Lilly knew what she was doing wasn't right, but Lilly had never been much for doing the right thing just for the sake of it. She looked down at her cell: Veronica was calling again. Lilly sighed and pushed ignore. The last thing she needed was little miss goody two shoes judging her right now. Veronica needed to start living a little, Jesus. Take some motherfucking risks or you may as well just die, that was Lilly's M.O.

Lilly knocked on the solid wood door of an unfamiliar hotel room. Aaron Echolls answered in a minute, puzzlement and impatience clouding his dark eyes. "Can Logan come out to play?" Lilly asked like a six year old. She grinned slyly up at her old friend's dad.

"I'm sorry, Lilly. Logan's not home right now."

"Good," Lilly said, her eyes never leaving Aaron's face as she forced her way right on in. Aaron looked surprised and yet obviously happy by this turn of events.

"I was just telling Logan you should come by sometime…"

"I know. My brother told me. I think he was trying to warn me to stay at home. Stupid Donut."

"You been seeing much of Logan lately?"

"Well, he used to get me free ice cream but I think he got fired."

"Oh, did he?" Aaron really didn't keep tabs on his son's life.

"Yeah, that's why I thought he might be at home. But I'm glad he's not… Enough about Logan, how're you doing, Mr. Echolls?" Lilly was an expert at appealing to people's vanities.

"Please, call me Aaron."

"Ok, Aaron."

"And I'm just fine, sweetheart."

"You look just fine."

"You come here for some reason in particular, Lilly? I can, uh, tell my son you stopped by." Lilly stepped into Aaron's personal space, her body pressed right up against his.

"I came to do this." And with that, she kissed him, something she had always wanted to do whether the man was the scum of the earth or not. Without a second thought or even a first one, Aaron picked Lilly up in his arms and carried her over to the couch. This was his lucky day, but women of all ages had always wanted Aaron Echolls… Aaron worked quickly. Things were beginning to get started when the door opened again. Lilly and Aaron sat straight up and automatically took their hands off each other, like two teenagers caught by the cops or something. Logan tossed his room key on the table.

"Logan, where have you been?" Aaron demanded, trying to intimidate his son out of focusing on the seventeen-year-old girl currently half-naked on their couch.

"You kicked me out, remember? Anyway, I needed a change of clothes." Logan was talking to Aaron but never took his eyes off Lilly. He needed to know that she was ok.

"Well, welcome home. Looks like Lilly's just stopped by to see you," Aaron said, daring his son with one look to try to contradict him. Aaron sauntered over to the front door (well, the only door), straightening his clothes as he walked. He stopped to pick up the hotel key off the table on the way. "I was just heading out. You kids have fun." He squeezed Logan's shoulder, more than a little bit too hard, but Logan refused to flinch. When Aaron was gone, Logan dead bolted the door behind him. No surprises.

"Thanks for doing this, Lilly."

"No problem. It was my idea. You know I've always wanted to kiss your dad anyway." Logan mimed vomiting. "Anyway, Duncan and Veronica told me not to do it but what the fuck do they know?"

"They were just worried about you."

"They're more worried about you, kid. And with good reason: you look like shit. Don't you ever sleep, shower, eat?"

"Overrated."

"Ah well, I figured if it came down to it, I could always have sex with your dad and get him arrested. You know, DNA evidence and stuff."

"I'm sure he would have used a condom. And oh my God I don't want to talk about this… But I am also pretty sure that's entrapment."

"Who the hell would have to know how it all began? I'm the best liar you've ever met."

"I don't doubt it. You're a special, special person."

"Aw, shucks, when you say it like that I don't feel like you mean it. Let's get this fucking show on the road."

"Don't worry, I'm sure he won't be back for a while. He seemed a little flustered. Good job, by the way."

"I never worry. Jesus said not to."

Logan let that drop without comment, but he gave Lilly a somewhat withering look. The day Lilly turned to Jesus was well… probably the same day Aaron turned to Jesus. And it would be at least one of the signs of the apocalypse. "Lilly, though, really I appreciate you sticking your neck out for me. If I had come back alone, well, he wouldn't have left me alone."

"Dude, as smokin' hot as your dad is, I have always known he was an asshole. So don't you worry about me helping you… I live to serve." Lilly winked at Logan and took off down the hall into Aaron's bedroom. It was more like she lived to walk on the edge.

"So, what are we looking for exactly," she said when Logan caught up with her.

"I'm not really sure… Anything criminal, anything illegal I guess and then we would take photos and pass 'em on to Ronnie. We can't take anything out of here. He'll know it was us."

"Ronnie," Lilly laughed. "I don't know if she likes to be called that." Lilly had a habit of focusing on what she found most interesting about a conversation, rather than on what was most important.

"She's never complained," Logan volleyed back. "And you know she would…"

"Well, you've got me there. Ok, so did Veronica teach you how to pick locks or what?"

"Yeah, I think I've got it." Logan hadn't even been in his father's bedroom once since they had moved in. Even when he was a kid, Logan never went into his parents' bedroom unless it was to get a belt out of the closet. He shuddered at those memories from not so long ago. Logan had never had the type of parents who would comfort him if he had a bad dream. Logan shook himself out of his head and looked around the room, taking in everything.

Aaron's bedroom was much larger than Logan's and even sparser, décor-wise. The closet held the usual-belts, shoes, ties, nothing special. There was nothing under the bed; there was nothing tucked in between the box spring and the mattress. There was no desk in the room and Aaron didn't own a computer. Logan always had to type his papers at school or at Duncan's, back in the day. Or he just didn't do them at all. What did school matter anymore?

"Wait a sec," Lilly said suddenly, grinding Logan's thoughts to a halt. "What about in there?" She pointed at the air vent, near where the wall met the ceiling. "It's worth a shot, no?"

"Definitely. Let me go see if we have a screwdriver somewhere around here."

"Don't worry-I brought one. Well, two actually. Phillips head and regular." At Logan's raised eyebrows, Lilly smirked. "What? I don't know what exactly is going on here, but you can never be too prepared."

"You really should join the Army. Or the Boy Scouts."

"Don't I know it." Lilly stood on Aaron's bed to reach the vent, carefully taking it off and digging inside the wall. "Jackpot!"

"Seriously?" Logan was almost stunned speechless as Lilly produced three videotapes.

"We have to copy these somehow and bring them back."

"Veronica will know how. I just have to get her here when my dad's out."

"I can get your dad out…" Lilly offered magnanimously.

"Lilly, I can't let you do that."

"Fine, fine. You got anywhere to play these?"

"No, we're poor white trash, remember? No, I'm serious. We only have what the hotel gives us."

"Ok, so we wait. Aren't you excited, Logan? It's a real life fucking mystery!"

"You really don't worry, do you Lills?" All Logan could think of were the many horrific scenarios that possibly played out over those tapes.

"What can I say, Echolls? It's a waste of fucking time."

888888888888888

Duncan had often worried about Logan throughout the years. Duncan's family wasn't perfect, hell maybe they weren't even close, but he had always felt safe. He didn't have to escape… Or, if he wanted to escape, he just went up to his room and put on his headphones. He didn't have to run away to his best friend's house in the middle of the night. If his father had tried to hurt him-which he never had-his mother would have protected him, or vice versa. But Logan… How he could he not be fucked up and where was his mom, anyway? How could she just leave him with that monster? Mrs. Echolls may not have always been all there, but she was a nice person. She was the anti-Celeste, warm and welcoming. She didn't have an evil bone in her body. But she had the ability to look the other way… Maybe years of living with Aaron had just beaten her down too.

"Duncan!" Lilly cried as she and Logan burst through his thoughts. "Veronica's on her way but we can't wait for her."

"Why not?"

"Because we stole Aaron's tapes and he'll most likely kill us when he finds them missing, duh. So, can you play them or what?"

"I think so, Lilly. Calm down and just let me see them." Lilly thrust the tapes into her brother's hands while Logan remained oddly silent. It was Lilly's idea to bolt with the tapes, not his. "Yeah, no problem."

Logan was already starting to feel sick to his stomach. He hadn't been to the Kane house in ages. He was thankful Duncan's parents weren't home. Logan wanted nothing more than to never see what was on these tapes, to have a normal family, to join the fucking chess club or something and not have to deal with this shit. First, he would have to learn how to play chess. The glee in Lilly's eyes was unnerving. The girl lived for drama and would probably die for it someday. Two minutes later and the three of them were sitting side by side by side, staring at Duncan's TV like it held all the secrets to the world.

Tape 1: Fade to the Fitzpatrick brothers and associates torturing and eventually murdering some man-on camera-with Aaron nowhere to be seen.

Lilly and Duncan stared at each other. They couldn't believe what they were looking at was real. They had just watched a man who was tied up and blindfolded get his fingernails torn off and his head shot off. Logan came back from vomiting in the pristine bathroom and wordlessly popped in the second tape.

Tape 2: Only a few minutes long, like the first one. Murder 2. No Aaron.

Tape 3: More of the same.

Veronica walked in. "Hey, what'd you guys find out?" She was met with no verbal answer, just three ashen-looking faces staring up at her.

"Is is that bad?"

"It's people dying and being tortured for information… Real people, Ronnie, on camera. I think my dad is blackmailing these guys. Maybe that's what the hand's about too."

"The hand?" Lilly and Duncan demanded simultaneously. Oops.

"Nevermind that," Veronica said, turning to address only Logan. "Are you saying your dad isn't on any of these tapes, but has incriminating evidence against the Fitzpatrick crime family?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

"But why doesn't he just go to the cops, make a deal or something?" That was Duncan.

Logan scoffed. "Please, you know he's knee deep in all this shit. Maybe he's not even blackmailing them… Maybe he's working with them and these tapes are just for insurance. It's obvious they didn't know they were being taped."

"Well, whichever it is, you've got to get these tapes back, Logan." Logan grabbed the three tapes and bolted into action. "Come on, I'll drive you."

Logan and Veronica split from the Kane house with nary another word, leaving Lilly and Duncan still sitting next to each other on the couch-still totally shattered.

Logan had never been more anxious in his life than at this very moment: sticking his hotel key into the slot, prayingprayingpraying his father wouldn't be home. How many times had he said that same prayer? Veronica was not unaware of his anxiety. It took him three times to get the key to work. The third time, she rubbed his wrist with her fingertips, silently begging him to relax a little bit. And he did… Until he opened the door and saw Aaron on the couch, a glass of whiskey in his hand.

Aaron Echolls whipped his head around upon his son's approach. "Took you long enough to open the fucking door, but you always were a slow kid. Hi, Veronica. Pleasure." The entire sentence was laced with ire. Aaron drunk was about three times as scary as Aaron sober, and he hardly ever drank.

"No Lilly?"

"No she, uh, she had to leave, Dad."

"Pity. You know she is such a beautiful girl. Don't you think so, Veronica?"

"Yes. She's gorgeous." Did he know they had stolen his shit or was he just being generally creepy? Veronica didn't want to find out.

"And you too, Veronica, are gorgeous. What the hell do you see in a kid like this?" Aaron jerked his thumb roughly in Logan's direction, an ugly sneer on his face.

"We're just friends, Mr. Echolls, but I think your son is great."

"Yeah, don't you just love a kid who's already drinking his life away at sixteen… Gets fired from a fucking ice cream job… His mom can't even stand to be around him." Logan turned red with fury and embarrassment.

"Veronica," he whispered softly. "I think you should go. I'll handle it from here."

"You'll handle what, you fucking screw up?" Aaron could never just shut the fuck up and you couldn't make him.

"Please, Veronica."

"Yes, please, Veronica. Get the hell out. This is between me and my son." Veronica shot Logan a parting glance, saying basically, 'I really don't want to leave you here alone with this guy, but I have to so I don't make it worse.' Logan knew the glance well-he had seen it many times, from many different people.

He nodded at her as she walked quietly out the door, then he turned his attention back toward his father. "You drunk, Dad? Gosh, I am just so disappointed. Are you trying to turn into my mother?"

"You watch your fucking mouth. I'm not done saying what I've got to say."

"So say it."

"You ever take anything that doesn't belong to you again and I'll fucking kill you. I mean it, you understand. You're my son but I'll beat you unrecognizable and throw you in the fucking ocean."

Logan nodded almost unnoticeably, terror lurking behind his wide eyes.

"Now give me back my fucking tapes." Logan opened his backpack, took all three of them out, and tried to hand them to his dad without getting too close to him. Aaron stood up, yanked Logan into his vicinity by the t-shirt, and smacked the tapes out of his hand. As Logan watched the tapes fall to the floor, his father caught him by surprise with a wicked punch to the eye. Logan staggered backward several steps before finally losing his footing and falling to the floor.

"Pussy." Aaron spit on Logan's back and walked out of the room. Logan finally understood what really made people take the mortal plunge-never before had he so much wanted to die just to escape.