Page 83 of The Chaperones

Cassie’s turned away from me. I can’t see her face, but her back flinches. The formidable Cassie Bent cowers. Even she is scared of her brother.

“Why was she looking for you?” Cassie asks, then turns from her brother to Emmy. When she sees Emmy, still coiled on the ground, she lets the gun fall at her side. “Why were you looking for my brother?”

Emmy doesn’t respond, can’t respond. She’s hyperventilating. Without thinking, I rush to her, flinching as I put too much weight on my left ankle. I charge through the pain and kneel down to comfort her.

“Breathe,” I say.

“What the fuck is she doing here?” Travis motions toward me with his chin.

“I . . . it’s a long story. Travis, why was she looking for you? With a gun?”

“On the rocks,” Emmy says over labored breath. “Pushed her.” I hold her tighter as she starts to quake, her breath ragged again. And then she starts to scream. It’s animalistic, caged, desperate.

I hold her tighter, my eyes trained on Cassie, whose attention is fully on her brother. He stares back at her. She squints at him as he remains stoic. Emmy is crying uncontrollably now, and I cradle her. “It’s okay. It’s okay.” Even I can hear how hollow my words are.

“What is she talking about?” Cassie asks.

“Me and Stella. We had a fight.”

“You hurt Stella?”

“No, I didn’t hurt Stella. She was just upset. Misunderstood things. We were talking, and she got too close to the edge. I tried to catch her, but it was dark. I didn’t realize how close she was.”

“You pushed her.” Cassie steps toward her brother, her face contorted in horror. He’s not meeting her eye. Instead, he’s hyperfocused on the gun she keeps pointed at him. “And Emmy? You raped her.” She bellows. Gutturally. Godly.

“No.”

“I believed you.”

“Because I was telling the truth.”

“I supported you. And you raped her.”

“That’s not what happened.” He isn’t pleading anymore. He’s angry, jabbing his finger toward Emmy, a scared child in my arms. “She ruined my life.”

“I trusted you. I gave you a job. And made you my partner.”

“You gave me what I was owed. You’d be nothing without me.” He’s too angry. I don’t like that he’s so angry, that Cassie doesn’t seem to notice.

“And Marissa? Tiffany?” She starts rattling off names, more names than are in the file. With every name, she inches the gun closer to her brother until she’s no more than a few feet from him.

“Cass? Let’s calm down, all right?” He gestures with his hands for her to relax and steps toward her. “You know I would never hurt anyone. They just—they didn’t understand me.”

Cassie scratches her head with the butt of the gun. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much pain on a person’s face. For his part, Travis appears tortured too. It garners no sympathy from me.

Travis and Cassie continue to implore each other, silently communing as an understanding forms between them. I watch them, as frozen as Emmy is in my arms, unsure what’s going to happen when one of them turns away.

Suddenly, Emmy screams so loudly I feel her voice radiate inside me like it’s coming from my own body.

“No,” she shouts, as Travis pushes Cassie and reaches for the gun.