29. Valentina
VALENTINA
“Tell me exactly what you saw.” Raven sits cross-legged on the table with the laptop resting on her knees. “Don’t leave anything out.”
My hands come together on the table and I twist my fingers together, glancing between her and Cassian. “I’m not even sure what I saw.”
“Just tell her,” Cassian replies. “Raven is our tech genius with this kind of thing.”
“Alright.” Briefly closing my eyes, I call up the face of the little girl that appeared to me during that meditation session, and the sight of her sends a strange, cold sensation trickling through my gut.
“She was… small.”
“How small?” Raven asks. “If you had to guess.”
“I dunno.” I crack open one eye. “She was a kid. Small.”
“Do you think she could talk?” Bradley asks from the corner of the room.
He stands there with his arms crossed, almost as if he’s afraid of coming closer.
A man like that shouldn’t be afraid of anything, but in my few days here, I get the distinct impression that he’s carrying a lot of guilt over what happened, as if he’s taking responsibility despite none of us knowing what really happened.
“She could talk,” I say.
“That’s good enough.” Raven taps her keyboard. “Eye color?”
It’s difficult not to roll my eyes because the girl is as clear as day in my mind, but if I focus on her for too long, she gets fuzzy and her face melts into the faces of other people.
“Deep breaths,” Cassian murmurs softly. “You’ve got this.”
I breathe deeply in through my nose and out through my nose. “She had darker skin, like Cassian. Green eyes. Her hair was black and matted, pulled into two pigtails with really dirty green bows. She wore this little white dress that looked almost… weird. Like it didn’t belong on her.”
“Weird how?” Raven asks. “Like it was too big for her?”
I open my eyes again. “No, it was like those sorts of cover dresses you’d put on a kid to stop them from getting their clothes dirty, y’know? And she was clutching this really ragged bunny rabbit by the ear.”
“This is good,” is the last thing Raven says and then she slides off the table and disappears underneath it.
My brows lift, but no one else seems surprised by this.
“What about the dead body?” Cassian asks. “Do you remember anything distinct about it?”
Gazing down at my hands, I shake my head and sigh deeply.
“No. It was so dark. I remember… someone was asking me who I was over and over again, but I can’t remember if that was in connection to the body at my feet or the person behind me who was hitting me.
They just kept yelling it at me.” A deep, weary sigh rushes past my lips. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Bradley suddenly steps forward. “If they didn’t know who you were, then that’s just as valuable as if they did know who you were. It narrows down the pool of suspects greatly.”
“If they were telling the truth,” Cassian reminds him. “They very well could have been lying to see what that would gain them.”
“True.” Bradley sits across from me, his brows low.
“You shouldn’t blame yourself,” I say as the door opens and Ruslan enters.
“How can I not?” Bradley meets my eyes. “We are a team. We’re close…
were close. I can’t imagine any situation where you would be in trouble and wouldn’t tell me.
So either it was something you didn’t trust me with or it was something that got the drop on you, and I don’t know what’s more alarming. ”
“I get the feeling I would have told you.” I press my fingertips together. “Or… there was a really good reason I kept it quiet.”
“But you remembered something, right?” Ruslan leans against the table and watches me with the same, weighty look of hope in his eyes. “Something good?”
“A kid. And ribbons. And a rabbit and a dead body, but that’s it.”
“Shit. One hell of a puzzle.” He sighs deeply, then glances at Bradley. “Ivy and Zira want to take her out for dinner. Give her something normal to see if that helps.”
“Do I get a say in this?” I ask with a smile.
“No,” Ruslan and Bradley say in unison. “You can’t say no to them when they get together.”
“It’s a little intimidating.” Ruslan laughs. “But I think it’s a good idea. I can’t imagine the pressure you feel right now.”
“You mean the pressure of seeing you all look at me, expecting to see someone who isn’t me right now?” I joke weakly. “Oh, it’s a delight.”
“But Diego helps, doesn’t he?” Cassian remarks. “He knows whatever version of you that you are now. He doesn’t hold what we hold.”
“No.” I smile warmly. “He doesn’t. I don’t know where I would be without him.”
“Honestly?” Bradley meets my gaze. “Neither would we. He seems like a good man. Must be, to help you when you threatened to kill him.”
“He is a good man.” Warmth spreads through my chest. “The best, in fact.”
“I’ve got something.” Raven pops out from under the table so rapidly that I jump, almost having forgotten she was there. She climbs back onto the table and with a few key presses, what’s on her laptop appears on the screen attached to the wall behind her.
A picture of a little girl in an oversized white dress, with dark skin and pigtails.
“That’s her!” I stand abruptly. “Oh, my God, that’s her!” She looks much happier in the picture Raven found. Her smile is wide, her eyes sparkling and her hands covered in paint with only a few splotches on the white dress.
“Her name is Tabitha. Seven years old. She was snatched from a playground during an organized group activity, hence the white dress. It was provided to all the children to protect their clothes during arts and crafts. She was snatched three weeks before you went missing, Valentina.”
“A missing kid?” Cassian murmurs.
“Who we know was alive until at least the day Valentina went missing,” Bradley says. “But this is… ordinary. Awful, but kids go missing in droves every day in New York.” His eyes slide to mine. “What’s special about this kid?”
I shake my head, fighting a sharp sting of emotion that crawls up my throat. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t recognize her from anywhere else?” Ruslan asks.
“No. Nowhere. Just the…” I sit slowly. “Oh, my God. What was a kid doing in a place like that?”
“There could be countless reasons,” Bradley assures me. “And not all of them are bad.”
“I’ll get in touch with Tabitha’s parents.” Cassian stands and drags his hand slowly over his head. “Maybe they can give some insight about what’s happened.”
“I’ll dig up what I can about the case and cross-reference it with everything and everyone we know you were in contact with before you vanished,” Raven says with a small smile at me, then she vanishes back under the table.
“You’re doing great,” Bradley says as he stands. “Every little detail is a step closer.” With a warm smile, he follows Cassian out of the room, leaving me with Ruslan and Raven under the table.
“He’s right, y’know. It might not feel like much now, but the fact that you’re remembering details like this is good.”
“Is it?” I drag my hands down my face and groan. “What if I remember something terrible? What if I was doing or being someone that I actually won’t like?”
“I doubt that. Val, you’re still you, even without your memories.
That doesn’t change. Everything you feel in here?
” He pats his chest. “That means something. You said before that you were scared of the cops and going to the hospital. That tells us that you knew someone was involved who was powerful enough that you wouldn’t be safe there.
I think, and this is just a guess, I think you wanted to get back to us that night.
And you would have made it if you hadn’t…
” He clicks his tongue against his teeth.
“But part of you remembered enough to keep yourself and Diego safe. You are still you. You’re just missing some edges. ”
“You’re kind of scary-looking, you know that, right?” I rest my chin on my palm and gaze up at him. “It’s weird hearing you say such nice things.”
“I know.” He smirks. “But it makes them all the more impactful, don’t you think?”
“Were…” I hesitate slightly. “Were we all friends?”
“Us?” He motions between us.
“All of us. This wasn’t just a work thing?”
“We’re friends. More than friends. We’ve lived in each other's pockets for years. Sure, there’s friction. You were not happy when I brought Ivy back here.”
“Why?”
“Well…” He puffs his cheeks. “I’m the newest voted in.
Still a few years, but new, regardless. Things were…
different. We didn’t involve ourselves in the little things because we believed that, to maintain balance, we had to focus only on the big disasters between bigger families.
But Ivy… she was a survivor of a plane crash carrying drugs and that put her slap bang in the middle of two warring families, each convinced she was a spy for the other.
And she wasn’t. She was just an ordinary person.
People she cared about started dying, and we eventually learned that if I hadn’t intervened, she would have died, countless smaller families would have been wiped out…
basically, it was a wake-up call. A lot was happening that we were missing.
The pebble can take down the mountain sort of deal. ”
“Why did you intervene?”
“I…” Ruslan shrugs. “It felt right. Something about Ivy just screamed that she needed help. So I ran with it. Ever since, we’ve been looking much closer.”
“And you both fell in love?”
“We did.” The smile he holds carries a deep love that almost matches what I feel in my own heart. “This life makes it hard for anything like that.”
“I didn’t… have anyone, did I? Before?”
“Not that you told me.” His eyes narrow slightly. “Are you worried you’ll remember a secret lover somewhere and it’ll force you into an impossible choice?”
“No,” I answer immediately, taking myself by surprise.
“I know how I feel about Diego. That’s not any kind of issue, y’know?
I just… I care about him. A lot. And I’m scared when I remember, something in me will change and he will see it and he’ll…
” My throat closes briefly and I shake my head. “Sorry.”