Lakshmi didn’t look up from her phone.“Doesn’t mean you can’t drive up the bid, pet.”
I left them to it and stepped out into the alleyway for a smoke.I watched a group of teenagers wander by, give me a brief, dark glance, and head toward the ball court.As they did, they nudged each other and pointed at a flash black Porsche parked on the corner—
I went cold.
The cigarette fell from my numb fingers, and I stamped it out before it could roll away.My heart vibrated in my throat as I strode across the street and rapped my knuckles against the tinted glass of the driver’s-side window.The kids gathered at the fence to watch.
With a soft whirring sound, the window cracked open, and Jean’s silvery eyes glinted at me.
“Darling—” he began.
“No, you don’t talk.”The last time we’d been this close, I’d barely been able to get a word out, but now I didn’t even sound weak.Though I was shaking.
“I only wished to express—”
“I said you don’t talk.”
“Darling—”
“Shut it!”I slammed the heel of my hand against the windowsill, and he leaned away, eyes widening.Then narrowing.
“I can imagine the lurid story you’ve been telling.”His voice was the familiar dangerous purr.“But we both know what really happened between us.What always happens.”
I blinked at him, realizing it was time to take a leaf out of Finch and Skyler’s playbook.I fished my phone from my suit pocket and aimed it at him, holding his window open as he desperately tried to close it.The flash reflected off the cream interior of the car and Jean’s pale skin, causing him to wince and cower like the subterranean creature he was.
“You tell him, bruv!”one of the youths shouted, and I turned to see our adolescent audience in rapt attention.The same pimple-faced hoodlum turned on Jean.“Stay out these ends, ya neek!”
“Yeah, or we’ll call the feds on you!”another added.
“Your face’ll be up in there by end of day,” I told Jean, and inclined my head back toward the center.“There’s a pedo board.”
A chorus ofOHHHs went up.
I let go of his window, and it whirred shut immediately.I stepped back as the Porsche squealed and nearly dinged a skip on its way out of the narrow alleyway.The teenagers whooped and jeered at it as it sped by.They turned on me next.
“You told him, innit?He was bare buki,” one said.
“Mad par.You’re well shot of him, still,” added yet another.
“Oi,” I said affectionately to children I didn’t know.“Bugger off.”
They shouted a few more friendly threats and moved on.
“Aw.”Lakshmi’s voice sounded near me, and I jumped.“Such cheeky ickle sprogs.”She walked toward me down the alley, unlit slim dangling from her lips.
“Bloody hell—” I coughed “—I thought you were still inside.”I stuffed my hands into my pockets.“Sorry about Sam and Craig, by the way.”
She shook her head and lit up, face briefly gilded.“Don’t be, I quite like them.We’ve got a date next week.”
I stared.“With which one?”
“Both.”She offered me a cigarette, and I stepped closer, allowing her to light it for me.As our heads bent together, she asked softly, “Was that who I think it was?”
I didn’t answer and took a long drag of the unfamiliar, somehow harsher menthol.I coughed again; it started out noncommittal but ended up generally affirmative.
I was still shaking, but for once it wasn’t from fear or anger.I wanted more than anything to rush home to Lucas ...but he wasn’t there.We were scheduled for a conversation later in the evening when Lucas took his lunch break—he’d been right about the time difference working in our favor—but I didn’t want to talk to him.
I wanted him to hold me.
