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Vaughn and I haven’t spoken much since that night. I don’t know if he resents that my girl made it out when his didn’t, but the anger in him is a palpable force. Even if it isn’t directed at me, the rage simmering under the surface makes him difficult to be around.
“That’s probably a good thing,” I answer finally.
“Maybe you’re right.”
The visit lasts for another hour. I’d hoped the interaction would help brighten Gigi’s mood. It did, but I’m surprised to find that I feel better than I expected as Anya and Cole prepare to leave.
“Shit, I almost forgot…” Anya rummages in her oversized bag until she finally produces a small package. “This came a few weeks ago to your school mailbox. They kept leaving notices on the door so I finally went and picked it up for you.”
Gigi takes the package, a look of slight confusion on her face. “Thanks.”
“We’ll talk soon, okay.” Anya gives one last wave from the hallway. “Next time you go a week without answering, I’m breaking down the door.”
“It’s reinforced,” I inform her tersely, closing said reinforced door on her burst of laughter.
When I turn back, Gigi is experimentally shaking the box with a confused look on her face.
“Who is it from?” I ask, leaning over her shoulder to look.
“No idea.” She turns the package over gingerly in her hands. “There’s a return address, but no name.”
“You worried it’s a pipe bomb?” I ask, trying to decide if I’m joking.
She rolls her eyes. “The postage is dated from almost a month ago. A bomb would have probably gone off by now.”
“Probably,” I acknowledge, but take it from her, anyway.
The package is entirely nondescript, wrapped in brown paper with a preprinted label on the top. No ominous ticking sounds come from the inside and it feels lighter than an explosive device would be, barely heavier than an envelope, despite its size.
“I’m just going to open it.” Gigi rips open the top without any further hesitation. Handfuls of tissue paper explode from the box now that the pressure has been released. She rifles through it, becoming more flustered with each passing second. “There isn’t anything in here.”
I grab a handful of tissue paper and toss it aside. “I think something might be stuck to the bottom.”
An envelope is taped to the bottom of the box. It takes almost a minute for me to get it off, like the thing has been super glued down. I hand it to her, responding to her questioning look with a shrug. When it comes to whatever the hell is going on, her guess is as good as mine.
Gigi opens the envelope and takes out the card. As she opens it, something small and metallic falls into the palm of her hand. She holds it up to the light with a frown. “What the hell is this?”
“Looks like a flash drive.” I take the thing gingerly between my fingers as she reluctantly hands it over. “Let’s take a look.”
She follows me to the bedroom and watches as I plug the drive into my laptop, a wary expression on her face. “Be careful. Maybe hackers are getting more sophisticated.”
That’s a fair point, but curiosity significantly outweighs any concern. A folder pops open on the screen and quickly populates with the drive’s contents. “It’s just a bunch of video files.”
“Play one.”
It takes a second for me to figure out what I’m actually seeing. An unconscious girl is hogtied and blindfolded on a bed with crimson sheets, naked as the day she was born. The grainy quality reminds me of an old-school film reel, so it must have been remastered into a digital format.
A man’s face flashes across the screen as he walks in view of the camera. On the video, his face is unlined and twenty years younger than the last time I saw him, but I would never mistake him for anyone else.
Jack Deguerre.
He climbs over the girl’s prostrate form, showing his naked and quivering back to the camera.
“What the actual fuck?” Gigi whispers, her voice heavy with disgust. “What is this?”
I close the video just as he begins to thrust. Then I play another, watching for less than a few seconds before playing the next one. My stomach churns with disgust, even as I feel the flutter of a sick sort of exhilaration. There are hundreds of videos, maybe even thousands. I don’t count them all, but I have to assume there is one for every member of Havoc House going back at least fifty years. “It’s the collateral.”
“The collateral…” Breath rushes out of her like she just got socked in the gut. “Holy shit.”
