There it was. The real Vivian. She sounded judgmental and bitter. She sounded like she’d be more than happy to stab Ryder with pencils until he stopped breathing.
I didn’t like her much before. I pretty much hated her now.
Ryder’s expression barely changed. Just a slight tightening at the edges of his eyes, just a slight clench of his jaw. I had a good feeling he’d seen this side of her before.
“I mean,” Vivian said, her laugh falling fat and false into our shared silence. “I knowyoulike them because you are so, soartistic. But I want to ride along with Delaney. Ask her some questions for my article.”
“You can ask me some questions,” Ryder said, sounding a little hurt. “I’m sorry I went overboard on the pencils. There are other things I can show you here. Kelp—”
“No! These are questions only Delaney can answer. What it’s like to be a female chief of police. What it’s like having your sisters working for you. You promised me you’d answer the questions, remember?”
Vivian turned to me and mouthed,please.
I didn’t like liars.
I didn’t like manipulators.
And I didn’t like her.
I opened my mouth to tell her no, when Ryder cut me off. “We’ll all go together.”
Vivian closed her eyes for a second, her brows pulled tight, her fingers flexing into my arm, really digging deep now like she wanted to punch someone and was only keeping herself from doing so by holding onto me.
I looked up at Ryder, who jabbed his thumb off to the side.
Crow was about a block away, making the “kill it” slice finger sign across his neck.
Something was happening, or about to happen, and we needed to get Vivian out of here.
I jumped immediately into action, opening the back door and all but shoving her inside.
“I’ll answer a few questions before I drop you off back at your hotel.”
I slammed the door. Ryder had already ducked into the passenger’s seat, so I slid into the driver’s seat. I started the car, keeping an eye on Crow in my side mirror. Just as I eased out onto the street, I saw me, well, Tish-me running for all they were worth, Death hot on their heels.
I gunned it and turned up the radio, old rock music coming on strong.
“You’re staying at the Sand Garden, right?”
“I don’t—Can you turn that down?”
Ryder looked away from the side view mirror and turned the music down to a better level. “I know how you love to rock out,” he said to me, “but Vivian has questions.”
Than caught Tish-me by the back of the shirt and pulled them up short. Tish-me hung their head, and Than leaned in to whisper something in their ear. Tish shivered, and nodded.
Than held onto one of Tish’s arms. Crow jogged up on the other side of the ghoul, taking their other arm. Last I saw them, Tish-me was being carefully guided into Crow’s car.
So much for promising not to run.
“So, Delaney. Tell me what it’s like to be the chief of police?”
“It’s good,” I said. “Following in my father’s footsteps. I’ve always known I would go into law enforcement.”
“But didn’t you get any push-back from the town? I know small towns can be so much more judgmental than big cities.”
“In my experience, it isn’t towns or cities that are judgmental, it’s people. We have a lot of diversity in Ordinary. No one blinked an eye at me taking on these duties. And if they wanted me out of the position, if I weren’t doing the best job I could do for them, I’d resign and let someone better qualified take my position.”
“You don’t really mean that do you?” Ryder asked.
