The Sinclair Sisters

It all goes down in the Big Apple

Rome, Italy
November 13th, 2020
11:15 PM, Italian time

Violet

I paced the cabin nervously as we waited for Paris and Shannon to come back. We had collected the chip, and they had gone to return the sculpture back to Russo's house.

My ears twitched as I heard footsteps and I sighed in relief. I turned; Paris and Shannon were coming in.

I hugged the girls tightly. "No one saw?"

Shannon smirked. "Vi, this isn't our first rodeo. Everything went well."

My eye caught Paris biting her bottom lip and I frowned. "Everything okay Reese?"

She shook her head. "It's fine. I saw Luciano before we left. He looked devastated."

Unwittingly, we all glanced at Tammi who just sighed loudly. "At least he has his sculpture back. He'll be fine." She stood up and left. I felt bad for her; Julius had damned us to a life of solitude yet we were very much human with very human feelings.

"Tonight was great girls, hopefully the last we ever do. You all get some rest, we're going to New York." I said. They dispersed and I walked to the cockpit.

Othonos' pilot was a friendly old man named Jonathan who was quite good at his job - not asking too many questions. Or any questions at all. He smiled as he saw me. "Home again miss?"

"To the Big Apple Jonny," I said. "Your boss and I need to chat."

He nodded and picked up his radio. I left the cockpit and tracked down Tammi to the pantry. She was sitting on the floor, still dressed in her gown, and was stuffing her face with ice cream.

I sat beside her and rested her head on my shoulder. "Come on Tamala, let it out."

Like a popped balloon, Tammi burst into tears. I held my sister and soothed her. I knew this day would come - one of the girls would meet a guy they'd like, or even love, but they wouldn't be able to do shit about it because what sane guy would want a human-cat hybrid with more secrets than the president? It happened to Vannah, and I held her until she could pick up her pieces. Tammi and Russo was just bad timing. I mean seriously, we stole from the guy.

"That's it. Let it all out," I said. As much as I knew it was pretty damn inevitable, I prayed this would be the last time I was comforting one of my sisters because she was heartbroken. I had seen way too many tears.

After Tammi finished crying her eyes out, she dozed off and I took her to her bed and laid her down beside Essence. I kissed her forehead like I used to when she was a kid and left. I went to find Koby. I had sworn off any communication with the guy and left it to Koby instead. If I did it, I'd just insult him without saying anything useful. "Tell Othonos we're on our way back. I want this stuff over as soon as possible."

"On it," she said and started typing away.

∆

I took a bite out of my apple as my eyes stayed glued out the window. Although it was like three in the morning, I could see the Statue of Liberty, so I knew we were getting closer to our destination. God, I couldn't wait to see Othonos' face. I haven't socked someone in a while. But first...

The girls filed into the main cabin and I looked away from the window.

"What's up Vi?" Ember asked.

It was time for my final confession, yet I couldn't look into their eyes and say it, so I looked down instead. "I killed Julius," I said quietly, although I knew with their ears, they heard me perfectly. "I couldn't take it anymore so I killed him. Koby and Jodi helped me burn the body. The ashes are in a jar at the house."

The girls didn't know I killed Julius. Like every other person in the world, they all thought he'd disappeared. It was sheer luck that he came back a day before he scheduled and no one except his pilot  and driver had known he crossed American soil.

Paris frowned. "He was in Switzerland, how could you possibly have killed him?"

"He came early, you guys were still asleep when he got back. We didn't even know until we entered his study," I said.

"Why do you look so sad about it?" Shannon said.

"I thought you girls would be disappointed," I said. Immediately Zeph snorted. "Disappointed? You saved our lives, why would we be disappointed?"

"Because we promised each other we'd never hurt anybody," I said. It's what had been eating me for years. My sisters and I made a pact we wouldn't use our gifts to hurt people. Killing Julius had been an act I couldn't control. All I remembered was the rush of anger I felt and pulling the gun afterwards. Then he taunted me and bang. That was it. The first and only time I ended a life.

"Vi, we could never be disappointed in you," Paris said. "If you hadn't killed Julius then, you probably would've now, or one of us could've done it. You saved us from his tyranny, if anything we should be and we all are grateful for it."

"Reese is right," Vannah said. "You don't us anything, not even an explanation, but we do owe you a thank you. So thank you."

I smiled feeling the weight of the past four years fall off my chest. "Thank you for understanding."

The sign for seatbelts came on. "That's our cue," Jodi said. "We'll be in New York any minute now."

"It's about time," Zeph said as they say down and buckled up. I chuckled. About time indeed.

As soon as we got down from the plane, three SUVs were waiting for us. I entered one with Jodi, Koby and Essence while the others split into the other two.

"The chip?" I asked.

Koby raised the glass case. It still surprised me that something this small could cause so much damage.

"It's so tiny," Essence said.

"It's also so dangerous," Jodi said. "Let's just get it off our hands."

The car drove through Lower Manhattan and pulled up in front of a big hotel. We were to stay there until the sun rose and we could go to his apartment. Like with the cars, we shared ourselves into three suits. None of us slept, our excitement overriding our control over our cat instincts. I couldn't sit down, instead I paced until the sun rose up, and I paced some more until Jodi came to tell me it was time to leave. From the hotel we re-entered the SUVs and it dropped us in front of a tall glass skyscraper - Othonos' apartment block.

 We got down and entered the building, ignored all the stares and headed straight for the elevator. I tapped my foot impatiently as we rode up. Anticipation was high and I couldn't wait to get Prof's flash drive back.

We stopped at the top floor, the penthouse, and left the elevator. Outside the door, I wrinkled my nose as I smelt his cologne.

"Jesus, does he shower in those things?" Vannah asked.

"We'd never know," I said and opened the door.