“No one was better qualified to do it,” Resi was saying. “Max made sure of it. He sent me to California, to the best research universities there, while he made the money, all in preparation for our one big chance. But sadly, even though we quickly found a formula we thought would work.” She shrugged.
A formula? The science nerd in me couldn’t help but perk up at that.
“My experiments failed, one after another. And we only had finite capital, you see. Naturally, I started getting desperate. If I had to go back to Max and beg him for more money, he’d start asking questions. He’d be likeyou. And then he’d find out I started cutting corners. And that the results of the failed experiments weren’t exactly as humane as I assured him they were. One of the girls, sadly, we couldn’t save.”
She spoke about the dead girl in the desert like a flower she’d forgotten to water.
“But at least she died knowing she was advancing the noble cause of freedom. Or something.”
Louisa jerked on the bed at that. I closed my eyes; opened them again. If only I could see her face. See whether she was still with me. Whether she trusted me to have a plan to get us out of this. Whether she trusted me at all, which was doubtful at this point.
“And my sister? Was she one of the failed experiments?”
Resi just laughed. “Even worse, our main financial backer—I think you both know him quite well—would spook. And that would be the end of our dream.” A strange, faraway look in her eyes. “And everything that happened in this room would be for nothing.”
“So the girls were tools.” I forced myself to keep my voice measured, even. Any emotion I showed, anything I purported to care about—up to and including the girl on the bed—would immediately become a weapon Resi could exploit. I had to approach this like the businessman I’d just been trying to fool everyone into thinking I was. “To fuck your dad. To fuck the system.”
She came closer and kneeled, pressing a hand lightly on the side of my face. “Oh, sweetie, we both know someone’salwaysgoing to get fucked,” she said sadly. “All I cared about was that it was never again going to be me.”
I swallowed and looked down, ashamed that what Resi had just said made sense to me—or had, too many times in my past.
“Meanwhile, I promised them more and more, anything to help me. But some of the girls knew I was lying;Iknew I was lying. They were asking about the missing one. Especially your sweet sister. She threatened to run; to tell someone; or to find her brother, the one who was going to come save all of them.”
Maevehadalways had a talent for getting under people’s skin. And it sounded like her language barrier hadn’t been as big as I’d feared.
“And the free one, too?” I asked.
“Alma was crazy anyway,” Resi scoffed. “She’d have to be, to pretend to be a runaway slave just to get food and shelter. By the time I realized she didn’t have a chip, it was too late. Luckily, I had all the resources I needed for averysuccessful—and fun—side hustle,” she said, looking around the room, nodding at Louisa’s prone, shadowy form on the bed as if she were just another part of the decor. “Sadly, I couldn’t tell my brother, who, God only knows why, still upholdssomemorals and principles and stuff, though I’ve frequently begged him to stop. Anyway, he wouldn’t touch any of the girls, or let anyone else touch them, unless I could convince him they were there by choice.” She tittered. “Luckily, they thought theywerethere by choice.”
“Were? Past tense?” My heart began to thrash against my ribcage at the implications.
“Little sis may be a pest, but she’s a star. She still figured out where the girls weredespiteLemaya’s best efforts. So yes, they’re gone. Almost certainly on their way to the police with Alma and those two cute little sapphic snowflakes I got suspended, if they’re not already there. And it may be too late, but don’t think for a second I’m going to let them get awaythateasily.”
She could be bluffing, but I didn’t think so. “What happened to them?”
She looked at her watch, raised her head, and smiled. “I’ll find out soon. And once I do, all that remains is to figure out how to wrap up our little gathering here before the cops break down my door. And Max’s. And Keith’s.”
I watched a shiver wrack Louisa’s body, and an ice-cold fear rose in my chest. I could almost feel her heart thumping withterror as Resi spoke, my eyes, for the millionth time, trying to find an escape route from the room she’d been trapped in for hours already. Fuck.
Because though Resi would torture me, chances were she wouldn’t kill me. Not yet, anyway. Not while Max was still around. But Louisa would never be anything more than a loose end.
And I forged ahead with the assumption that Louisa knew that. Because if she didn’t, what I was about to do would kill her.
“No,” I said. “Only Keith’s.”
“What?” A crack in Resi’s shell, for the first time since she’d arrived. For the first time since I’d met her, almost.
I sped ahead, knowing if I paused to think, I’d trip on my words and it would be over. “You already had his name on the warehouse deed, but you wanted to go further. You were trying to steal as much of his money as you could while framing him for it. For the sex trafficking. For all of it.” I paused, but only for a second, to take a gulp of air. “Youknewthe police would find the girls. That’s why you wanted into Max’s books. It was going to be your Plan B. Corey was helping you. But you didn’t finish the job.”
Louisa had grown silent.Everyonewas silent, an audience watching the soliloquy of a lifetime.
“And? Well?” Resi crossed her arms, a posture that revealed more than she probably thought.
“Well, I can make it happen,” I continued. “I found the files. I’ve already doctored most of them. I just need to finish a few more. We drop it in the cops’ laps, and you and Max are free.”
More silence. Resi barely moved.
“He’ll be ruined,” I swallowed. “At the very least. The whole family will.”
