Lovely Darkness (Creeping Beautiful)

Sasha pauses here. Looks at me. The anger she was feeling a few moments ago seems to have dissipated and in its place is… maybe… sympathy?

“But you got all those files for me, Nick. And I wasn’t even expecting the one Adam showed you.” She chuckles. “Maggie was helpful in that respect too. You don’t get it. I understand. But between the files you found and that letter Adam was hiding in the boat? Yeah. This job has been a hundred-and-ten percent successful. You think the cure is a joke, don’t you? It’s not. It’s real. And it’s in those files.”

What?

Sasha looks down the breezeway to where Merc is. “He’s gonna be happy.” She looks back at me and smiles. “His girls were never in the program and I have always known that. He’s gonna be mad at me for tricking him into this shit show, but he’ll get over it once I show him all the proof. The numbers? In those files? I already have the database. We’ve had it the whole time. Remember that file, Nick? All those years ago? When you made me walk away and get in that boat with Merc?”

I picture us on the beach that night. The Santa Barbara mansion burning on the cliff up above. The way the black night was tinted orange from the flames. And the sound of leftover gunfire and screaming as the massacre wound down. The drug lord who took me. And James, who got away. And Merc in that boat. Saving Harper and Sasha when I couldn’t.

And Sasha. Begging me to come with them.

And me. Turning my back.

“I hated you for that,” she says. “I hated you for staying behind. For a long time. But.” She sighs. “You really did save us. Not just the people who got away that night, either. But all the little girls, Nick. Because we found so much information on that file James had. It took years to figure it all out, but figure it out, we did. And you made that happen. Your choice that night made that happen.”

Her eyes get glassy and wet as she thinks about our unshared past. Two long, winding, parallel roads.

“Anyway,” she says. Wiping her eyes. “I know exactly who all those people are in those breeding charts. The ones you found in town are the girls. Those numbers are the key we needed to unlock all the other breeding charts. Hundreds and hundreds of girls in those databases. Gerald Couture was one sick bastard. But lucky me, he kept good records. And the charts Adam found and showed you, that was the stud book. Yes. You were gonna be a stud.”

She smiles at me. Then actually chuckles. And I can almost see the little girl I once knew.

“Luckily, your father and Adam’s father both died in Santa Barbara that night.” She huffs. “So. Fuckin’. Ironic, right? It’s almost like… like we were playing our parts in some very grand plan to defeat the evil of this world. Because even though you were taken prisoner that night, you were also set free. Adam, too. That one night changed everything, Nick. For me, and you, and Adam, and Indie, and Wendy, and Angelica, and Nathan, and McKay, and Donovan, and Harper, and James and… thousands of other people, Nick. Thousands. So. Thank you for that. I really do appreciate it. And because I’m in such a good mood about how this has turned out I’m going to let you keep Wendy.”

She’s going to let me?

“Allow me to explain, OK? Because when I leave here, this will be the last we ever see each other. And I want you to understand, just like you wanted me to understand when you left me in that hotel room.” Another pause for dramatic effect. Then she continues. “I don’t run the Company. Adam Boucher can have what’s left of it. It’s still around. We all know that. But it’s literally been decapitated. They have to start all over now. The Company will be no real threat in my lifetime. So the next time it comes back, it’s not my problem. Adam can deal with the leftover shit, if that’s how he wants to spend his one life. I don’t care about that anymore. But I do run something else, and I care about this project very much. This is where number three comes in. Are you ready for it?”

I can’t speak, obviously, so her question is rhetorical.

“Number three, Nick. Stop. Hunting us. All these leftover girls belong to me. You have no say in them. I am in charge of the girls. And if you even think about coming after another one of my girls, I will cut your throat, Nick Tate.” She stares me down for this part. “I really will kill you this time. And you will not get another chance. So you will forget you ever knew anything about those girls. And if, by some chance, you bump into a stray one in the wild, you will turn your ass around and walk away. You’re damn lucky I’m letting Wendy stay. That wedding of yours?” She smiles now, shaking her head a little. “You got me there too. Because I was gonna take Wendy, Nick. I was gonna take her and give her the better life she deserves. But I can tell that she loves you. And you have a lot of unfinished business with that girl, don’t you? So I’m gonna give you one year to set it right. Do you hear me? One. Year. To cure her.”