"You'd haunt us anyway," I said. "You've been haunting me since the balcony."
The dark in Skylar's corner shifted. Her boots came into the weak light from Jacob's dashboard glow, crossed at the ankle, both trench knives strapped high on her thighs where the black fabric gave way to skin. She had cut the leg panels short on purpose. Skylar did everything on purpose.
"That was a business transaction."
"You bit me."
"I bill by the hour."
Raphael made a noise like a car engine giving up. "Can we not do this. Please. For like ninety minutes."
"No," Natalia said.
The van hit a pothole and everything in the back lurched. Emi's kit slid and she caught it with both hands before a single vial moved. She had packed it by weight distribution, heaviest at the base, so it would not tip if we took a corner hard. She had told me about it Tuesday for eleven straight minutes and I had listened to all eleven.
She caught me watching and her cheeks went the color of the inside of a peach.
