AN: In a lot of ways, I am very proud of this chapter. I hope you enjoy :)

"Can't we reschedule this?" Rosa asked, letting her annoyance color her tone more than she probably should have. She stared at Diego as he put the enchiladas in the oven, arms crossed and trying not to tap her foot.

"No," Diego forcefully replied. "We've rescheduled with them like five times because of work anyway, we can't do it again. And besides, I just put the enchiladas in the oven." Diego exaggeratedly gestured towards the food.

"How can you be so calm about this? Even if it was just the greedy janitor looking for a quick payday, someone took pictures of evidence in an active police investigation and gave them to the media. And the two victims in question are still out there, unaccounted for, possibly being assaulted as we speak. And yet we're here, waiting for our cousin to come over for dinner, when he literally only asked for it to be tonight a few hours ago. How can you be okay with that?" she asked again. Rosa didn't know how Diego could focus on anything other than those two boys. She had been spending every spare minute of her life pouring over the case files, trying to find anything that would tell her where those boys were, and yet Diego was insisting that they couldn't cancel their dinner plans.

"We are not the only people looking for them," Diego said firmly, though not unkindly. "I am one of five detectives now on the case, plus the FBI may be getting involved now that the case has made national news. It sucks that Channel 7 did that, but now, those two boys are on every TV station in the United States. It's not every day that a weatherman punches a news anchor on live TV. So, for better or for worse, the Snatcher is a national case now. There are people, more qualified than either one of us, trying to find those kids as we speak. It's okay for us to take a break and have dinner with our cousin that we haven't seen in like six months, despite living in the same freaking city."

Rosa sighed.

"Okay, well to be fair, the only reason we haven't seen him in six months is because we keep rescheduling," Rosa added, despite knowing that that didn't help her argument. It was in fact due to her job and Diego's that they hadn't seen their cousin in so long. Every time they had a date set to get together, either she or Diego would have to cancel because of a big case, or getting called in for mandatory overtime, or getting sucked into a longer shift because of a late arrest, or any number of excuses that kept them at work and away from their extended family.

"Even more reason why we can't reschedule a sixth time," Diego said with a self satisfied smirk.

"Yeah, yeah," Rosa grumbled, turning away from her brother with a roll of her eyes and walking towards the table. With family coming over, they really needed to clean up. Neither Villarreal sibling was a slob, but with their work schedules, it was easy to let household chores get away from them.

Rosa got to work on cleaning their apartment while Diego worked in the kitchen. He was a better cook than her, whether she liked to admit it or not. His enchiladas always turned out better than hers, even though they both followed the same recipe from their abuela's abuela. Rosa didn't know what could possibly be so different about it when she made it versus when Diego did, but for some reason, his just always turned out better.

The apartment was filled with the mouthwatering scent of cumin and chili powder as Rosa set the table and poured a few glasses of Riesling and placed them with the silverware. The side dishes were prepared and ready to be served, and the enchiladas were almost ready to come out of the oven.

"They better hurry up before this gets cold," Diego muttered from the kitchen. Rosa was saved from having to reply by a knock at the door.

"Relax, that's probably them," she said, walking over to the door with Diego a few steps behind her. As expected, she opened the door to the smiling face of her cousin. "Miguel!" she greeted with a large smile of her own. She opened her arms and embraced him as he stepped through the door.

"Rosie, hi," he said, returning the embrace. Miguel turned to Diego. "Dude, how are you?" he asked, then the two shared a much more brief embrace before Miguel handed a bouquet of flowers to Rosa. "These are for you," he said. "And I'd like you both to meet my partner, James." He stepped to the side to reveal a white man in his late twenties, probably Diego's age. He was taller than all of them, and had blond hair and blue eyes. He also had a bright smile and a bottle of tequila in his hands.

"For the both of you," James said, still smiling while holding out the bottle to Diego.

"Nice to finally meet you," Diego said, returning the smile. He shook James' hand, then Rosa did the same with a smile of her own.

"Well you two go ahead and sit, I'll put these in a vase while Diego gets the food," Rosa suggested, then walked back into the kitchen, pondering just why James looked so familiar. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Miguel and James taking seats at the table, talking softly enough to each other that she couldn't overhear them if she tried. Diego came back into the kitchen to pull the enchiladas out of the oven. "Do you think James looks familiar at all?" she asked her brother as quietly as she could.

"Oh, definitely," Diego quietly but confidently responded. "He looks like every other generic white guy I've ever seen in my life."

Rosa set the vase on the counter and glared at him.

"That's not what I mean and you know it," she said, annoyed with him once again. She poured water into the vase and got to work on snipping off the ends of the stems.

"I know," Diego said. He turned the oven off with one hand while he held the enchiladas with an oven mitt in the other. "Maybe? Like I said, he does look pretty generic." Diego shrugged and brought the enchiladas over to the table.

Rosa rolled her eyes and brought the vase over as well, carefully placing it as the centerpiece, then took a seat next to her brother. She brought her hands up and folded them together, and looked at Diego expectantly as he did the same.

"If it's all the same to you," Miguel said. "We don't do that. No offense."

Rosa could see Diego bristle slightly at the comment.

"None taken," she quickly said, then closed her eyes and said a prayer to herself as Diego did the same. Upon opening her eyes, she saw that Miguel and James had already begun helping themselves to the enchiladas. Rosa began serving herself some rice while Diego took the beans.

"Not to start anything," Diego carefully said. "But when did you stop saying grace? And why?" he asked, staring directly at Miguel.

"Dude," Rosa sighed, reaching for her Riesling and taking a large swallow. Whether or not she agreed with Miguel, it wasn't any of their business if he still prayed or went to mass or confession. Diego just shrugged his shoulders and took some of the enchiladas for himself.

"It's fine," Miguel answered with a smile. "It's been a long time, really, but I stopped for good about six months ago." He shrugged and kept on smiling. "I got sick of all the arbitrary rules and not being true to who I am, because that's really what's important to me. I am who I am and if God doesn't like that then He shouldn't have made me this way." Miguel clasped James' hand in his own, making what he left unspoken quite clear, despite not needing to with them. "Anything that He doesn't like, He still lets exist, so why should I care what He likes or doesn't? I'd rather decide for myself." Miguel shrugged again and took a bite of enchilada. "This is delicious," he said around a mouthful of food. "This Abuela's recipe?"

"Yes, Diego still makes it better than anyone but Abuela herself," Rosa quickly responded. As much as Miguel's answer disappointed her, she really didn't think that having a serious religious discussion five minutes into seeing him for the first time in six months - and meeting his boyfriend for the first time - was a good time to talk about it. "I don't know what I do wrong with it, but somehow his always turns out better than mine." Rosa shrugged and took another bite of the beans, forcing down a gag at the texture while she forced polite conversation. Beans had never been her thing, but she always tried to eat just a little bit of them anyway, hoping each time that it would be easier and they would taste better. They never did.

"So how's that Snatcher case going?" Miguel asked around a mouthful of food. "It's your department working that case, right?"

Diego cringed, setting down his cutlery.

"I'd rather not-."

"Oh, come on," Miguel interrupted. "You get to ask me why I left the Church and I give you an answer, but I can't ask you about work? How is that fair?"

"Fine," Diego said through clenched teeth. He took a breath and a sip of his Riesling. Rosa ate another bite of rice. "Yes, it's our department, but I can't talk about my active cases-."

"That's your case?" James interrupted, slowly setting his fork down as his attention was fixed on Diego.

"Yeah, mine and like five other detectives, and soon enough the FBI now that the case is getting national attention," Diego admitted. He relaxed a bit, and took another bite of food. Rosa took another sip.

"I saw the news talking about two kids," James continued, moving his food around on his plate without actually taking a bite. "Awfully young aren't they?"

"We don't know who's a victim and who's not," Rosa interjected. "But they do fit the victimology, so it's better to treat them as victims now, while we still have a chance at saving them."

Miguel let out a slight chuckle.

"You know how kids are," he said, taking a big swig of his Riesling. "They get in trouble all the time, and you can't always save them. Some kids just can't be saved." Miguel shrugged and gave Rosa half a smile from behind his wine glass.

Rosa wasn't entirely sure how to respond. Was Miguel trying to say that it wasn't worth it to try to save them?

"Still, these are children," she hesitantly said, enchilada momentarily forgotten. "These are high school kids with bright futures ahead of them. I've spoken with their family and their friends. Drake loves music and singing and playing the guitar in his band, and Josh is a genius, ranked number two in his class, beat out only by his own girlfriend. These kids aren't out getting drunk and doing drugs and going to parties. They're good kids, and I'm gonna do everything I can to save them. And yes, I may not be able to. But if all I find are their bodies, I'm still gonna work every moment I can to find the son of the bitch who raped and killed a child and make him pay for what he's done. Justice. That's the job." Rosa let her words ring in the air for a moment before reaching for her Riesling and taking several long sips. This dinner hadn't been a good idea.

"Of course," Miguel said, his friendly smile still on his face. "I didn't mean anything by it." He took another bite of his enchilada, and didn't look away from Rosa until she offered him an apologetic smile in return.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to go off on you or anything, I just wanna help those kids," she said. Rosa forced herself to take a breath. They were supposed to be bonding with their cousin, not pushing him away again.

"I know, but you're my baby cousin, and I just want you to be realistic," Miguel continued with a shrug. "Some kids bring this type of thing on themselves, ya know? Some boys should know what danger they're in and act accordingly, and they don't."

"Are you saying-?"

"Who's up for some of that tequila?" Diego loudly interrupted, his chair scraping against the floor as he pushed himself back from the table. Rosa forced herself to take another breath. They weren't supposed to be arguing, even if Miguel was turning into some victim blaming asshole. He'd always been a little self-righteous, but this was so much worse than she remembered. But at least, based on Diego's interruption, she wasn't the only one feeling the tension from it.

"Well if you're both working on the case, you've gotta have some leads, right?" James asked.

"We can't talk about that," Rosa said instead of telling the full truth, that they really didn't have any leads. She didn't really want to discuss the case at all anymore anyway, after what Miguel had said. Rosa pushed the rest of her food away and took another sip of wine instead. Her cousin's comments had turned off her appetite.

"You gotta be able to say something," James insisted. "What do you think connects those boys to all the others?" Miguel shot him a look, but Rosa decided to answer anyway. It would probably just make things more awkward if she insisted on dropping the subject. Besides, it wasn't as if the answer weren't obvious.

"Just by looking at them and the rest of the victims," Rosa answered with a shrug. "They all have the same general look to them, even if they don't look identical. They're all young, attractive, dark haired, white, with clear skin, but other than that they don't necessarily resemble each other. And yet, there's just something about each one that makes them similar anyway."

"They're all pretty twinks," James said around a laugh. Miguel shot him another look, but he just kept smiling, even as Rosa cringed. "Yeah, they're all quite beautiful, I've seen them," he said, something longing in his gaze and tone that made Rosa's skin crawl.

"The two missing kids are just kids," she reiterated. "They're children."

"Of course," James answered, still smiling. "I'm not saying it's right, I'm just pointing out the facts. Your missing boys are pretty."

"James!" Miguel scolded, right as Diego came back with four shot glasses and the bottle of tequila. He quickly broke the seal and began pouring.

Rosa didn't understand what Miguel's problem with James was, when Miguel himself had been saying some pretty disgusting things only a minute earlier. It was just as disgusting when it had been Miguel. She and Miguel used to be close, but now, Rosa didn't really want to be around him, and she certainly didn't want James to become part of the family. She really didn't want anything to do with him. He seemed like a pervert.

"Alright, shots for everybody, I think we all need one, or two or maybe three for some of us," he said, his voice trailing off. Diego shoved a shot glass in each of their directions, and, in unison, all four of them raised their glasses just slightly, except for James, who raised his much higher.

"Salud!" he said, before tossing his shot back. The other three did the same, all cringing - none of them were cringing at the alcohol.

"No more work talk," Diego said, forcing a smile that he clearly didn't feel as he sat back down at the table. "And no bad Spanish either."

"Can we agree on that?" Miguel asked, looking right next to him at James. He was staring daggers at his boyfriend, who still held a self satisfied smirk - until he finally made eye contact with Miguel. James dropped the smile, and dropped his gaze.

"Yeah, that's fine," he said, his tone much more subdued as he went back to his rice.

Conversation was stilted after that, but even after a few more shots had been taken by some, the awkwardness didn't completely go away. Everyone tried to make conversation, but they all knew things had been made just too awkward by what James had said.

Despite that, they all suffered through another hour of forced conversation, with a heavy helping of Riesling and tequila - except for Miguel, who said he was driving home, and thus didn't drink quite as much as everyone else did.

After her third shot, Rosa finally felt herself beginning to relax. She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms, taking another look at James. He really did look so familiar. Rosa's eyes widened in shock as her alcohol-addled mind managed to put it together. James was in the CCTV footage from the gas station.

"Hey, what were you doing Saturday night?" she asked him, just for fun. She tried to keep the smile off her face and seem serious, but the tequila and Riesling wouldn't let her. James, to his credit, pulled off looking shocked and confused very well, as did Miguel.

"What do you mean?" James asked, looking between her and Miguel.

"Like where were you Saturday evening, on the night in question?" she asked again, leaning in closer towards him, still unable to stop smiling. Why hadn't she started taking shots earlier? This was way more fun, and it helped her to put aside the disgusting things he'd said earlier.

"We were at home all night," Miguel answered for him, pushing away both their wine and shot glasses. He didn't sound amused. "Why?"

"Rosa, go drink some water," Diego said, despite the fact that he himself was pouring another shot.

"Nah, I will later, this makes this night a lot easier," Rosa said, stealing the shot from her brother's hand and downing it. Diego just looked at her, sighed, and poured himself another as he shook his head. "Come on guys, we can still have fun. Just because things started weird doesn't mean they have to end weird." Rosa was met with silence. She groaned and took another large sip of her Riesling, finishing it.

If it were even possible, things were even more awkward as the four of them sat in silence. Rosa tilted her head and squinted at Miguel as she realized what he'd said. Rosa had only been joking when she'd asked James where he'd been on Saturday night, but Miguel had lied.

"Why are you lying to me?" Rosa asked around a slight giggle. Maybe she shouldn't have taken that last shot after all. "You weren't at home all night on Saturday."

"Thank you for dinner," Miguel suddenly said, abruptly standing up and pulling James up with him. "It was wonderful. We'll have to do this again sometime." He couldn't have sounded less enthused if he'd tried.

"Hey, hey, wait," Diego said, holding out his hand towards them, but not standing up himself. "Are you sure you're good to drive?" he asked. "'Cause we can call a taxi if you need it."

"It's fine," Miguel insisted. "Good seeing you guys."

Miguel and James left without another word, leaving Rosa and Diego still drunkenly seated at the table. Rosa let her head fall over towards Diego.

"That went well," she said. Rosa couldn't help but laugh and shake her head. At least she and Diego had tried. It wasn't their fault that their cousin and his boyfriend weren't good company. "Let me at least make sure they make it to their car okay. James was pretty drunk too." Rosa got up and made it over to the window without stumbling. She saw James and Miguel appear in the parking lot below, neither one stumbling around drunk. That was good at least. They did appear to be having some heated discussion, but Rosa didn't care about their drama. Once they were inside and the doors to the silver Hummer were closed, Rosa shrugged her shoulders and turned around, walking into the kitchen for some water.

Diego was already in the kitchen, doing the bare minimum to clean up in his slightly intoxicated state. He'd had as much to drink as Rosa, but he was also significantly larger than she was.

"I wonder why he lied," she pondered, leaning against the counter. She would get water later.

"What do you mean?"

"Miguel, he lied," Rosa clarified. "They couldn't have been home all night on Saturday, or at least James couldn't have been. That's where I recognized him from. He was in the CCTV footage at the gas station. So he couldn't have been home all night, but Miguel said that they both were. Miguel lied." Rosa pushed herself off the counter and grabbed a clean glass. She really did need water.

"I don't know," Diego sighed. "He could've lied for any reason, and it's not like he's under criminal investigation. He's our cousin that we clearly don't get along with all that well, so there's any number of things they could've been really doing that they wouldn't want us to know about." Diego shrugged.

Rosa filled the glass with water and took several long sips. She was trying to think, but quickly found that she didn't know exactly what she was supposed to be thinking about. Oh well, she would figure it out in the morning, when she was sober.

"Wanna watch a movie? Eat some popcorn?" she recommended. After a moment, Diego shrugged again and nodded.

"Sure, I just gotta check my email first," Diego said. "My friend in the lab said she'd put a rush on the tire track ID for me, and she might have it in by now."

"Oooooooh it's a she?" Rosa teased, following her brother out of the kitchen and into the study, where he plopped down into the swivel chair, unable to hide his slight blush.

Rosa leaned heavily against the chair as Diego pulled up his email, and opened the new one from the crime lab. She just scanned it until she saw the list of possible vehicle matches. Rosa groaned. It wasn't a short list, and it was a mix of pickup trucks and SUVs, like the Chevy Silverado, Land Rover Defender, Hummer H3, and even the Ford F-250. It was better than nothing, but it certainly wasn't a lot.

"Something's better than nothing," Diego muttered. "I'll thank her later. Now go make popcorn, I'll pick a movie." Diego stood and kept his footing as he moved back into the living room, Rosa following him then parting off to the kitchen.

"Don't pick something gross," Rosa groaned as she grabbed the popcorn and opened the microwave. She put a bag in and stared at it as it spun around in slow circles. It felt like their whole investigation into the Snatcher was going in circles. No matter what they found, it just didn't matter, and those boys were still missing. Rosa shuddered at the memory of what James had said about the boys. If her own cousin and boyfriend could be such creeps towards those children, how much more awful was their true captor?

Miguel seethed as he stormed down the hallway, James on his tail. How could James have been so stupid? Pointing out why the kids were taken? Stumbling over an excuse to where they had been on Saturday night? Why had his cousins even asked? What had James done this time to raise their suspicion? The night had been going so well. Miguel had been sure that the idiot police were chasing their own tails and had no clue about them whatsoever, but clearly, he was at least somewhat wrong if Rosa had thought to ask James where he'd been. There was the possibility that the girl had just been messing around after having too much to drink, but Miguel couldn't bet on that. He hadn't been getting away with it for this long by assuming.

"Chill out, it's fine," James muttered, following Miguel into the elevator and leaning heavily against the handrail. "They don't know anything."

"They know something!" Miguel retorted, furious as his partner. How could James not be taking this seriously? Maybe he'd been wrong to involve him at all. He didn't need James, he never had. He could have and maybe should have done this on his own. James was the one who needed him. A drunk and high one night stand after a night at the club had turned into discussing their darkest fantasies, and now, here they were, over six months later, living them out. It should've stayed a one night stand, and Miguel should have done this alone.

"She was just drunk and pretending to be a detective," James answered around a groan, rolling his eyes. "It's Diego that's the detective anyway, not her. She's not actually involved in the case at all, and the one who is, didn't seem interested in us for it anyway. They don't have a clue. We're fine. I just panicked for a second, but we're fine. If you're pissed at me, you have to be pissed at yourself too. You brought it up and you weren't exactly subtle in my opinion."

"You're an idiot," Miguel muttered. He pushed past James the moment the elevator opened. "This is what happens when you don't listen to me. We're gonna have to speed things up, or move them, or even just get rid of them and stop for a while." Miguel didn't turn to look at James as he stormed out the front doors of the apartment building.

"No, we're not doing that," James refused.

Miguel stopped where he was as James walked past him.

"Excuse me? Did you just tell me 'no'? Because I think you know better than to tell me 'no'," Miguel seethed.

"Oh yes, I did," James said with a chuckle and a manic grin. "I'm not one of your little parishioners in the basement. I get to tell you 'no' whenever I want." His grin turned dark. "I don't have to worship you," he mocked.

Miguel's fist was hitting James' jaw before he even realized he'd clenched it. James stumbled back a few steps, putting his hand to his lip. It came away bloody. He grinned again, blood staining his teeth.

"You can't control me," he said, arms spread wide as he shook his head and kept backing towards the car.

"You never would've made it this far without me!" Miguel shouted, getting his finger in James' face. He stormed past him once again and threw open the car door. Once James climbed in next to him and slammed the door closed, he continued. "You would've been caught a long time ago without my help and you know it."

"You have never given me credit for anything! I do just as much for us as you do!"

"Just stop talking," Miguel said. "I'm done discussing this."

"You don't get to just choose things for the both of us anymore. We're partners in this. If I go down, so do you, so I suggest you start treating me like your equal for once," James continued.

Miguel ignored him. He turned up the music in the Hummer and refused to respond to anything that James said. He was done. James didn't get to put them in jeopardy because of his carelessness and just get away with it. So Miguel was done. If James was going to do that, then have the audacity to not know his place in their partnership, then he wasn't going to get to have his toys. Miguel would find a new boy to worship him later. As excited as he had been for those two beautiful boys in the cage, he didn't mind killing them without getting to fuck either one of them if that meant that James would learn his lesson. So, purified or not, that's what was going to happen. Miguel would slit their pretty throats and dump them in a landfill or something. It had to be different. He couldn't leave them naked in the desert like he wanted to, no matter how wrong it felt not to. These boys couldn't have any trace to the San Diego Snatcher whatsoever.

The moment the Hummer was in the garage, Miguel turned the car off and marched into the house, once again ignoring James shouting behind him that they needed to talk. Miguel went straight into the kitchen and grabbed the chef's knife out of the block.

"Miguel, this is stupid, stop!" James shouted. Miguel opened the basement door and walked down the stairs. "We can talk about this! You- you don't have to kill them, not yet, please," James begged. Miguel grinned, despite himself. He loved to hear someone beg.

Miguel slid back the deadbolt and threw the door open. The boys were awake, still chained to opposite sides of the cage, unable to give each other the comfort that they clearly craved - purification drawn from suffering. He noticed the moment that the boys noticed the large knife in his hand. Josh's eyes went wide and Drake's breathing visibly picked up as he strained against the handcuffs to get further away from Miguel, and closer to his brother. It didn't work.

"There's been a change of plans," he said.

The brothers paled.

Miguel grinned.