for, Cherry.” He turned, grabbing something that looked like a saw. “Don’t make me start sawing off body parts. That paralytic only keeps you still. You’ll still feel every agonizing cut. And I won’t make it quick.”

Ever’s stomach lurched. If Asa cut off any part of her, he was definitely going to throw up. Probably a lot. And that would be really embarrassing after begging them to let him come. He prayed she had some sense of self preservation.

Cherry looked like she was going to throw up too. “Why should I talk? You’re just going to kill me anyway.”

“You got us there,” Atticus said, stepping forward. He pulled something from his pocket. A syringe. “But if you tell us what we want to know. I give you this injection and you just drift off to sleep and never wake up.”

“Conversely,” Lake said coldly. “You could die screaming. Option A sounds better to me.”

Ever tried again. “Are there other victims out there? Waiting to be…sold?”

Cherry’s gaze drifted away from him to stare at the high ceiling overhead.

Asa shrugged. “Okay, we gave you a chance…” He picked up her arm, running a finger along her wrist. “I’m going to start here. Then my brother, he’s going to use that torch over there to cauterize the wound. The pain might knock you out. But my brother—the doctor—has this handy, dandy little med box that will allow us to wake you right back up. So we can do this over and over and over…”

“Tick-Tock, Cherry,” Jericho said. “We’re losing our patience.”

Ever closed his eyes, willing Cherry to make the right choice. He really didn’t want anyone to lose a limb.

“I’m not a snitch,” she said meekly.

Ever leaned over her, forcing his voice to be as cold and unfeeling as the others. “You’re going to die. And so will all your friends. Soon there won’t be anybody left to care if you talked or not.”

Ever could see Arsen’s shocked expression in his periphery, but he forced himself to keep looking at her. He needed her to understand there was only one choice and that was to talk. “Look. I don’t want them to torture you, but I won’t stop them either. Think about that.”

Ever could smell the sour stench of Cherry’s fear. Her face was a mask of frustration as she seemed to truly understand there was no way out of it. “I knew when we found that bitch dead, that you were going to be trouble. They didn’t believe me,” she said. “They said you’d just disappear. But I knew better.”

“Do you want a gold star?” Lake asked.

Silence stretched until it grew uncomfortable. Arsen’s lip curled in disgust. He looked at Asa. “Just do it. She’s clearly not going to talk.”

Avi grinned, then grabbed the torch on the table, showing it to them as a blue flame erupted from the tip. “I’m ready. Let’s go.” He leaned into Cherry’s space. “I want to warn you, burning flesh smells a little like barbeque. It can be kind of disconcerting when its your own.”

With that, he nodded towards Asa, who placed the teeth of the saw against her wrist.

“Wait!” Cherry shouted. “Wait…” she said again softer. “I’ll talk. What-What do you want to know.”

“Where do they keep their cargo,” Jericho asked. “We know there’s other victims.”

Cherry’s eyes shut slowly and for one terrifying moment Ever thought she was going to change her mind. Then she said, “There’s a shipping container on an empty piece of property about forty minutes outside the city. We keep them there.”

A shock rocked Ever’s whole body. There really were more people like him. He’d known it on some level but to hear her say it was…too much. His heart was hammering, blood rushing in his ears. There were others. There were others. “How many?” Ever muttered. When Cherry stayed silent, he grabbed her bloody face. “How many?” he screamed. “How many? How many?”

“Ever…” Arsen said, pulling him away from the table, even as he tried to get back to her. He wanted to hear her say it. He needed to hear her admit there were more.

“A handful,” she shouted. “The others have already been placed. And don’t ask me who because nobody tracks that shit. There’s a few kids we picked up online and two girls they brought over from Vietnam.”

“Picked up online?” Ever echoed. “What does that mean?”

“Kids are easy to come by,” she said. “There’s nobody keeping tabs on them. We buy them from re-homing sites, out the back door of immigration camps. Hell, some parents will sell them flat out for a small fee. And nobody even looks for the foster kids once they’re placed. There’s just not enough employees and half the ones there are willing to look the other way for a price. Kids are disposable.”

“Is that how you got me?” Ever asked, breathless. “Someone just gave me away?”

She turned dull eyes on him. “Don’t blame that on me. You were before our time. We only got involved after half of the original crew was locked up on gun running charges. Those cops hate doing their own dirty work. We didn’t want the heat either, but they reminded us that working with the cops was better than making enemies of them. Besides, they paid well.”

“Where does your crew hang when they’re not at that bar?”

“That house on 9th and Hoover. The pink one with the green shutters. But you won’t find them there. They're at the cabin. They’re making the exchange tomorrow.”

“The exchange?” Jericho asked. “What exchange?”

She rolled her eyes. “The exchange, the sale. Whatever you want to call it. The cops know you took out Detective douche. They’re worried you’re onto them. They’re dumping the cargo off on some wanna be Hell’s Angel types in exchange for Fentanyl, which is much easier to hide than a bunch of whining, screaming brats and hysterical girls.”

“They are going to just…pass them off to a biker gang? What will they do with them?” Arsen asked.

“The girls they’ll turn out and the kids they’ll probably sell. Sometimes they keep them. Just depends.”

Ever wanted to scream. He wanted to grab that knife off the table and stab it into her heart. How could she say something like that? Like they don’t even matter? Like they weren’t even people. “Don’t you care at all?”

“You really are just a tiny baby, still. Maybe she should have taken you out of that house every now and again. Even after everything she did to you, you really still think there are good people in the world? There’s only two kinds of people. The victims and the victors. You just have to decide what team you're on. I got tired of being a victim, so I did what I had to do to survive. I can’t worry about other people. Only myself. You worry about other people and the world will eat you alive.”

“Wow,” Asa said. “I thought I was cynical.”

“Just kill me already,” she muttered. “I gave you what you wanted.”

Atticus stepped forward. “Not quite yet. What happens next is this. You’re going to tell me all the painstaking details of this exchange, and then you can die. Got it?”

“Whatever,” she muttered.

Ever turned to Arsen, his hands landing on his chest, voice pleading. “I want to go home now. Can we go home now?”

Arsen nodded, kissing his head. “Yeah, besenok. We can go home.”