June
Lucy's Age: 17
It was obvious that the girl was shaken up, but she managed to pull herself back together enough to tell me that her name was Venice and then she used her knife to cut me free of the web of ropes that she'd wrapped me in.
The abrupt transition from psychopath to normal person was more than a little troubling, but I was suddenly more concerned about the implications of what she'd said about Geoffrey. I'd long suspected that he was involved on the fringes of stuff that wasn't completely above board, but I'd never actually thought that he was a murderer. It took me a few minutes to get Venice calmed down enough that she was coherent, but gradually an understandable picture started to emerge.
"I've been working with your father for a few years now. He's the one who taught me nearly everything I know."
"Right, I get that, and judging by your display of jealous rage from a few minutes ago, you aren't just coworkers. How long have you been sleeping with him? You do realize you can do a lot better than an emotionless cyborg, right?"
At least I thought she could do better. If she was really as unstable as she was starting to appear then maybe she couldn't do better. Even when dealing with guys there was only so much craziness that a pretty face could compensate for. Once you got too crazy then even someone as good-looking as Venice would eventually start having problems keeping ahold of her conquests.
Venice blushed and looked away from me. Everything I knew about sex had come from movies or books. In fact most of what I knew about anything had come from those two sources, so I hadn't exactly known what to expect out of Venice in response to my painfully blunt question. I'd thought maybe that she'd tell me it wasn't any of my business. I hadn't expected for her to be the one acting like the bashful virgin.
"It's complicated."
"So tell me the backstory. You've pretty much just told me that my adoptive father is a much worse person even than I thought he was."
She nodded slightly as though filing away the fact that Geoffrey and I weren't blood relations and then sighed. "Geoffrey works for a very bad man named Imastious. It's a bit like working for the Mob, once you're in there's no leaving, no matter how badly you might want out. It means that Geoffrey ends up doing a lot of terrible things because he doesn't really have a choice."
I shook my head. "There's always a choice."
Venice wrapped her arms around herself and looked off into the distance for several seconds before shrugging. "That's what I used to think too. I'm not so sure now. There are things that nobody can be expected to withstand."
I didn't agree, but I motioned for her to keep going. She looked back at me and frowned, as though remembering that she was the one who was supposed to be in charge, but apparently she was still rattled by the revelation that she'd just kidnapped and threatened to torture Geoffrey's daughter rather than the rival lover that she'd thought I was.
"Imastious finds out what you love and then he uses it against you. He's really good at it. There's…well, there's no way to keep something from him, not forever. You might make it for a little while, but eventually he drags it out of you and then he'll threaten whatever it is you value as a way of making you do what he wants."
A chill worked its way up my back, but I tried again for nonchalance. It ended up coming out sounding like bravado.
"Well, Geoffrey doesn't actually care about me so I'm pretty sure I'm safe."
Venice shook her head. "You really don't get it, do you? Do you have any idea how much time and effort Geoffrey has expended to keep you a secret? Even I didn't suspect that Geoffrey was sneaking away for a daughter, and I know Geoffrey better than anyone else. He's spent hours watching his back trail each time he visits, just so he can make sure that nobody is able to follow him to you. Geoffrey isn't the kind of guy to just expend resources for no reason. He's not keeping you fed and clothed out of simple habit. Your very existence is proof that he loves you, that he'll kill to keep you safe."
The chill was back. I'd never viewed Geoffrey's actions in that kind of light. I guess I'd assumed that he was like all of the other dysfunctional parents that I'd read about, that he did what he did because he didn't know what else to do with me. It had always seemed like things had just kept going out of nothing more than inertia.
If Venice was right, if what I'd seen was Geoffrey's version of a concerned and attentive parent, then he was simultaneously more scary than I'd realized and somehow less scary all at the same time.
"Even if you're right, Venice, only someone really far gone would act like Geoffrey has towards someone they care about the way that you're saying that he cares about me."
Her smile was somehow vulnerable. "I never said that he was perfect, but when you consider where he comes from you have to give him a whole lot more credit than you would otherwise."
"This isn't just some kind of fling for you, is it? You really love him, don't you?"
"Yes. It's not like it's a secret. He's…well, he's done some terrible things to me and he's made me do some terrible things too, but he did a lot less than he could have, a lot less than Imastious did."
I looked back down at the knife in her hand and something finally clicked for me. "Your little torture bit from a few minutes ago, you weren't making it up as you went along, were you? Imastious did that kind of stuff to you?"
"Yes. I'm sorry by the way. I would have tortured you, but I wouldn't have enjoyed it. I just couldn't see any other way to scare Geoffrey off. I thought maybe if I hurt his human lover that he'd leave you, or at least you'd leave him."
"So he'd go back to you?"
"Yes, that's part of it, but that wasn't the only reason. Imastious has finally noticed how erratically Geoffrey has been behaving lately. I need to come up with a way to force him to start paying attention to his 'day job' or Imastious will pay him another visit. I don't want that…it's never a good thing."
There was a pause while we both thought about what she'd said and then I cleared my throat. "So let's come up with a plan where we can work together to get him to stop being so distracted all of the time."
Venice gave me a confused look. "You don't exactly seem like you'd care what happened to Geoffrey."
I shrugged. "If you'd asked me this morning I would have told you I didn't care. I'm not sure how you managed to change my mind so quickly, but you have. I guess…well, I guess that I'm curious. You've told me that there is a whole different side to Geoffrey…to my father…that I didn't even suspect existed. I want to see that side of him before I pass final judgment."
"I wish that we could do that, but it's not safe for you. I guess if I had to screw things up and get myself killed chasing down Geoffrey's imaginary lover then at least it's not all wasted if you're willing to give him a second chance as a result. I could have died for a lot worse ends any one of a dozen times over the past year."
She continued on while I was still trying to process the implications of what she was saying. "I'll make sure to tell Geoffrey before he snuffs me. I'll tell him that he should sit down and have an honest conversation with you, that you're ready to hear the truth he's been keeping from you."
I shook my head violently. "No, you're not going to sacrifice yourself over this. We do this together or we don't do it at all."
Venice looked as surprised as I felt. I was actually having a hard time explaining to myself why I was so opposed to the idea of her telling Geoffrey that she'd found me. Obviously it would mean that he'd know I'd been sneaking out, but it was a lot more than that. I think that it came down to the fact that Venice was the first person I could remember in a really long time who'd just come right out and told me the truth.
Even Renworst, with all of his curmudgeonly kindness, had still treated me like I was too young to understand what was going on around me. I stood and looked down at Venice. "I'm not kidding. You keep what you know a secret or I'll run away. I'm old enough now that I could swipe some cash and make it on my own. If you think Geoffrey is distracted now then you haven't seen anything. Just imagine what he'd be like if he was spending half his waking time looking for me."
It was a bluff, but it was a pretty good one. Venice looked at me for several seconds before finally nodding. "Okay. We'll have to come up with some kind of system that offers you at least a little protection. I can never know where you live, and if it ever looks like Imastious knows about you then you're going to have to make a run for it. In the meantime, I'll have to be a very good little soldier so Imastious doesn't suspect me."
"Great, it sounds like it should be easy."
It was like Venice wrapped herself back up in the psycho persona that she'd been wearing when she'd first attacked me. She slipped it on like it was a set of armor and then managed a smile that would have looked normal if I hadn't just spent the last half an hour interacting with her when she was more herself.
"Sure. Easy. I probably won't have to do anything that I haven't already done."