Last chapter was not something I was used to writing... I mean normally my cliffhangers are there but the chapter doesn't hold so much suspense. I'm so happy that I was able to keep you guys hooked and waiting til the very end of it.

As for Danny... and Cynthia... and Shannon... Pat Lawson, someone ask why I have these types of characters and the truth is because in the real world we have people around like them. If we're lucky... we do not cross paths with them. But we hear of them, take for instance Brock Turner's family and friends. He did a horrible thing. Was convicted of said horrible thing and instead of showing remorse for the bad thing, he accepts no responsibility for his actions blaming everything on the victim and drinking. My point is... Cynthia is self-serving and is the type of person to do horrendous things but do it in the name of her children. "Oh I left Faith, but I did it for us Andy," or "Let's call the Elders and get money, but it's not about money. It's about providing for our children." Back to Brock. He did a bad thing, yet his dad went on and on about how Brock has been hurt by these events (he is the perpetrator BTW) and cannot eat his favorite steak. Some people (like Danny) even if the person they love has done something wrong, THEY STICK BY THEIR SIDES.

oh, and P.S. Leander Conrad - Andy is just a nickname.

Chapter 43 –Show Down (Ansel Conrad POV) Pt.1

"Bloody hell!" my father curses in the back seat, expletives never heard from him dropped one after the other. Startled my own cell phone drops as I turn to my father, casting a glance at Kalenah. "That bloody woman," he mumbles almost chucking the phone towards Kalenah and I.

Dad, Cynthia wants to call the Elders on the girl. We're going to pick up Andy @ Trevors. Help!

Eyes widening I gasp, the air rushing right out of me at the same time. "Is she going to call the Elders or has she already called?" Kalenah asked worriedly, though my father and I would not have any more information than was given in the message.

"Do we warn everyone? Run?" Kalenah asks me, while in the exact moment my thoughts are going a mile a minute. DO we know if Cynthia has called anyone? She already said that they thought Faith was special, if she called surely they'd come.

"We have to prevent Cynthia from contacting anyone-" I hear my father stating what I was in agreement with him. Jumping from the car, I dash into the garage, pushing aside the false wall with all our tools. With the bare wall, I enter the code pushing aside the concrete protection of all our hunting and den defense equipment.

I'm just reaching for our hunting riffle when my father comes in my line of sight. "Your brother asked for a tranquilizer, he said to leave it between his seat and the console," I gape at my father.

"Can we even trust that he's going to use it on Cynthia and not someone else?" I voiced my skepticism. Still, with his light brown hair, and our identical eyes, I could see that dad was struggling to answer that same question.

Danny was a wild card.

"Cynthia might... seeing Faith might have impaired her judgment I mean I spoke with Samson, watched how Cynthia approached that dear child," dad shakes his head. "You are the one in control now, but this is as much a test for Danny as it is for doing the right thing here Ansel." My father once again was revealing a side to this I hadn't forethought.

"We went to Danny and told him basically that we were on the side of that child!" I points straight up. "It's different Ansel, I see my two sons, one thinking of the bigger picture, but you have to also put in some leeway where Danny is concerned. No matter how much we all tried to help him and the girls, Cynthia was like a breathe of fresh air," I nod recalling that time myself.

Danny had a routine. Anyone could see the steps. The only way he could function – not live – was to set up what came next.

Wake up.

Make breakfast for the girls.

Wake up his girls.

Go through morning routine, brushing their teeth, combing their hair, and making sure they had clean clothes for school.

Drop off the girls.

Go to work.

Follow his work routine until it was time to pick up the girls.

Every detail was set out and in result that gave him less time to fall apart. Before Cynthia, we were just waiting to ask him once more to move closer to the family in Bend. At first he said that he didn't want to move the girls right after Tina was gone, too much change at once.

Cynthia did for Danny what none of us, could do.

"So right now... we need to see where he stands-"

Sighing I try to wrap my mind around what dad was explaining.

"We give Danny what he's asked for, but make another plan. Your mother has the rest of the children at the guest house," I nod turning thoughts over. Cultivating a new plan, finding fallacies in each one, I hit the worst snag.

"What if the tranquilizers aren't for Cynthia, but for Andy instead?"

Dad frowns, cocking his head to the right. "There is no way he leaves Faith, not willingly." Dad says slowly and he right. If the display earlier was any hint to what he would do if faced having to leave Faith, then the drugs could be for him.

I grab my riffle, chucking it at my father.

"We put the tranquilizer where he asked, but I'll send Kalenah to slash the tires of their other cars at the guest house," I say grabbing a cylinder cartridge for the steel syringe. With supplies, Dad and I stalk back to the car.

We drop Kalenah near the guesthouse with a hunting knife, explaining quickly what are plan is. When I glance at her, I slow down pulling over to the side of the dirt path. "What's wrong?"

She hadn't so much as said a word, only nodding her eyes wide and her heart racing. Inhaling, a new wave of anxiousness hits me full forcing, coming from Kalenah. "Trevor called..." Kalenah whispers. My father and I both lean towards her, "There was an explosion at the hotel that Danny and Cynthia were staying at," she says her tone near hysterical by the end.

Shaking her head, she rocks back and forth, "No way... there is no way this is connected," my wife murmurs. More and more, Danny using the tranquilizers on Andy seems like the most likely outcome.

Trevor's not working so what? To get Andy alone and pliable they create a distraction? Get Trevor out of the house?" when I sneak a glimpse at my father his head is bowed down, shaking from side to side.

"We go as planned. If Cynthia is responsible for the explosion, we handle it ourselves. We keep her locked up under the house. If it comes to the point where we have to," I inhale sharply, "If it comes down to the point where we have to lock Danny away as well, that is what we will do." The silence in the car is unbelievably filled with emotion and speaks volumes.

I loved Danny, he is my brother, but if he's putting not just himself but also all of us at risk, then he cannot be trusted.

When Lenah leaves the car, hugging the shadows with the knife that I gave her, clutched to her body, my father joins me in the front seat.

Peering through the darkness, I wait silently, keeping track of my wife. At the first suburban vehicle that I know as she does that belongs to Danny, she starts with the back tires, puncturing each one swiftly before moving to the front wheels. Within minutes she's finished and races back towards the entrance of the dungeon below our home, preparing it so we can bring Cynthia there.

Hopefully not Danny as well.

I leave dad right at the entrance of the road leading to our home before driving to Trevors. In two minds, I make the memorized route, parking my car away and out of sight. Wind picks up and I stalk, hugging the shadows until I've arrived at Trevors house, the lights inside on but only Danny's car is in the driveway.

With the loaded syringe, I slowly open his car door, placing the syringe needle gage facing the backseat. Moving swiftly, I close the door, leaping behind the bushes, staking out Trevor's house towards the backyard. Without his security in place, I avoid the lights, hugging the wall until I have an unobstructed view of the opened layout of his kitchen, dinning and living room.

Eyes focused, "You can leave a little girl in a camp with abusers, easily. But you're uncomfortable leaving me in a luxurious house?" I catch Andy saying, waving his hands outward.

I look at my brother as Andy walks away, taking a black mug with him, ducking behind the wall when I think he may see me. Back against the wall, I listen to hear what if any conversation is going on between Danny and Cynthia.

Waiting, the wind between the trees whistles louder than anything coming from inside, until I hear a door slammed, so I peek in. My eyes easily find Danny, though I frown when even from my hiding spot, something looks different about him.

"If he takes even just three or four sips, he'll be out and we can get out of here." I over hear Cynthia, and immediately pull back into the shadows. My eyes widen and my heart drops, while I also register that her words do not make sense.

"Even just three of four sips?" I frown wondering exactly what Cynthia was talking about and why it sounded like whatever was happening, Danny was in on it? "He'll be out and we can get out of here..." I turn the words over still listening in.

Danny couldn't help her or be in on all of this? An explosion? Her comment that now sounds as though they've already drugged Andy with whatever is in that black mug I saw him walking away with?

"We will have enough money to get some place like this. Lay low with the kids," I frown. Wondering what the hell Danny was saying about this? I had been outside for nearly five to ten minutes and I had not heard much from him expect offering to bring in luggage. Was he going for the syringe he had me place? What was he planning on doing?

When they make their move, not wanting to lose sight of them, I jump, ricocheting myself against the tree, to the wall of Trevor's house, landing soundlessly on the roof. Creeping over, laying low looking down at Danny's car as he and Cynthia fix a sleeping – or maybe unconscious? – Andy in the back seat.

In the lowest of light, I keep my eyes on Danny and Cynthia as they enter the car, reaching for my cellphone inside my coat pocket. I'd have to call dad. Let him know that he should blow out their tires, that Andy was possibly drugged, and I'd join him as soon as they drove away. Holding my breath, eyes narrowed, both Cynthia and Danny hurry into the front seats, closing their doors.

For a minute I see Danny staring straight ahead, almost right at me, the same empty look in his eyes from earlier. It's been years since he's looked that way, I note, before, silently filing it away the instant the thought comes to me.

Thought pushed aside, I concentrate on them. In what feels like minutes but is truly only seconds, I see Danny's hand lower, the view cutting off before I see if he's reaching for the syringe.

I don't have to wait long when I see his hand quickly pulled back, the top of the syringe glinting before it disappears from view again. One hand touching my phone, my eyes wide as I watch Cynthia droop forward, and the breath I was holding comes hisses out of me.

He did sedate her, I think even having trouble processing what I had witnessed. When Danny leans forward, shaking his head before he lays his forehead on his hand, on the steering wheel; I feel sorry for him.

Cynthia was his new start. She had wormed her way in, but it was like Kalenah said, Danny was a mark. There was no Sophie; 'Fay' was actually Faith, not a grown woman but a child.

Cynthia's child.

As his car roars to life, I flip over on my back, listening to the car idle briefly before the sound fades. One text to dad, letting him know not to shoot out Danny's tires, that he had actually sedated Cynthia, and I jog back to my car.

Thankfully, there is no need to head into town. I drive on the outskirts until finally turning onto the path leading home. My lights turned down, I expect to find dad, Kalenah and even Danny at the dungeon entrance from the back. Instead when I get out and walk over to Danny's car, I find Cynthia still in the front slumped over, and Andy in the backseat.

"What's going on? Why haven't you moved Cynthia to the-"

Danny whips around to face me, anger in his eyes. "To your dungeon? Where you keep enemies?"

"Danny you asked us for help," my father comes forward, speaking to Danny in a placating tone, a bit of the confusion I'm feeling mixed right in.

"Yeah I asked for help, not to lock her up like some criminal? She's having a hard time because she wasn't expecting the girl to be here, all she's doing now is spiraling!" he points at Cynthia.

"What am I supposed to tell the kids? Tomorrow when they wake up-"

"That she did something bad, and because she did, that she has to stay locked up until-"

"Until when? Did either of you think of that? Until when? She wants to take our children and run, calling the Elders on all of you... how long are you going to keep her locked away?"

My confusion over Danny lessens when I take into account what he's saying, he's distraught.

"A week? A month? Years?" he waves his hands out wildly, stumbling to talk to all of us, meeting our gazes. "She had been tricked into having that girl. She left her because she felt as though she lost everything over her, what is the difference between what Cynthia did and mothers who give their children up for adoption?" I frown as Kalenah just gapes at my brother.

"I know it's not the same," he shakes his head, "but – she's never going to accept the girl," Danny whispers.

Hearing his ramblings, aware that he's struggling and not thinking clearly, I still cannot bite my tongue. "We will have enough money to get some place like this. Lay low with the kids," I parrot back to my little brother the word I overheard. "She was ready to give up everything and everyone for money," I spit. Blue eyes narrowed at Danny, I take a step towards him.

"You want to know how long we'll keep her locked up Danny?" I ignore the looks from both my Lenah and father. "I say we keep her locked up one year for each person she could have potentially hurt when even considering calling the Elders and sending them here to Bend. And how about one year for each dollar she was ready to hand over Faith to them for, and how about a year for each person she hurt with whatever spell she placed at the Hotel where you guys were staying?"

Danny might not have wanted to lock Cynthia away like we were going too. He probably assumed we'd help her calm down, but not with what I over heard.

"I would never kill Cynthia, but Danny, I'm never going to let her go free. I'd be a fool to let her go – she left Faith behind and I'm pretty sure you helped her drug a child. Tell me truthfully, is the Cynthia you know and love the same person who would sell out this family? Drug a child? Leave an innocent girl behind?" I point towards Andy in the back seat. Breathing heavily, I only then realize how close I am to Danny, six inches separating us.

"How do we even know that she has not already called the Elders?" Kalenah, my voice of reason speaks up, coming to my side. "And the explosion... we do not know for sure it was her, but I feel as though it is Danny," she addresses him.

"How? She must have used a spell... did you even know that Cynthia was still using her magic?" her tone so soft, I almost frown at the gentleness that she was using with him. "Danny, you wouldn't have called if you did not truly believe that she was putting us all at risk. Faith is going nowhere, but for the time being neither is Cynthia," she murmurs. And true to form, I see her calmness almost helping Danny come to see the light, but as she utters the last sentence, it's as though a switch is flipped inside him.

"And who are you and Ansel to dictate where we stay? Just an hour ago you were banishing us both, turning your backs on your nieces and nephews!" he splutters, whipping his head from side to side. His left hand roughly rubs his chin and his eyes go wild, as though the answers to unknown questions were hidden in the bushes surrounding us. "Kalenah... your father can make us forget," no matter how I wanted to judge Danny, as he continued speaking I only felt pity for my younger brother.

"I know she did something wrong, but – she's never going to accept the girl! She hasn't – she isn't all bad, just – clear our memories and give us some money, and we will never come back," from over Danny's shoulder I gaze at my father. A look of pity and defeat on his face reflected what I felt inside of me.

Danny was this way for a week after Tina died. Sprouting out ideas, spells or potions he had heard of that could bring her back. All ideas that were reckless, but he brought them up.

From behind we hear a snap between the trees, Kalenah and I spin towards the sound instantly on guard. Only easing up when my mother, Mary, comes from the brush, a shawl wrapped around her.

"Cynthia and you are going nowhere Danny," she says as evenly as my Kalenah. "I've bound one or two of your children to me, and to the Earth here in Bend."

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