Hans frowned and gritted his teeth. He stared at the back of the seat in front of him. Then he curled his hand into a fist and punched the back of the seat.
Kurt turned around, shot him a look, and opened his mouth but didn’t say anything.
“It’s Jake, isn’t it?” said Hans, still staring down the back of the seat. “Jake hurt you. I knew it.”
He clenched and unclenched his fist.
I took his hand in mine. “It’s not like that, Hans.” I pried his fingers from their tight balled-up fist. “Jake didn’t hurt me. I hurt him.”
We sat for a long moment in silence then Hans looked at me and said, “If you want to talk about it, I’m a good listener.”
Why not? You’re the person I care about the most in this world. Why not hurt you, too, since I’m on a roll?
I told him everything from the very beginning. I told him about the devil mask and the chains and the live stream. He was shocked - I suppose I’d never stopped being his little sister - but he listened without judgment or commentary.
When I told him about Jake’s friends, the shows we put on and how much money we’d made, his jaw dropped.
“You made four thousand dollars in two nights!?”
“A little more, but approximately that.”
“Wow.” He shook his head, his mouth agape. “I’m going to start doing that, then.”
“You think?”
“Definitely. I can do seven hot guys at once.”
“Six,” I corrected.
“I can do six guys—Black, Latino, Swedish, all at once. And I’d get paid for it!”
Kurt turned around again and looked at Hans with wide eyes.
“Forget what I said earlier,” he said to Kurt. “The agency’s not closing. We’re just going to make a slight tweak in our business model.”
Kurt beamed.
I took Hans’s hand in mine. “Hans, be careful.”
He turned to me with a puzzled look on his face. “Oh, don’t worry about me. I’m always careful.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
“What?”
I took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “You and I, Hans, we’re a lot alike. We both get emotional. We both get carried away easily.” I tapped my chest. “You know how bad it feels when you break up with someone. It hurts. Now, imagine breaking up with seven people at once. Imagine that pain. Be careful.”
That put a damper on his excitement. We sat in silence for a long moment until he turned to me and said, “Is there anything I can do?”
“For what?”
“To make it hurt less? To make everything alright?”
I stared at the back of the seat in front of me. “Just be careful, Hans.”
26
Jake
There was nothing left for me in Perth. Betty was being held in a psychiatric hospital. I had no more reason to hide out, and though I’d tried to start back up with the live streams, without Greta at my side there just wasn’t any point.
I spent a few weeks hiking in the mountains. I applied for a few jobs—even applied for a job at the lodge. But when they called me in for an interview, I didn’t show.
I was planning my return to Colorado to face the identity theft charges when my lawyer called me.
“Mr. Moore, I’m going to need you to send me all the documents you have related to Orphan Master Greyson and the orphanage as well as any documents about your case, however incriminating you feel they may be. We need to get started right away. The sooner we attack the better.”
I pulled the phone away from my mouth and sighed.
“Mr. Moore, are you there?”
“Yes, I’m here. But I’ve decided I’m going to accept the plea deal for the fourth-degree felony of identity theft.”
“Mr. Moore,” she said harshly, “that comes with a minimum two-year sentence. I can’t advise you to do that.”
I took a seat on the mattress and laid my head against the wall.
“Mr. Moore?”
“I’m here.”
“Mr. Moore, the prosecution’s case is weak. I’m highly confident we can beat it.”
“I understand. But I’ve made my decision.”
“I’m confused,” she said.
I didn’t know where to begin or how to tell her there was no fight in me. So, instead, I just told her the simplest thing that would get her off the phone and have her never call me again, “I appreciate what you’ve done for me. But I’m going to plead guilty. I simply don’t have any money to pay you.”
“Mr. Moore, now I believe it is you who is confused.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your friends have already paid my extended retainer.”
I was dumbfounded. The last time I’d spoken with any of them had been weeks ago, and we didn’t exactly end the conversation as friends.
“Mr. Moore?”
“Yeah, I’m here. Listen, I’m going to have to call you back.”
The longer I put it off, the more I thought about it, the more difficult it would be. So, I decided to do neither - I didn’t think about it, and I didn’t put it off. I called Matty immediately.