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"They're safe."
"Good. Never blamed Tilly for what she did. She was brave, I think. Anyway…"
Anyway indeed. They were veering off-topic over and over again as Gemma tried to avoid answering the big questions.
"Gemma," he said, using her name in deep, resonant tones. "I need answers. Now."
"We were pawns, Angelo. And I don't want to be anymore. If you kill me for betraying you, I'll accept your judgment. But I can't work for them again. They're scooping out my insides, and they're making me empty…."
She was confessing in a great babbling torrent. Some of the things Angelo knew. Many he did not. The world was full of conspiracies. He had known of Willow's ties to ancient societies and their modern counterparts who wished the world had never changed. It was from those people he had rescued Tilly Braybrooke. But Gemma's Organization? That was new. That was important.
Bobby didn't seem to care about the details. He was happy. The kind of happy Angelo had rarely seen him experience, let alone express. The smile on his face transformed him completely. Angelo had become accustomed to the morose lack of affect, indicating deep depression. To see it transformed immediately was like watching a magic trick happen. Two, really, if you counted Gemma's return from oblivion.
"We should have ice cream," Bobby said.
"Ice cream is one of the benefits of being alive, so I guess I should have it as much as I can in case I'm not going to be alive much longer,” Gemma sighed.
"What are you talking about?"
"Your lover master is thinking about killing me, I think."
"Stop it, Gemma," Angelo growled.
"It's true, isn't it? When people come into your orbit, one of two things can happen. They end up dead, or they end up part of your family."
"It's not that simple."
"Isn't it?" She gave him a bright, intelligent stare.
Angelo did not reply. He stood watch over the remnants of spaghetti and listened to Bobby and Gemma discuss ice cream. He needed a moment to collect his thoughts and his feelings and regain mastery of the situation - if, he mused, he had ever had that at all.
"I missed you," she was telling Bobby.
"I missed you too. I really thought you were dead. We buried your body."
"I know. They gave me something to make it seem like I was gone. They wanted to extract me and send me on a mission with a different set of people. I didn't want to go. I just wanted to come back here. This is where I belong."
She sounded genuine, but then again, she had sounded genuine when they'd mistaken her for a wide-eyed ingenue commenting on how very scary he was.
"She's alive!" Bobby turned to Angelo with a massive grin. Apparently, that was a revelation that had still not entirely sunk in for him.
"Yes, she is. She's also a spy twice over who has double-crossed absolutely everybody she's ever known as an adult. Now she says she's come back for love, and she expects to be believed?"
"Hey! I never said I came back for love. But I did come back knowing what you could do to me. Doesn't that prove something?"
"It proves you are reckless and borderline suicidal."
"Some would call it brave and gutsy."
"Some would call it stupid and expecting us to be stupid too."
"Angelo, stop asking questions. She's back! That's all that matters."
Bobby was being very stupid. Grief had made him an idiot. Angelo did not intend on being stupid.
"I know you want to keep her boy, but look how she manipulated you. Look what she did to us. She intended to get us captured or killed."
"I didn't. At least, not then. I was as surprised to be shot as anybody."
"She had to follow orders and infiltrate us. She had a boss." Bobby looked at her. "You had a boss, right?"
"I did have a boss," she said. "I've had a boss since I was thirteen years old, though I didn't know it yet. I was planted in Willow's life. I was born to be a pawn. Designed to be sacrificed. This time, I'm choosing who gets to take me out."
"See!?" Bobby said. "She's honest."
"She could have told us that before she went to confront Willow," Angelo said.
"I wasn't thinking about anything other than screwing Willow back like she had screwed me. They left me behind. All of them did. I didn't know if the Organization even intended on extracting me. They might have just left me for you to kill. They've done it before."
"You should have told us then if you wanted us to trust you now."
"I'll go back in time and tell myself that. I'll also make a note not to get shot," she said, sarcasm flaring.
"Well," Angelo said. "One thing is obvious."
"What is that?"
"I gave you an unnecessary apology," Angelo ground out.
Gemma almost laughed but seemed to have the presence of mind to work out that would have been a very bad idea at that moment.
