Penryn stowed away the gun under the elastic of her pajama bottoms again.

She doubted that Mom would care what Penryn was doing with it, but Penryn thought the less that Mom knew about the locations of any lethal weapons in the house, the better. She would have gotten rid of it weeks ago if she had an idea how to get rid of unlicensed gun without running into trouble.

It was good thing she hadn't-it would have made babysitting a wanted criminal in her living room a lot harder if she had.

"Mom?" Penryn repeated when she didn't respond, continuing to stand still in the doorway.

That seemed to do the trick. Her mother closed the door behind her and locked it. She shrugged off her jacket-at least Mom remembered to bring one along with her for the midnight prowling this time-and let it drop to the floor.

"So you're awake?" she asked, cocking her head, not moving out from the shadow of the dim yellow light.

Raffe's gaze flickered between her and Mom. Penryn moved to Raffe's side of the kitchen counter and edged between the two. She wasn't entirely sure which one she was trying to guard.

"Yes, ma'am," he said, standing up. He was at least smart enough to wipe that annoying smirk off his face. "Thank you for taking me in. I'm very grateful for your hospitality."

"How could we do otherwise?" Her mother shuffled closer to them. "The bible tells us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. We would never turn away an angel left on our doorstep."

"That's...well, thanks." Raffe looked at Penryn, clearly looking for some guidance.

She had to resist the urge to shrug. The angel stuff was new. Usually demons were her mother's favorite biblical subject.

"Of course, you might not be an angel at all. Demons are always looking for a way in…" Penryn almost flinched when her mother cupped her cheek, while still staring at Raffe. "Be sober, be vigilant. Because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour."

Her mother's nails dug lightly into Penryn's skin as she turned her unblinking gaze to her. "Keep the demons at bay, daughter."

With that, Penryn's mother turned on her heel and departed for the bedroom.

Penryn and Raffe stood in silence for a good minute after the door clicked shut behind Mom. Penryn went to the front door to check they were properly locked. They were. Another first. Sighing, she scooped up her mother's jacket off the floor and draped it over the couch.

Raffe broke the silence.

"Your mother is…"

"Yeah, I know."

"Does she always directly quote from the bible?"

"Probably. I can't really tell." There must be at least a dozen bibles lurking in different corners of the house right now, but she's never cracked one open in her life. The most extensive experience she ever had with the good book was using it to kill a cockroach.

"I wouldn't have pegged you for the religious type," she said.

"I'm not," he said. Penryn immediately stepped back as he moved towards the couch. As he casually settled back on that, she returned to her seat on the coffee table, with her father's gun pointing at Raffe once again.

Back in the original positions from the beginning of the night. Only he looked a hell of a lot of more relaxed this time.

"My brother was a God-fearing man, though," he continued. "He read the Bible to me every night for years and made sure my ass was in church every Sunday."

"Swell. The family that prays together, kills together."

"You would know." He nodded at her gun. "Isn't your arm getting tired?"

Yes. "No."

"Why was your mother out so late? Does she work nights?"

"No."

These past couple of months, Mom had picked up the habit of wandering around in the middle of the night. It scared the crap out of Penryn, especially since things in the city have gotten so bad lately. On top of that, their new home was in a way worse neighborhood than the condo they had moved out of a couple weeks ago. But no matter how much Penryn pleaded, she couldn't convince her mom to stay instead and Penryn couldn't afford to leave Paige all alone at home to look for Mom.

She couldn't stop Mom from running away from imaginary demons. She had to protect Paige from the actual bad guys. Even the ones that Paige brought home as if they were lost puppies.

"If you're gonna keep me tied up and hostage, can you at least try to speak in full sentences," he said. "Conversation with you is basically my only source of entertainment right now."

"Go to sleep if you're bored."

"Kind of hard to sleep with my hands taped together. Plus I think your mom might try to smother me in my sleep."

"She wouldn't do that." Probably. Mom's been getting more and more erratic lately, but she hasn't caused any serious damage. Yet.

"I was only kidding."

"It wasn't funny."

"Humor's not my strong suit. No one needs to be funny when they're this good looking."

"It must be exhausting to be so in love with yourself."

Not that Penryn could really blame him. God had probably taken a day off to sculpt such a perfect face-strong jaw, straight nose, long lovely eyelashes, full lips (though she tried not to linger on that too much). He had gorgeous caramel skin and a silky black mop of hair to match. On top of that, he had the physique of an Olympic swimmer. Even with all the injuries and tattoos littering his shoulders and chest, he was absurdly attractive.

And those eyes. Those blue, blue eyes.

Had she spent a few moments ogling him when he had been knocked out? Maybe. Between work, school, and her family there hadn't been time for dating this past year and it looked like her situation wasn't going to change anytime soon. It was no surprise that she found him as attractive as she did.

"I kind of really hate you," she said.

"That's good. It means you're not total idiot." He shifted to lay down on the couch, but squirmed as he tried to find a comfortable position. "I'll go to bed if you will."

"That'll be hard since you're the one sleeping on my bed," she said, nodding towards the couch.

Raffe raised his eyebrows. "Makes sense. It feels like this thing was built for munchkins, not normal-sized people."

A gunshot echoed distantly in the night, followed by a scream.

Penryn bit the inside of her cheek, trying to keep her expression neutral. She went over to the window. She peeked between the curtains, but only saw one of the goon's cars passing by once again.

"It's too far away for you to worry about," he said.

"This time."

For once, that shut him up. She opened the bedroom door a crack to see if the shots had woken Paige up. Thankfully, she sleeping. She had her little hand resting on Mom's cheek. Mom was curled up into a ball beside her, looking more peaceful asleep than she ever did awake.

They were safe. No thanks to her. Penryn nearly had a heart attack when she couldn't find Paige earlier that night. She couldn't stop imagining all the horrible things that could happen to a helpless little girl in a wheelchair in the dark. And her mother...she had finally stopped spending all day in bed crying only to start wandering around at night when all hell was breaking loose in the city. That she kept coming back home safely was a matter of sheer dumb luck.

And she had pulled them all out of the frying pan and chucked them straight into the fire. A hunted criminal was sitting in her living room. He was the enemy, he was the threat. And she was chatting with him like they were at a sleepover.

What was wrong with her?

"What happened to Mr. Wilbur?"

She snapped out of her internal spiral of gloom and doom.

"What?"

"The cat? Did you end up finding him?"

"It's Mr. Wilkens. And no. I'm pretty sure he ran away." Unless Mom had mistaken him for a demon in the middle of the night and iced him. Which probably hadn't happened.

Hopefully.

"That's too bad for your little sister. She's a sweet kid."

"She is."

"I guess niceness skips generations in your family."

"Can you stop making wisecracks?" Penryn sat cross-legged on the coffee table.

"Can you let my hands free?"

"No."

"Then no." He tried twisting his wrists inside the confines of the tape, but didn't have much luck. "Come on. Seriously, what am I going to do to you? We've already established that I'm going to be stuck here for a while and that I don't want to hurt you. Besides, you're the one with the gun."

"Yeah, I bet you're terrified of me."

"You do have a mean elbow jab. Where did you learn to fight anyway? Stealing the freshmen's lunch money?"

"I've been in self-defense classes for years. And I'm pretty sure that out of the two of us, you're more likely to have been the school bully."

"Can't be a bully when you've never been to school. And self-defense classes aren't that helpful. The only way you can learn is through experience in the heat of the moment."

"Yeah, I bet you got a lot of experience from running around and killing people."

"I did."

Penryn fought back a shudder. The worst part was how casually he said it.

No. The worst part was how easily she forgot. Again.

He was looking at her again, watching her reaction. There was no doubt or guilt clouding those clear blue eyes.

It must be so nice to not feel anything. Being a complete monster actually sounded tempting for once.

Penryn shifted to wrap her arms around her legs and rest her chin on her knees.

"Why?"

Raffe shrugged. "Why I've killed people? Mostly because they were trying to kill me. Or they were the scum of the earth. Sometimes-"

"I mean why do you this at all. Killing, crime, the Brotherhood...just why?"

"It's a living."

"Seriously? That's all you have to say?"

"You're getting way too philosophical about this. I do this because this is what I've always done."

"What you've always done? Were you brainwashed as a kid or something?"

"I was never brainwashed. It's about survival. And family. I was living on the street when Gabriel found me. He fed me, clothed me, gave me a home, gave me brothers."

"And he only asked you to become a criminal in return." Screw him and his patient, condescending tone.

"He never made me do anything I wasn't willing to do myself. It's not like you wouldn't understand. You'd do anything to protect your sister-"

"Don't." Penryn bit back the urge to scream at him and set the gun down next to her. Her fingers clenched as she laid her hand over the muzzle. "Don't you dare compare me and my sister to your twisted gang."

"You're ready to kill me in order to protect her. How is this any different?"

"It's different because Paige would never ask me to hurt anyone for her sake. And she definitely would never ask me to hurt people for money or drug or whatever the hell the Brotherhood wants."

"She's a little girl now. Her tune might change when she gets older."

Penryn didn't know whether to laugh at him or punch him. "You have no idea what you're talking about. The only reason you're here and alive is because of Paige insisted on helping you."

"And look how great that turned out for you," he said quietly.

They stared at each other in the dark for two heartbeats, three. Penryn dug her nails into the palms of her hand as the silence dragged on.

"Look, you can hate me if you want to," he said softly. "But I'm just trying to help you. This isn't about good guys versus bad guys. This is about survival. The sooner you realize that, the better off you will be."

Penryn fought back a sudden, burning lump in her throat. She bit the inside of her cheek again and breathed slowly through her nose.

I will not cry. I will not cry. I will not lose it in front of him.

Survival. Hadn't that been her mantra for the past year? Life hadn't been easy before, but ever since her dad hadn't left a year ago, things wouldn't stop falling apart. With Mom being in no state to work and no money left, they had to move out of the condo. The best they could afford that was anywhere near Paige's school was on Rosewater Street, or as the neighborhood was better known as, the Ruins. Even with her jobs, it was hard to make enough for rent and medication while still putting food on the table and going to high school. She would've dropped out if she didn't have only a few months left.

And it didn't help that she had lost her main job at the convenience store. It wasn't her fault that the place had been burned down in a new turf war, but she was screwed anyway.

No job, no money, no future.

Survival was her endgame. Too bad she sucked at it.

It was past three in the morning now. Only a couple more hours until daybreak. Maybe he'd be able to leave soon after that. If he had to stay until next nightfall, the stress might kill her.

They were both quiet after that. Raffe finally fell asleep after a while-his injuries taking their toll on his stamina. She had almost completely dozed off, too, until screeching police sirens yanked them out of sleep. Raffe had jumped up again, but Penryn had shoved him back on the couch and watched the police cars whiz down the street from behind the curtains.

They both let out a breath of relief when the sound of the sirens faded off into the distance.

"Shit." Raffe scrubbed his hands over his face. At some point in the night, he had managed to wrangle off the duct tape. Sneaky bastard, but she couldn't bring herself to give him grief over it. If he could get out one time, she could get out again.

"Do you want to use the bathroom?" she asked.

"Christ, yes."

She gestured to the room she had shoved him into the police came. He berated her for refusing to close the door, but hey she kept her back turned, didn't she?

"Can we at least watch some TV?" he asked, drumming his fingers on the arm of the couch.

"We don't have one."

"That's downright un-American."

"We don't need a TV when we already have a laptop."

"Tiny-ass computer screens don't do it for me."

"What would you watch anyway?"

"Law and Order."

She rolled her eyes. "Ha ha. That's hilarious."

"I'm not kidding. I love that show. And nature documentaries are my shit."

"Fine. Don't tell me if you don't want to."

"What? Thought I'd be into Breaking Bad and The Sopranos?"

"Well...yeah."

"I'm not that big of a cliche. I like The Walking Dead, too."

She made a face. "Apocolypse stuff. Not for me."

"What is for you?"

She shrugged. "I'm not really into TV. I'm more of a movie person. Particularly Disney and Pixar." Why had she admitted that? She already was having trouble intimidating him.

"Let me guess-your favorite is Mulan?"

She cocked an eyebrow. "What, is it because I'm Asian?"

"A little bit. Mostly because you're always trying to give off the warrior woman vibe."

Trying and failing. And Mulan was only her third favorite Disney movie. "Wrong. My favorite is Wall-e."

He groaned. "You have got to be kidding me. Half the movie was him squeaking and repeating wall-e over and over again."

"Alright, what's your favorite then?"

"Peter Pan." He grinned. "I would love to fly."

There was no way. No way that someone like him had watched Wall-e and Peter Pan. And there was no way in hell that they were actually having a conversation about the best Disney movies. It was too weird.

And yet, that's exactly what they did. About movies and food and just general random things. They managed to talk their way around the massive elephant in the room for the rest of the night and well into the morning. It was so easy it was absurd.

It shouldn't be this pleasant to talk to members of the mafia. Seriously.

Of course, she didn't put away her gun until Paige came out. After that, she had made them all breakfast. The parade of bizarre reached its climax when they had all ended up on the couch, watching Tangled of all thing.

And that was because Raffe had insisted on watching that rather than Frozen.

What. The. Actual. Hell.

"You could wipe that dumb expression off your face," Raffe whispered shile Paige was in the bathroom. "Your baby sister probably thinks you're having a stroke or something."

"I think I might actually be having a stroke," she whispered back. "Or you knocked me out so hard I'm now hallucinating."

"Relax. I might be a tough guy, but I can adapt. Paige clearly runs this house, so I'll follow her rules. She wants this Disney shit, we watch Disney shit."

Penryn would have objected to the idea of her eight-year old sister being the boss, but she couldn't really argue. Raffe was still here, wasn't he?

Early that afternoon, Paige was picked up for a sleepover at her friend's house. Penryn made her promise not to say anything about Raffe and let her cheerfully say her goodbyes to a bemused Raffe.

Penryn checked on her mother, who was still curled in bed fast asleep.

"Should we wake her up?" Raffe asked.

"No, I don't think that would be a good idea." Her mother was too unpredictable these days.

"Smart." He fiddled with a silver ring on his pinky finger. It was so weird seeing him in her father's old clothes. They were way less conspicuous than the bloody rags he'd been left with last night, but they still didn't fit him quite right. Particularly since Raffe's shirt declared him to be the champion of the intercity amateur bowling league.

"Here." Penryn tugged off her old sweatshirt and handed it to him. It was a couple sizes too big for her, but it might fit him. "Take this."

He gave her a look she couldn't read. She rubbed her hands up and down her bare arms, cold now that she was down to a thin tank. "Look, it's unisex and black. No one's going to think you look girly in it and less conspicuous than the shirt.

"Fine."

"Do you think it's safe to leave now?" she asked as he tugged it over his head.

He winced as he maneuvered his hurt shoulder to get his arm to fit through the sleeve. "It's as safe as it'll get. The patrols have stopped, but they might start again at night. I doubt going out in the dark will help me that much. And I need to get going as soon as possible. I've wasted too much time already."

She almost asked him why he was in such a hurry, but then remembered it didn't matter. She shouldn't care.

"Just don't get caught," she said as they stood at the back door of her house. "And if you do, don't drag my family down with you."

"You're such a sweetheart. Don't ever lose that quality."

"Whatever." She bit her lip. "There's….there's an abandoned church a couple blocks away. One the corner of Robb and Hart. It might be a good place to lie low in case you need it."

"Thanks." He didn't seem to know where to look either. "You don't need to help me this much."

"Yeah." She felt her cheeks grow warm.

"You're pretty nice for someone who claims to hate me."

"Kind of. I kind of hate you." She cleared her throat and crossed her arms. "Well, I'd say see you later, but I really hope that never happens."

His lip twitched and his eyes swept over her face, as if he were trying to memorize her features.

"Have a nice life, Penryn."

"You, too, Raffe."

If she were Paige, this is the part where she would've hugged him and wished him luck.

Instead, she unlocked the back door and watched him hop over the fence into her neighbor's yard.

With that, he was gone from her life. As quickly and simply as he had come crashing into it.

Penryn ignored the little twinge in her heart and focused on the relief blooming through her chest.

"Good luck, Raffe," she whispered to herself.

Sorry this took so long! I probably won't be able to update again in the next two weeks, but I'll always try to update at least once a month. Sorry if there were some grammatical errors-I'll fix them in a little bit. As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts and constructive criticism.