“Hmm,” I said, wondering if he’d come in here to discuss his brother’s sexuality.
“So, are you, like, the leader around here?”
“For now.”
“You’re banged up pretty good.” He nodded to my janky arm.
“Hazards of the job,” I said.
He cleared his throat and shifted in his seat, building up to something. “Well, my friends and I, we want to stay,” he said at last.
“I figured that’s why you came here.”
“I didn’t expect to find this place so…” He trailed off and made a motion with his hand.
“Fortified?” I suggested.
“Yeah. You’ve done an incredible job. And you’ve got weapons.” He glanced again at my personal stash, and that need to protect what was mine rose again within me. I’d never felt like I had to lock up my shit before, but I certainly would moving forward.
“We do have weapons,” I said, still eyeing him, trying to decipher his true intent.
“I just wanted you to know, we’ll pull our own weight. All of us are hard workers.”
The fact that most of them survived the trek here spoke to their survival skills and ability to work as a team, but I didn’t want to give him any false hope. “It’s not up to me alone, Santiago. It’s the will of the group. That’s how we do things around here.”
“But you have a lot of sway.”
“I’m only one vote,” I reminded him.
“Joshua wants us to stay.”
“Joshua wantsyouto stay,” I corrected.
“Well, I’m not abandoning my friends. We’re a unit, just like you guys.”
I appreciated him not selling out his friends, but it also came across as pretty self-serving, to come in here and try to persuade me to his side.
“Did you want to know anything about how your brother’s been since you last saw him?” I asked. “Or why we left PromisedLand?” Not that I’d tell him. It was up to Kitten whether he wanted to share that story.
“Of course I want to know how my brother’s been. But he looks good. Seems well-fed. Must have grown five inches.”
“He has been good,” I said.
“Do you want me to thank you or something?” he asked.
“No, I just want you to give a shit.”
His expression turned stormy, and his hands balled into fists on his lap. It reminded me of Kitten when he got angry. Must run in the family. “Well, I do give a shit. Obviously. He’s my brother. Things haven’t been easy for me either.”
I nodded, suspecting any conversation between us would eventually circle back to him and his needs.
“So, that’s it then?” I asked, feeling suddenly tired, of this interaction in particular. “You want me to convince my family to let you stay?”
Santiago stared at me with a calculating look, seeming to judge whether or not to say what was really on his mind. At last, he continued, “What do you think Joshua would do if you kicked us out? Do you think he’d stay here with you? Is your hold over him really that strong?”
The nerve of this guy, to use Kitten as a tool for negotiation while suggesting I was somehow manipulating him into being with me. “So, you’re blackmailing me now? Let you all stay or you’re leaving and taking Kitten with you?”
“I’m just making sure you’ve really thought this through.”
