The Angels looked to Duane.
Duane bit off half of what appeared to be another cupcake and ignored us.
“His name is Duane?” Skyla whispered to Lotus.
“Oh my God, we all need to be way better human beings,” Shanti declared.
“Anyway—” Raye tried to regain control of the situation.
She failed.
“You got problems?” Persia asked Duane.
Before he could stop chewing and answer, Skyla added, “What problems?”
“We have it under control—” Raye tried again.
“You do?” Duane asked, chocolate cake crumbles and vanilla frosting bits flying from his mouth.
“You do?” Persia and Lotus asked at the same time, without the food flying.
“We do,” Raye confirmed, even if, truthfully, we didn’t.
Duane lost interest in his cupcake, set it and the box of them he had open on the table (I was right, he was tearing into cupcake two), and asked, “Is Amy all right?”
Eek!
Raye took in a big breath, and I could see she was forming a plan to tackle the entirety of this situation.
Then she formed it.
First, she turned to Jinx. “Do you know where Noah lives?”
Jinx sniffled.
“No, I—” she began.
Raye interrupted her. “Okay. We’ll find out. Then we’re taking your ass there. You’re gonna talk shit out with him. Because you aren’t fooling anybody, you’re into him too. You’re gonna figure that out, take that risk, and we aren’t gonna listen to a single word said against it.”
Jinx immediately said several words against it.
“What if it doesn’t work out?” Jinx asked.
“What if it does?” I asked back.
Jinx bit her very full, very pretty lip.
While she was musing on that, Raye announced, “Now, we need privacy to talk with Duane.”
“The hell you do,” Persia said. “If he’s got problems, we’re in.”
“Who’s fuckin’ with you?” Lotus demanded of Duane. “’Cause you’re a skeeve, but you’re all right.”
“What she means is, you’re our skeeve,” Skyla clarified to try to be more polite, though she didn’t do it very well.
“Nobody can be in on this,” Duane declared. “They’re watching, and I don’t want?—”
“Duane,” Raye said softly, “Amy is not being held by bad guys. Amy’s working with the bad guys to make you do whatever it is they’re asking you to do. Amy’s fine. She’s had a recent manicure and is still regularly in contact with her son.”
