Page 55 of Light Leech

He nodded and shrugged. “And I guess killing your producer and his buddy wasn’t the best way to–”

“What?“ she exclaimed, glaring at Boyband, then at me as if to check the validity of his claim.

“Why would you care?” Boyband asked. “They were your captors, weren’t they?”

Her glare turned to concern, eyes looking down in introspection. “Yeah… I guess they… were.” She groaned and ran her fingers through her hair with enough tension to move her forehead back. “Light.”

“You good?” I asked.

“Yeah.” She nodded. “I guess some of my old self is still in there. I should be glad they’re dead, but I only get that by taking a moment to internalize it. The Neon Idol has only good memories of them, though I know they are all through Reef’s lens. I–Naoma–never really knew them.“ She nodded. “Sorry, Boyband.”

The corner of his mouth turned up. “It’s all good.

She sighed. “I can’t make any promises, but if you really need me to get us in, I might be able to.”

“Pulse. Wait, why do we want that? What are we looking for exactly?” He pointed at Abbas and Akna. “And why didn’t they zeg you up at Haven for going AWOL?”

“I covered that,” Ralia said. “Made it look like Cut ordered us to retreat back home with his last words. It was a real tearjerker, sent them footage and everything. Dying old man’s final with kinda guk, you plug?” She groaned. “Zeg, I miss what I could do with my mod.”

“They know we’re back here in Zingang,” said Abbas. “I’ll have to attend weekly meetings, sometimes more frequently–”

“With me too!” Akna said.

“Right, with my new assistant. I’ll keep them in touch, make sure they think we’re doing as told, taking on occasional hit jobs.”

“Which we’ll handle.” She smiled up at him.

“Right.” He smiled down at her.

I didn’t have to lie to myself. Each day was as difficult as the last to let Abbas’s betrayal sit while he stood. He could act as friendly as he wanted, but that didn’t diminish what he had done. Forgiveness aside, trust was difficult to repair once torn. Despite my inhibitions, this felt right. This felt like he was making up more than by killing Cut.

No words need be spoken to express the deed he had done, nor did I need to ask to know that there was a blossoming relationship there. Nothing romantic. He had to be five to ten years older than her, but something more familial. I saw what Boyband and I had, minus the brotherly angst, and add the protective older sibling. He could fake it, but I doubt she would.

I smiled. Seeing her and Boyband–two teenagers–receive the care they needed was more than I could pray for.

Maybe Abbas could make me forget any betrayal.

“Okay,” said Boyband. “Keep Haven in check, but that doesn’t tell me why we need to send Naoma in to check up with Haven and Reef.”

“I never said that we had to,” Abbas said. “I’m just telling you what we know.”

“Celebrities,” I said.

“Good, Pet,” Boyband said with drawn out words and sarcastic enthusiasm. “You know what we do. Good boy. Famous people bad. Scary guy like you good.”

I shook my head, too caught up in my thoughts to play around with him.

“Denji!” I shouted.

“Just a sec!” he called from down the hall.

Everyone turned as Denji appeared holding David, squirming in his arms.

“Sorry I took so long,” he laughed, setting David down before Boyband. “I thought I could get him in a good mood but–”

“Kill me please.”

Denji laughed and gestured. “Now you see.”