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He stops.

“Try that again,” I say, “without telling me what I’m allowed to do.”

Merek turns back to the stove.

Tav’s ears go flat. He puts both hands on the table on either side of his plate.

“Sorry,” he says. “That came out wrong.”

“Yeah, it did.”

He takes a breath. It’s a big breath. It goes on for a while.

“I don’t want you going back down there,” he says. “Not yet. I don’t want you behind the bar with your back to the room. I don’t want you anywhere I can’t see you.” He looks at his hands. “That’s what I meant. I said it like I get to decide.”

“You don’t.”

“I know.”

“Okay,” I say. “Better.”

Merek takes his coffee and goes out to the back deck with Billy Bob, and closes the slider behind him, which is the most tactful thing I’ve ever seen him do.

Tav doesn’t touch his eggs. I push the plate an inch toward him. He pushes it back.

“I went back at three,” he says.

“Back where?”

“The walk-in. The vault. The rigging room. After the inspector finished the reinforced suite, I went and checked all of them again. I’d already checked them. I checked them Thursday. I checked the walk-in twice on Friday.” He turns his coffee cup around on the table without picking it up. “I knew they were fine. I checked them anyway. Then I went back and checked them again, and I couldn’t stop.”

“Tav.”

“When something breaks, I fix it. That’s what I do. I’ve done it in that building for sixty years. A hinge goes, I replace it. Somebody tells me the freezer door sticks, I fix the freezer door.” His ears go back. “Somebody’s doing this on purpose. I can’t fix that. I can replace every cable in the building, and they’ll just pick something else. I don’t know what they’ll pick. I keep trying to guess, and I can’t.”

I don’t say anything for a second. Neither does he.

“I know,” I say. “I keep trying to guess too. I lie there and think, okay, what’s next. The ice machine. The stairs.” I pick at the morning bun. “I don’t know what to do about it either. But I’m not going to hide in Lenart’s office until Lammas. I’d lose my mind.”

“I know.”

“And if I hide, whoever it is wins anyway. Maybe I don’t miss a night. But I’m not working. I’m just sitting in a room waiting for somebody to find a way in.” I look at him. “I want to go to work. I want to learn the ledgers. I want to have breakfast with Merek and dinner with Lenart and go up on the roof with William. I want to see where you live.” I shrug. “I want my life. I just got it.”

Tav’s quiet for a while.

“I don’t get to make your decisions, Boss,” he says finally. “I know that.”

“Good. Because you’d be terrible at it. You can’t even eat your eggs.”

He picks up the fork and eats a bite of eggs, very deliberately.

I laugh. It hurts my throat a little.

“So,” he says. “What do you want to do today?”

“Honestly?”

“I want to see where you live,” I say. “I’ve seen where everybody lives but you.”