The truth revealed

'Oh hey, Seth.'

'Hey Stan, Aria.'

'Hi.'

'How's it goin', man?'

'Not bad. I'm here because I did that digging you wanted.'

'Already? Nice one. What'd he say?'

'Digging?'

'Seth's in the same gang as Austin. He offered to look into the thing with Nyla. Did you find anything out?'

'Yeah. I was discreet about it, or as much as possible. I wasn't the one to mention Nyla; he brought it up himself when I asked about where to get info.'

'And...?'

'He bribed the mayor for her address.'

'Yo, what...?'

'He did fucking what?!'

'That's what he said. Why?'

'...Ain't the first time there's been trouble between Tate and Nyla.'

'What'd you mean?'

'Last year, Tate's wife left him. Nyla's friends with her, so he tried find out where she went from Nyla and when she didn't tell him, he pointed a fuckin' gun at her. I called the Gallos on him for that.'

'Ha! Nice one. Got what he deserved.'

'Was pretty good, but shit, with it bein' Nyla's address he gave away, it ain't no stretch to think it's personal. Sure, he's fuckin' bent either way, but he shoulda fuckin' learned to stay away from her.'

'I'm gonna fucking kill him.'

'Can't say I'd be upset if you did.'

'I can't believe this! First, he targets my sister and sets her house on fire, and now I'm finding out he's selling women's addresses for the purpose of them getting hurt?! I'm sick to death of this shit!'

'What the fuck? Why'd he target your sister?'

'Because he's a fucking cunt! She spoke to his new girlfriend and told her about his abuse. My sister is a fucking burns victim and terrified of fire. He did it on purpose!'

'Shit...'

'...And did I tell you we're his daughters? That's our father.'

'What the fuck.'

'This all goes way back. Beyond Nyla. He just does this shit and he don't stop. It'd take way too long to tell you everythin' he's done.'

'Jesus. I'm really sorry, both of you. I didn't realise what a fucking mess this'd be.'

'Aria, you got plans tonight? 'Cos I think we oughta go tell the others once we're done here. Decide what to do next.'

'Damn right we should. No, I don't have plans, and even if I did, this is more important.'

'Well, good luck with whatever you come up with.'

'Thanks for tellin' us, anyway. I owe you, man.'

'Yeah, it's appreciated.'

'Just buy me a pint and we'll call it even.'

Later...

'Oh, hello. To what do we owe this pleasure?'

'Nothin' good, I'm afraid.'

'Oh dear. It never is, is it?'

'Nope. See, one of my friends knows Austin, so I asked him to go talk to him, ask how he found out where Nyla's livin'. Turns out, he went and bribed Tate for the address.'

'What? Is that what he said?!'

'Yep. Stan's friend came into the store to tell us.'

'Oh for fuck's sake!'

'Which is why we came straight to tell you. I'm gettin' really fuckin' sick of this shit.'

'Well that's all we need, those two working together!'

'It's got to the point where we need to do something about Tate. About Austin too, but this is the second thing recently that Tate's done to try to hurt people. Seems like a Mafia beating didn't teach him.'

'Surely the Gallos would've warned him off Nyla? And yet he still went to fuck with her for no good reason. ...The awful part of me wants to suggest telling them to make a second appearance. Scare the Christ out of him.'

'They did.'

'Will it make any kind of difference? I'm not convinced it would.'

'Fucking idiot. I guess maybe he felt that since there was no long term damage done, he could get away with continuing to be a cunt. ...Break an arm.'

'Who needs morals when a drug dealer's money's on the line?'

'I almost feel like the best kind of punishment would be to get Brianne and the kids away from him, so he's all alone.'

'...Sorry, don't mind me. Not a good suggestion for a cop, I know.'

'I'm not going to disagree.'

'It's fine, Ellis probably agrees too. He just wouldn't admit it.'

'We need time to think on this.'

'At least we can rely on Topaz for Brianne-related info. She said she's sensed tension between them.'

'One thing for sure, Tate don't care 'bout respectin' and obeyin' the law, and I think we gotta do the same. Ain't nothin' gained by havin' the moral high ground.'

'I kind of hate to admit it, as hypocritical as it may be, but I agree.'

'Me too.'

'And then there's Austin. He's dangerous. First Heath's ma, then goin' to Nyla's, and I heard that he hit Jude too-'

'Wait, what? He hit Jude?'

'That's what she said.'

'She's never told me that! When did that happen?'

'Dunno, man. I saw her in the pub with Seth, we got talkin' bout Austin - that's when I asked him if he could help - and that's when it came out he hit her.'

'Who's Seth?'

'Wait, how would Austin get the chance to hit her? Does he know her?'

'Austin's datin' her ma.'

'...Seth is part of the local gang. He's, uh, made himself known to us, let's put it like that.'

'Then how does Jude know him?'

'She works for him.'

'...Doing what?'

'He runs this MMA ring. Cage fighting, that shit.'

'...You're telling me Jude is part of some illegal cage fighting ring for the local gang, and you never thought to tell us?'

'Well shit, I thought you knew-'

'Do you think we'd approve of this if we did?!'

'I never knew...'

'Oh Jesus Christ.'

'Look, I live in a different world to the rest of you.'

'No shit.'

'And this Seth is your friend?'

'Yeah. He's a good guy, honest! I get this sounds dodgy as hell-'

'Because it is.'

'-but he ain't a bad guy.'

'I find that hard to believe when he's recruiting children not out of school.'

'Why is she doing it in the first place? I don't know anything about fighting for entertainment, but couldn't getting a start in illegal fighting rings potentially fuck up any chances of wrestling professionally?'

'Seth said it was just money on the side and she's gonna leave when she goes to uni.'

'But it doesn't make sense. She was doing proper training, not... this. And she never said anything about it.'

'...Let's focus on the important thing here, about Austin being her mum's boyfriend, and him hurting her. She needs to be out of that situation. She isn't safe.'

'What's she like, Charon? Is she likely to accept outside help?'

'I would've said yes, but now I'm not so sure. I think she's been keeping things from me for ages now. She's had bruises that she blamed on wrestling training, but it's probably from this fighting ring, isn't it? Or Austin...'

'For what it's worth, she said she fought back and he's stayed away from her since.'

'Well, feel free to shoot me down if any of you who actually knows her better thinks this is a bad idea, but I'm thinking it might be for the best for Charon to tell her that he's now aware of this fighting ring and Austin's violence. At the very least, it'd be a starting point.'

'I agree. We need to talk to her and offer her help.'

'Yeah... I just want her to tell me the truth so we can do something to help her. I can't stand the idea of her being hurt and keeping it all to herself.'