Theo did not look very comforted, but took the seat next to Wendy that Roderick offered him and got a piecemeal accounting of the home invasion with commentary from the kids. Bruno kept the story superficial and let the kids play up their parts; it would help them process the traumatic events to put them in context. Theo didn’t appear to judge Bruno harshly for hiding instead of fighting,and he clapped Darius on the shoulder for his quick thinking.
“You were lucky,” he observed.
“I’m lucky,” Tara whispered.
“I have a theory,” Bruno offered. “I think that kids are more connected to instinct than we are as adults. As we grow, we develop autonomy and self-control, and that can hinder our hearing of subtle magical suggestions. But they are still learning impulse control, and instinct is often just that. An impulse, a compulsion, even. As an adult, we’d try to analyze it. They just…go with it. That’s why they were able to coordinate such a successful attack.”
“What about you guys?” Clarice asked hesitantly. “Did you get what you needed?”
“We destroyed the lab, got about a dozen people in custody. No one was hurt badly. They’re just mopping things up now, making sure no one got away and getting rid of any information that might come back to haunt us. Juliette said to continue the low profile and to stay here another night at least.”
“Veronica?”
Bruno didn’t need to be a psychiatrist to pick up on Theo’s sudden awkwardness. “We found her,” he said flatly.
“She’s okay?”
“She wasn’t hurt,” Theo said, which wasn’t quite the same thing.
“I’m TIRED,” Gil declared.
Like a dam breaking, all the kids ran out of steam at once, and not one of them argued when Cherry, Addison, and Vivian started rounding them up for turns in the bathroom, carefully rationing what remained of the toilet paper.
Rather than leaving the kids alone under Darius’s carein the romp room for the night, they split them into rooms with adults and took turns keeping watch. Bruno and Clarice took the first shift to let the others hopefully sleep off the last effects of the tranquilizers.
The house went quiet at last, eerie and still.
“We’re going to be hungry tomorrow,” Clarice observed. “We’re really low on a lot of things.”
The safe house came with some games, so they played cards at the table to pass the time, and talked. They started with safe subjects—Clarice worried for her cat and Bruno told stories about Gil. They played a round of cribbage, which Bruno handily won, then switched to Gin Rummy and wandered into deeper topics as the hours stretched on. Clarice told him more about her struggles with self-esteem as a middle child and Bruno confessed his guilt over his rocky relationship with Gil’s mother.
“I’m not perfect,” he said, honesty like a beast with claws on his shoulders as he took the card that Clarice had discarded. “I can’t blame Tracy for leaving. I’m still mad about it, but I’m not blameless, either. I feel worse for Gil. Like I should have tried harder, for his sake.”
“Gil has all the family he needs,” Clarice pointed out, choosing to draw a card on her turn. “You are agreatdad. Need a queen?”
“When he was in danger, I might as well have been a possum playing dead,” Bruno said, voicing the shame that had been dogging him all night. He picked up the queen.
“If you hadn’t, you would have gotten drugged right along with everyone else and been no use to anyone. Heroics aren’t always helpful.” Clarice might say she lacked confidence, but she was clear-headed and full of conviction when it mattered. “Blaming yourself for doing what happened to be the right thing doesn’t serve any purpose. I’m the queen of second-guessing myself, sobelieve me when I say it’s not productive. Gil is okay. All the kids are okay. No one got hurt. You were averygood ball.”
Bruno had to laugh at the way she said it, the way he said it to Gil. “You are exactly what I needed in my life,” he said in wonder. “I do this for everyone else and it’s nice to have someone who’s there to tell me what I already know. There’s the last queen! I’m out!”
He only caught her with an unpaired two, and she took the following hand to catch him with two jacks, a queen, and a king that wouldn’t make a run.
It was the most natural thing in the world to put his hand across the table and rest it on hers.
“Are you my boyfriend?” Clarice asked shyly. “That’s what you told the men at the mansion.”
“I’d like to be,” Bruno confessed. “I’d like that a lot.”
“Me, too,” Clarice said. The poor light couldn’t hide her blush. She turned her hand over so that they were clasping and he could rub his thumb at the base of her palm.
“You didn’t wake me up,” Vivian said accusingly from the door to the dining room. “Roderick and I were supposed to take the second shift two hours ago.”
Bruno didn’t take his hand back, and Clarice didn’t either. Why shouldn’t he hold hisgirlfriend’shand? “I didn’t realize it was so late,” he admitted. “And it’s good for you to get some extra sleep.”
Vivian made a grumpy noise. “I’m going to check in on our unwelcome visitors and give them another dose if they need it. I hope Juliette gets some data on that knock-out drug; I’m sure it’s not good for them to be continually dosed, but I’m not interested in having them awake and with their wits about them before the agency gets back to take them into custody. It’s probably less harmful thanRoderick’s plan to hit them in the head every time they woke up, if not as satisfying.”
She vanished as quietly as she’d come in and was replaced by the shadowy form of Gil. “Daddy? I’m thirsty.”
