Are We Fucked?

“Are we fucked?”

Genevieve looks at me, cold fear flashing through her green eyes, her hand still gripping her phone terribly tightly.

“There are ways for me to run, but if Father has drawn a bead on Boston, then you two are going to have a Hell of a time,” I say. “The two of you aren’t prepared to go on the move, are you?”

Genevieve shakes her head, eyes going wide. Erin puts a reassuring arm on her shoulder.

“There’s no cause for panic yet,” Erin says. “The two of us aren’t going to move.”

Her voice is the soothing balm necessary for me to draw the connections myself.

“You’ve gotten nothing direct from Father yet?” I ask Erin. She confirms with a nod of her head. "Then Vidocq is probably just poking his nose around here, investigating.”

“Can we take a look at your terminal, Gen? I want to see where he is,” Erin says.

Genevieve nods, and we make our way to her study. It takes her a minute or two to work through some interfaces, before she pulls up a time-series of coordinates corresponding to Vidoq’s location.

“Looks like he’s just left Boston Logan,” she says, plotting the points on a map. “Heading for…”

“Not for us,” Erin says. “He’s going south first. It’s probably somewhere with assets that he can use.”

Every couple seconds, the point on the map updates its location, showing that Vidocq is indeed drawing further away from us. After a few tense minutes spent watching the screen, I shake my head.

“Stressing over his location right at this moment gets us nowhere,” I say. “What’s the next move?”

“We wait for theirs,” Erin says. “Tomorrow is the fifth.”

“The Family Dinner,” I say, and Erin nods. “I haven’t been to one of those in a while. Are they still the shitshows that they used to be?”

“Erin invited me to one of those dinners two years back. I haven’t been since,” Genevieve mutters. She looks faintly traumatised. I’m not sure if it’s her recollection or the current situation with Vidocq that’s driving her breaths so shallow.

“I’ll find out as much as I can tomorrow, but you should start preparing to leave,” Erin says to me. She’s standing behind Genevieve, staring off to the side, leaning an elbow on Genevieve’s chair back.

“What are the odds that he confronts you tomorrow?” I ask.

“Pretty high.”

Genevieve’s breath hitches at Erin’s words. Erin’s arm scoops down lower and wraps around Genevieve’s back. Wordlessly, she shifts down into the same chair with her, and Genevieve lays her head on Erin’s shoulder.

“Everything alright?” I ask, feeling concerned.

“I’ll be fine,” Genevieve says, too quickly.

“We can get through this,” Erin murmurs softly, rubbing her hand comfortingly across her girlfriend’s back.

“Mmm…”

I meet Erin’s eyes, but she shakes her head.

There’s a pause. On the screen, Vidocq’s location hasn’t changed much over the last minute or so.

“What happens to us if we get caught?” Genevieve asks.

“We’ve done nothing wrong,” Erin says. “Father has no legal recourse against me. My assets are all mine. The only thing is the will, which would admittedly hurt, but to be realistic: Markus is the only one of us who’s going to be taking any hard hits.”

"But won’t he… won’t he… retaliate against us for even helping him?” Genevieve asks. “And I feel guilty for even suggesting it, but…”

“You’re thinking we should ask Markus to leave now. To keep our hands clean,” Erin says.

My heart thuds in my chest as the two women talk it through. It isn’t my place to speak here, as much as I want to. Unless…

“I’d be happy to do it,” I say, though my heart breaks as I do. “I’m basically packed. I can be out the door in a minute.”

Silence follows my words. I look at the two beautiful ladies curled up on the chair, holding each other, and wonder when I’ll next see them together. It sounds corny, having only been here for a day, but… I’m going to miss them. Really miss them.

Genevieve turns in her chair to look at me, and then she her gaze drifts to the side. There’s a fresh wetness in her eye that I wasn’t expecting.

“It was a stupid idea,” she says. “I shouldn’t… I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

The weight in her voice tells me she feels guilty, and I can see Erin tightening her side-hug.

“No, it was worth considering,” I say gently, by way of apology.

Genevieve dips her head slightly, and gives me a small smile.

“But yes, a stupid idea,” Erin says. “If Vidocq is here because of what he knows and not what he suspects, we’re incriminated anyways. Let’s help Markus do what he needs to do and get him on his way.”

“I guess I can do that,” Genevieve says, and I smile, going up to her and hugging her too.

Erin wraps an arm around me, I get an arm around her, and though the three of us are a tight fit for one chair, I find that I don’t mind that so much.