Page 107 of Sigma

I have to back away, then. Out of his arms.

Tires on gravel. Doors opening.

Tension still writhes like serpents, flows like lava.

He stands and watches me; his hands go in his pockets.

I hear guns cocking, and turn, holding my hands up and stepping in front of him again. “Put them down. Please.”

It’s the whole crew: Duke, Thresh, Lear, Anselm, Harris, Puck, and Sasha rifles pointed Apollo.

I walk up to Duke, whose eyes blaze the brightest. “Duke, please. It’s enough. You don’t need it.”

His blue eyes fix on mine, puzzled and angry. “He fuckin’kidnappedyou, sweetheart. That ain’t the action of Prince Charming.”

I pull the muzzle of his rifle down, and he lets me. “Maybe not.” I look around from face to face. “But answer me this, any of you. Which one of you can sayyou’rePrince Charming?”

There’s a lot of shuffling, muzzles lowering.

“I say this with all the love in my heart for each and every one of you.” I pause for effect. “You’re all like bonus dads to me. I wouldn’t change anything about any of you for the world. But…once upon a time, I don’t think you would have …you wouldn’t have classified yourself asgood.”

“Mebbe not,” Puck growls around his cigar stump. “But we didn’t kidnap any innocent girls. Shit, we kill the fuckers who do.”

“His actions were wrong.” I look at my father when I say this. “I’m not defending him on that score. ButI’mthe one who was kidnapped. And I’m saying while his actions were wrong, I understand why he did it. I don’t expect you to, and I’m not asking you to. I’m not even going to try and explain it. But I don’t want any of you trying to exact punishment on him.”

Mom steps up to me. “What you’re doing is…admirable, honey. But what he did wasn’t justwrong. People aredead.”

Apollo speaks up, then. “They were under strict instructions not to harm you. I don’t tolerate the mistreatment of women.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t fucking know that,” Mom snaps. “All I knew was you had my daughter, and they had me, and they had guns.”

“Got a funny definition of mistreat,” Puck growls, “if snatching a girl out of bed and carting her across the world against her will isn’t mistreatment.”

Apollo shrugs. “I will not attempt to defend myself.”

“Cause you fuckin’ can’t,” Duke says.

“Perhaps not. Those men were hired guns. They were mercenaries, and not very good ones.” He looks at Mom when he says this. “You did not kill good men.”

“Doesn’t make it any easier knowing I killed them,” Mom says.

I hold up my hands. “No amount of talking is going to reconcile any of this.”

“No Karahalios is ever—fuckingever—getting anywhere near my home or my family,” Dad says, his voice low and acidic. “I hope you understand that.”

I turn on him. “It’s not up to you.”

His eyes blaze. “Corinna.”

I put my hands on his shoulders. “Daddy, please.”

“You weren’t there. You don’t know what happened. What his grandfather did. What his mother did. What she was like. His mother was—”

“His mother is dead,” I snap. “So is his grandfather. And he’snotthem.”

He rocks back, throws his head back and sighs. “I just don’t understand.”

I pat his arm. “You don’t have to.”