Rainy tried to keep her face neutral. He was smart, and she needed to be smarter.

“Where is he now, little liar Rainy, and what is your real name?”

“Fuck you. You obviously know what my real name is. You texted it to me.” Rainy spat at his feet and he smiled without malice. “But you’re not using your real name, either. You obviously have a connection to the compound.” But he didn’t answer her, just continued to smile beatifically. Obviously, he wasn’t going to explain anything to her. At least, not until he was ready. He looked past her to Braithe and made kissy noises at her.

“This one has been such an angel. I’m not used to all this spice. You’re like a little hot pocket, aren’t you?”

“Did your daddy talk to you like that? No...that’s not right,” Rainy said slowly. “It was your mama, wasn’t it? That’s why you hate women.”

Paul’s smile froze. He took three jerky strides to Rainy and she felt the sting of his hand as he slapped her clean across the face. He caught her lip and she felt it split open like ripe fruit. Braithe moaned from somewhere behind her and Rainy heard the rattling of handcuffs on the table leg.

Paul stood over her, his clear blue eyes clouded. Rainy watched him clench and unclench his fists like he was trying to pump his anger out of them. She felt strangely calm, or perhaps it was the drugs—either way, she stared on impassively as Braithe began to cry softly from her end of the table.

He was thin, thinner than most men of his height, but what struck Rainy most were the veneers. An eating disorder would cause the signs of malnutrition on Paul’s face, and she’d bet his teeth were rotting from years of bulimia before he shelled out the money for his Ronald Reagan teeth.

“Does it bother you to work with food when you have such an unhealthy relationship with it?” She’d won again; she could see it on his face. Everyone from the compound has a fucked-up relationship with food. He was bothered, his sallow skin flushing all the way to his eyeballs. He took another step toward her and stopped abruptly. Rainy could hear her own ragged, angry breath in the pause before he turned. She watched his sure strides toward Braithe and her stomach clenched.