So this update is... a year and a half late? I can't even... This whole "life" thing is more complicated than I thought. I'll leave it at that, because I've found that excuses are tedious. To those of you who've waited, here's a reward for your patience. To those of you that have given up on this story, I certainly don't blame you because I considered it more than once.
It also occurs to me that if you've stopped reading then you're probably not reading this now... So now's as good a time as any to shut up.
SuniGyrl, love you lots for putting up with me! sundes2013, thank you for that extra little push!
The man on the other end nervously cleared his throat. "Well, it's like… We, uh, think we may have kidnapped the wrong… Well, not the child that we meant to – "
Victor felt his lip curl up in slight annoyance. "That's a dumb move," he drawled. "Do you even know who's kid you have?"
"Pretty sure the chick said that the girl's parents are called Storm and Wolverine…"
"No shit?!" Victor exclaimed before he could stop himself.
"Uh, apparently. You know them?"
Victor held the phone away and covered his mouth to muffle the sound of his nearly giddy laughter.
He wouldn't go so far as to say that he had been bored out of his mind when he'd received that call, but the fact that he had decided to hear out the request of the amateur kidnapper meant that he certainly wasn't busy.
The fool had babbled incoherently for most of the conversation, stringing together useless information and tripping over his words in an effort to make sense. Patience wasn't in Victor's nature – unless it pertained to the hunt (and even then, the bloodlust tended to go to his head and he occasionally jumped the gun) – but he'd surprised himself by waiting on the phone while Dennis or Danny tried to sort out that one marble rolling around inside his head.
And luckily, this had turned out to be an opportunity too good to let slip by.
Now on his way to an apartment complex in downtown Rochester, Victor was glad that he hadn't hung up the phone the first time the man had said, "Um, if that makes sense…"
Victor was nearly gleeful enough to rub his hands together. The Runt's cub! Domesticity must have made Jimmy horribly lazy if a couple of humans had managed to take his own blood and lived to tell the tale!
And that firecracker weather witch he called his mate? Where the hell had she been during all this? Apparently home life wasn't suiting them quite so well, and Victor could only imagine how much it must burn them to know that they could save an entire city but not their own kid.
He obviously didn't know the whole story, but he had to assume that the cub's parents were out looking for it by now. Not that it mattered, the damage was done. The fact that these stooges had the time to contact Victor meant that they hadn't been monitoring their child close enough. They managed to hide the kid away, at least for a while.
Victor knew he wouldn't ever reproduce. But if he did, and if he were to then raise the child, hell would freeze over before he let anyone close enough to lay a finger on his offspring.
As he made his way inside the apartment building, he briefly glanced up at a child yelling out the window. He shook his head, his gut telling him that this wasn't a random noisy child, but that it was Jimmy's and that those idiot kidnappers were letting it lean out the window and scream for help to its heart's content. City people were used to noise of all kinds, but that didn't mean that they'd put up with that shit for an extended period of time. Fifteen minutes, tops, before someone called the cops to complain about the noise, at the very least.
And that just wouldn't do. He wanted Jimmy to find them.
Or maybe even the goddess!
Feeling the heavy weight in his coat pocket, he decided that he definetely wanted the goddess to find them too.
He wanted to sit back and watch the fireworks, or possibly throw himself into them. He didn't want the fuzz to bust in and stop the fun before it got started!
Stopping at the specified door, he did his best to exude an aura that said, You hired me because I am lethal and will live up to all the horrible rumors about me, while also saying, You can trust me and I absolutely won't kill you if this becomes too much of a headache. Even if you deserve it.
That last bit wasn't a complete lie; while it would be much more fun to sit back and watch Jimmy kill them (and maybe even the witch too, if given the right initiative), but that was only if it turned out that they indeed had Jimmy's kid.
If they were dumb enough to kidnap the child that they hadn't targeted, it was possible that they only thought they had Jimmy's kid. They probably didn't know who the hell's kid they had! In that case, this trip would just be another boring (though profitable) exercise in cleaning up someone else's dumbass mistake.
Before he could raise his arm to knock on the right door, it swung open and Victor was eagerly welcomed inside.
Humans. No instincts.
Victor stepped right into the living room of the apartment and inhaled. Three males, and a young one. He almost chuckled with excitement. He didn't see the kid anywhere, but that fresh-field-of-grass smell that was his brother's signature mutant scent was indisputably in the air. His excitement was dampened with a little disappointment, however; Seriously, how had his little brother and his apparent mate become complacent enough to allow their own child to be stolen by these stooges?!
The two humans that had ushered him into the apartment looked harmless enough; a taller, skinnier man (Until I get a name that I probably won't remember, he thought, I'll call you Thing One) and a shorter, more muscular man (And Thing Two). And in strolled a man that was in between, with intelligent eyes and an average physique.
Victor could lay them all out in about half a second, so he knew his little brother would make short work of them. The thought of little Jimmy storming into this very room, his face red with anger and steam practically coming out of his ears as he killed these humans and bathed in their blood pulled Victor into a fit of giggles that he couldn't contain. Every pulse in the room spiked and suddenly the fear in the air was so potent that he was almost choking on it.
He got himself under control before the humans came to their senses and asked him to leave. "Sorry," he said, hunching his shoulders to appear a little more… demure. "Delayed reaction to a joke." Wouldn't hurt for them to think that he was a bit slow.
They all nodded silently, trading nervous glances with each other. Oh, hell, Victor thought tiredly. He'd seen rabbits that were less skittish – which was kind of funny since even they wouldn't be stupid enough to invite him into their dens. He pitched his voice just a little bit higher and less threatening. Wasn't he nice to go to such trouble to put the queasy humans at ease?
"Is that the kid making all that racket? I could hear it from almost a block away." They didn't really need to know that from that distance, Victor had assumed it was someone getting mugged in an alley.
The one who'd just come in – Dustin, he assumed – tugged at his short black hair in frustration. "That little demon hasn't shut her mouth since she woke up!" he seethed. "I think I ruptured an eardrum trying to get her to calm down!"
Judging by the noise that was coming from down the hall, Victor wasn't sure that was an exaggeration.
"Anyway, I'm Davis." He started to extend his hand, then seemed to think better of it when he caught sight of Victor's claws. He smoothly diverted his hand and gestured to the other two men, as though that had been his initial intention. "These are my brothers, Lex and Hoyt. Also the idiots that grabbed the wrong girl."
Victor threw them another glance, purely for effect, before shrugging. It wasn't his place to judge their stupidity; people from all walks of life thought they could hack it as criminals. He wasn't interested in the sad story of their road to crime.
"Well, first things first," Victor announced. "If we don't get her to quiet down, the police will be all over this place. People around here may know that there's no such thing as peace and quiet, but we've only got about ten minutes before someone gets pissed enough to file a noise complaint."
"And she's been howling for twenty minutes," Davis moaned, gripping his own head like a vice.
Victor gave him a slick smile that made his pulse skyrocket. "Let me see what I can do. I'm actually quite good with kids." Well, not really. But he'd raised the runt without killing him – attempts notwithstanding. That had to count for something.
Davis swallowed hard and pointed down the hall, keeping a good ten feet away from Victor as he moved past. Victor tried not to roll his eyes as he went to see the kid. Honestly, how did stooges like these get to be in business of kidnapping? They couldn't know for sure that Victor was trustworthy. He did his damndest to come off as trustworthy, but they didn't know him from any Joe Blow on the street. He could be any number of nefarious things – an undercover cop, a homicidal maniac, a pedophile… How could they possibly know? Shit, humans are dumb creatures!
Well, maybe not dumb so much as selfish. They were out of options, or else they wouldn't have called him. They were clearly afraid of him, but didn't give a damn about the child if they were just going to let him go back and see the kid unsupervised.
Except for one. Despite the fear that was rolling off of him in potent waves, Hoyt was right behind Victor as he went in to see the kid. Victor's… notice of him increased. He certainly wasn't going to become a problem, but he would be the one to notice something out of place before his brothers. Victor pretended not to notice that he was being watched so as not to scare the human even more.
He opened the door at the end of the hall to find a decent looking bedroom. While the rest of the apartment had only the bare necessities, this room looked like it could belong to any child in America. A bed filled with stuffed animals against the wall, a TV in the corner, a small table against another wall covered in blank paper and crayons…
The child, a young girl, had her back to him. She was standing on a small chair and had her head stuck out the window as she wailed tirelessly. Victor closed the door behind him (in Hoyt's face, whatever) and struggled not to laugh too loudly; not because the sight was ridiculous – though it was, a little – but because it was actually pretty smart of her. Like he'd told the stooges, if the alarm and desperation in her voice failed to attract attention, the sheer volume would.
Imagine that, he thought as he managed to get this amusement under control. A mutant child with more brains that three human men.
When it was clear that she wasn't going to stop anytime soon, Victor strolled over and gently tapped her shoulder. Her shouting ceased immediately and she whipped her head around to stare at him, the beads on her braids clinking softly. The smell of saline and dried tracks of salt running down her cheeks made her seem impossibly small, but a sound that could only be a warning growl (from a three year old girl!) bubbled in her throat and she glared at him in challenge.
What little intimidation she had managed from that was quickly diminished by a meek hiccup not five seconds afterwards.
He couldn't help himself this time; he threw his head back and laughed harder and louder than he had in years. Well damn, he thought. He had three full grown men nearly pissing their pants just talking to him, but this frail little toddler took one look at him and decided she was ready to throw down! He laughed so hard that he was actually struggling to breathe, and the rest of the humans barged in, standing in the doorway and looking between Victor and the brat.
When Victor got himself under control, he looked down to see that amber eyes were locked on his. Jimmy's amber eyes. Definitely my brother's brat.
He backed up appropriately and let her look him over with eyes that were sharp and predatory despite her age. She was looking for danger or potential weakness. Well, he doubted that she actually knew what she was looking for, but her instincts were telling her to look, and she was following without question.
The only explanation for how they had grabbed this girl and not the right one was that they hadn't known what the kid looked like to begin with, so they'd just grabbed someone. It was such a ludicrous way to go about kidnapping that it wasn't even funny. It was a good way to get yourself killed…
… and, incidentally, the girl's parents were probably on the way.
This time, a picture of Jimmy's mate going ape shit popped into his mind and he chuckled. Victor could just picture her covered in a spray of blood and trying to reach for the girl. She'd probably shrink away from her mother in horror, which was sure to make her whole world shatter! And wouldn't it just drive her insane if the girl ran to Victor for comfort instead…
Victor stopped laughing. It was deadly quiet now that his chuckles had ceased, but Victor only heard the gears in his head turning.
There was no doubt in his mind that Jimmy and the goddess would be coming for the girl; the man was ridiculously possessive, and though he'd only met her a handful of times, the goddess seemed to be as well. There would be no bargaining with Jimmy, not with their lives. If they handed over the kid quickly, they'd die quickly. If not, then… they'd die not-so quickly. Though it seemed that his brother had become domestic, he felt confident that his red rage would kick in as soon as he found the kid, and there would be no stopping Wolverine.
The goddess was an unknown variable. She certainly had it in her to kill them, but he got the feeling she would choose to take the high road; bring the fools to the police (or whatever it was that heroes did) and see to it that they were unable to harm her child or others ever again. Then again, everyone had their breaking point. Victor was nothing if not a master of exploiting vulnerabilities.
This new twist in his plan would work so much better if she arrived first. He would need to throw off Jimmy somehow to ensure that if he did arrive first, the girl wouldn't be there to claim and he would have to keep searching. But how much information did they have to go on? Idiots that grabbed the wrong girl were sure to leave behind a wealth of evidence, and the only way they could possibly know that this was Jimmy's whelp was if they had talked to someone.
Someone who now knew that they had the girl.
This keeps getting better.
But, luckily for Victor, the great thing about idiots was that they were eager to listen and easy to fool.
"So," Hoyt asked from the doorway, "is it, uh… the right kid?"
The girl still had the hiccups, and Victor absently passed her a glass of water that had been sitting on the small table before he opened his mouth to answer. But Lex beat him to it.
"Certainly looks like their brat," Lex said. When Victor looked at him questioningly, he explained. "I looked them up online when we found out who they were. Only shaky camera phone videos of anything interesting like fights, but they have some kind of weird promo clips on the X-Men site." He eyed the glass of water that Victor was offering the girl with clear distrust. "I'm a little concerned about all the creative stuff Storm managed to do when she claims all she does is control weather."
"Right now, I think we should be more concerned about whether or not the brat can do any of that stuff," Davis muttered.
"She's far too young to have any powers," Victor assured them. He nudged the glass at the girl a bit more insistently and after a few more hiccups, the girl snatched the glass and chugged the water, likely dehydrated from all of her crying.
Victor didn't feel it necessary to mention that powers usually manifested in situations of high stress and that it wasn't impossible for one as young as her to develop them early as a means of survival. Victor was hoping, however, that that wouldn't be necessary. "And this is their daughter, no doubt about it. I have a nose for these things." He said it in a casual tone as he lightly dragged a claw down the slope of his nose, fighting not to cackle when all of their hearts fluttered nervously (funny, the girl simply narrowed her eyes at him and leaned away a little). Lex visibly shivered and took a few steps back, and Victor lightened his tone, retracting his claws. "But you know, you might be better off if I stayed here. I told you over the phone, you may recall, that I already know quite a bit about the Wolverine. More than a website can tell you, certainly."
Davis nodded, cracking his knuckles nervously.
Victor made direct eye contact with him, to get this point across. "I can honestly tell you that he'll be here in no time."
Hoyt shuffled his feet uncomfortably. "What… here, here?!" he asked, pointing to the ground for emphasis.
"Well, not in the next five minutes," Victor responded, fighting the urge to add dumbass to the end of that statement. "But he'll find his way here, I guarantee it."
"What's-her-name did say he'd be hunting us," Lex mumbled. "And claws like that aren't for barbecue..."
"Well, what?" Davis demanded. "Is he following psychic energy? Can he see the kid's aura?!"
Victor rolled his eyes. "He's probably linked your scent to his missing kid's and is following that."
Lex shrugged, glaring at Davis. "Seems legit. There's something animal about that guy."
"Fuck," Davis hissed.
Victor turned and gave him disapproving look. "Please," he said, motioning to the girl. "She's a growing child. What if that ends up being her first word?"
"Already know that one," the girl said quietly. Everyone fell silent and looked at the girl.
"Is that right?" Victor asked with a raised brow.
She puffed out her chest instead of shrinking back. "Sometimes daddy thinks I'm not listening when he talks to himself or to auntie Emma. Uncle Remy says words like that are 'col-la-ter-al'."
The three brothers remained silent, staring at the girl. Victor inhaled deeply and pressed his lips together, looking at the ceiling in an attempt to hold in his amusement. If all kids were this entertaining, he could see why so many people decided to have them.
Lex was gaping at her. "She spoke!" he finally exclaimed.
"I do that sometimes," the girl muttered.
If I'm not careful, I may fall in love with this child, Victor thought.
Lex was about this close to sneering at the girl, but turned to Victor instead. "So what are you suggesting we do? You think we should just clear out when Wolverine gets close by? Will he just let it go if he finds the kid but not us?" He sounded (rightly) skeptical.
Not likely, Victor thought. He'd hunt them down and skin them alive for leaving her unattended, at the very least. He would have no way of knowing if she'd been poisoned or abused in any way before their departure, and that would probably scare the hell out of him. Still, it wasn't a stupid question.
Victor tilted his head to the side as though turning that suggestion over in his mind. "He's not one to let things go so easily," he said. "He'll want to know that she's been well cared for, at least."
"So we should try to negotiate with him," Lex suggested tiredly.
Before he inevitably kills you? "It might be a good idea."
"Let's not forget about Storm, whoever that is," Davis cut in. "The woman on the phone made it sound like that was the girl's mother. Should we be worried about her?"
Victor pretended to think about that as well, silently acknowledging that THIS must be the reason that Davis was the head of their little operation. Too bad this brief flash of intelligence was too little too late.
"I'll admit I don't know her quite as well, but she's a self-proclaimed hero. I don't think she'll kill you, but you'll go away for the rest of your days if she gets here first." Or I'll get to her first and then my plan can really build steam…
"Okay," Davis said with a nod, furiously typing into his phone. "Not the best overall outcome, but certainly the better out of those two. So we worry about Wolverine. Will money mean anything to him? Or… should we maybe just ask for our lives in exchange for the kid?"
If Jimmy was still the same boring runt he had always been, money wouldn't mean a damn thing to him. But that didn't mean that it was worthless to Victor too. While chaos erupted around them – the intensity of the chaos entirely dependent upon which parent arrived first – Victor could stash whatever money they planned on giving to Jimmy for collection later. "I'd suggest having some money ready and waiting, just in case," he said in a contemplative tone. "It couldn't hurt your chances."
Davis nodded and turned to Lex. "Lex, go withdraw some money from the bank. Few thousand, you think?" He glanced back at Victor for approval.
Victor shrugged. "Your call. The more, the better. Like I said, it couldn't hurt."
Davis nodded again before turning away and walking back into the living room. "This seems like a pretty cut and dry mission, Lex. You think you can find your way to the right bank before you screw something up?"
The murderous look that Lex wore as he too left the room was hilarious. "Hope I don't scratch the Jag on this 'cut and dry' mission," he said carelessly as the apartment door slammed behind him.
"Hoyt…"
"I'm on it," Hoyt said eagerly, his relief evident the farther he got from Victor.
"And why don't you remind him that this isn't a time to be fucking around!" Davis hollered from the other room.
Victor glanced down at the child, who hardly batted an eye at his language. "You weren't kidding about your daddy talking like that," he said quietly. Ordinarily, he would've thought that the kid just didn't understand, but those eyes were a bit too intelligent for complete and total ignorance.
And that was before she'd opened her mouth, effectively banishing all doubt.
Victor shrugged to himself. "Least he hasn't lost what few edges he has left."
Davis sighed heavily as he reappeared in the threshold of the child's room, leaning against the doorframe and suddenly looking extremely uncomfortable. "So we… What? Just, uh, wait for this guy to get here?"
Victor made a face, as though to suggest that he was second guessing himself. "I don't know if it's such a good idea to stay here with the girl…"
Davis frowned, motioning to the door his brothers had just walked through. He had the gall to look annoyed. "You just told Lex – "
"I told him not to pick up and leave," Victor corrected, not liking that tone. Those brothers of his might accept the way Davis talked to them, but this adventure would come to a short and violent end for Davis if he ticked Victor off.
"Now, you're free to do whatever you think is best," Victor offered, "but here's what I'm thinking: What if he gets here and he knows that you've got the kid here with you? What's to stop him from killing you and taking the brat and the cash?" Davis nodded thoughtfully, thinking it over so deeply that his anxiety began to ebb away.
"But let's say," Victor continued, "you were to move her to a different location, but stay here to wait for him. Once he gets here you could negotiate with him, throw him the cash or whatever, and give him the address of where she is. He tries to kill you? Tell him you've got a guy with the girl that will whisk her someplace else if he tries to kill any of you. He'll leave you all alone, go off to get her and you can all beat feet before he has the chance to pick her up and turn around to come back for you."
In reality, Jimmy would probably tear them all limb from limb before they got the chance to utter a word. And, if he was lucky, the goddess would arrive first and Victor would get the chance to test his new gift from Trask and enrage his brother even further.
This fool had struggled to order his thoughts to tell Victor the situation over the phone, so there was no way in hell he'd have enough forethought to see any of the many reasons that such a plan might not work.
For instance, if they were willing to believe that Jimmy could track their scent, why wouldn't they assume that he could pick up the girl's scent from the apartment and follow it to her new location without needing any kind of address from them? Or, assuming they knew he was prone to temper, wouldn't they be worried that he'd just try to torture the information out of them?
If only everyone had a mind like mine, Victor thought a tad wistfully.
"Meanwhile," Victor went on, "I sit and play nice with the kid so she doesn't get bored. Her dad comes in, we'll probably have a little chat" – he couldn't resist grinning at that – "and that's the end of everything."
Davis swallowed hard at the look on Victor's face, but did a damn good impression of someone trying to contain their fear. "You think that'll work," he asked. "You think he'll wait long enough to hear us out if he catches us without the kid?"
Victor nearly gave him a surprised look. Perhaps more than just one flash of intelligence…
"But," Davis nervously cracked his knuckles again, "I guess… it's better than the alternative."
Ah, there's that intellect! Victor was willing to bet that Davis had no earthly idea what 'the alternative' was. Stupid. He was choosing to put his absolute faith in someone that he didn't know.
Oh well. He'd learn. In fact, it would likely be the last lesson he'd get.
Davis' phone began ringing and he answered it, leaving Victor and the girl staring at each other. Those amber eyes snapped back to him and that warning growl rumbled in her small throat.
Victor knew that it wasn't bravery that prompted that response, but fear. The only reason the girl wasn't shrinking away in true terror was because he hadn't yet given her a reason to.
Victor crouched down closer to her level. The kid was tiny, but he wasn't surprised; Logan hadn't grown past five feet tall until he was nearly seventeen. He retracted his claws to a less threatening length and held his hand out to her, palm up. She leaned away from him with a distrustful look, but it was plain that she was curious. Body language was something that she would be able to process better, because they were filtered by instincts, whereas words were processed by her young mind.
When he didn't move towards her, she slowly leaned forward and gave his hand a cautious sniff. He couldn't help the grin that surfaced at that. She was unmistakably her father's daughter. If he wanted her to at least be at ease with him, he needed to act… nice.
A distasteful thought. Under any other circumstances, it was a thought that never would've been acknowledged. But Victor Creed wasn't opposed to laying it on thick with a little acting, especially when the game was afoot. Sometimes it could be fun, and this girl seemed far from boring. "What's your name, cub?" he asked in a soft voice, free of any hidden threat.
She looked up at him, her eyes assessing. Her instincts were telling her whether or not he was safe. She sniffed his hand again and then glared over at the door, where Davis was still on the phone but watching in fascination from the doorway. She frowned at him and looked back up at Victor. He could already see in her eyes that she'd decided that he was safer than the three stooges. "Kenny," she mumbled.
Victor raised an eyebrow. "You've got a boy's name, Kenny."
The girl leaned away from him, her expression sour. "Kendall," she snapped.
"That's a little better." Victor smiled, leaving his mouth closed so that his fangs wouldn't startle her. "I'm your Uncle Victor," he told her.
Her eyes widened at that, but she didn't look frightened. Either Jimmy had told her about him – which he really doubted – or 'uncle' was simply a familiar word to her. Likely it called forth memories of her home and people that she could trust. Victor fit into that category to her now, and he wasn't misplaced.
Victor sure as hell wasn't a kid person, but he wouldn't hurt her as long as she behaved herself as much as a toddler could be expected to. Right now, killing her wouldn't benefit him in any way.
Her parents, however, were another story entirely. Not only was Victor going to get a good fight, but this could actually turn out to be quite entertaining months down the road. Logan could be a hard-ass, ready-fire-aim kind of guy when occasion called, but more often then not he was a sap. And his mate was a hero and an idealist, so this kind of emotional damage had the potential to push them both over the edge.
Victor could just imagine the look on their faces if they barged in to find her squealing happily while in her uncle's arms.
Money couldn't buy a moment like that.
I've been bored for far too long.
It might take them a while to get there, but Victor was prepared to wait.
"You gotta pay attention, Kenny," Uncle Remy said, kneeling down so that he was closer to her height. "If Ruby hid your doll, she's not going to tell you where it's at."
"But I know she did," Kendall insisted, frowning grumpily. "She said my daddy isn't a real wolverine and she laughed at me and she took it!" She kicked at Uncle Remy's shoe because he looked like he wanted to laugh at her. "Not funny!"
"I know she took it too, ma patite." He rested a hand on her head to calm her. "But Uncle Remy ain't the one who hid it. You gotta catch her in a lie to find where she put it."
Kendall sighed. "If mommy hadn't washed it I could just sniff for it! It smelled like me but now it smells like the whole house!"
"What? Clean?"
Kendall narrowed her eyes at Remy, who looked like he wanted to laugh again. "I smell like a princess," she said in a snooty tone, nose in the air as she pushed his hand off the top of her head.
"Well, you can't sniff it out, that's why Ruby gotta tell you where to find it."
"You just said she ain't gonna."
"You have to make her tell you, and I'm gonna teach you how."
Kendall clapped excitedly. "Like how Kitty taught me how to put someone in a headlock!"
"You can't do that, you'll get in trouble."
"Nuh-huh, 'cause Aunt Kitty taught me."
"You remember that trick Nightcrawler taught you about kicking cans off someone's head?"
Kendall nodded eagerly. "Uh-huh."
"And you remember what happened when you tried it on Ethan Stark?"
Kendall's smile faded. Mommy and Daddy hadn't let her eat any sweets or watch any TV for a long time. "No," she mumbled.
Remy laughed. "It's okay, because Uncle Remy's gonna teach you somethin' that won't get you in trouble. Matter fact, might come in handy some day. You gotta watch. Really watch…"
Kendall watched 'Uncle Victor' carefully. So far, he hadn't lied to her. She wasn't sure if she wanted to trust him. He was mostly better than the other men that were here with her, but something about him was… dark.
The bulky man hadn't been so bad. He'd carried her into the room and had tried to give her sweets. He kind of reminded her of Uncle Peter…
But he wasn't Uncle Peter! She didn't know anyone! She didn't know where she was! She didn't know anything!
Mommy is coming, she told herself. Daddy too. That, she knew. They would come and they would beat up all these strange men and then they'd go home and maybe she could stay in their room tonight so she didn't have to sleep by herself.
All she had to do was wait.
"How are you my uncle," she asked.
"Well, cub, your dad is my brother."
She watched him carefully, tried to remember everything that Uncle Remy had taught her about watching for lies. She hadn't been very good that day that Ruby had stolen her stuffed animal, but she'd gotten better when she started watching adults.
Adults lied a lot.
But Uncle Victor wasn't lying. Her daddy was his brother. And he'd called her cub without being told to. Cub was pretty close to pup, wasn't it? And her daddy called her pup all the time.
"Does my daddy know I'm here?"
Uncle Victor tilted his head to the side thoughtfully. "Not exactly, but he's looking for you. He'll find you here before you know it."
Kendall nodded. She knew that already, but she didn't know if he knew. "My mommy is coming too."
Victor smiled. "I bet she's on her way right now."
"What will happen when they get here?"
Uncle Victor grinned wide and his eyes seemed to get brighter. She got goose bumps and scooted away so that he wasn't close enough to reach her. "Your parents and I are going to… talk."
Ah-ha, she saw it! That darkness! The reason that she didn't trust him! That was a lie!