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Immediately, I felt the urge to shrink down, embarrassed by how invested I was in this stupid show. But Tess didn’t bat an eye.

Instead, she nodded her head with approval. “Kind of a badass move, honestly. Chad seemed like kind of an asshole. She deserved better.”

And as I looked over at Tess, fully absorbed in the show, I worried that she might be more right than she realized — that the person sitting next to her would never deserve her.

81

TESS

I wasn’t sure what Cyrus’ deal was. One moment, she was sweet and open, looking like she was about to kiss me. And the next, it was like she was desperate for any excuse to put space between us.

And the second her show was over, she was gone from the living room, muttering about having to take care of some stuff in her room.

What is her deal?

When Butch had hopped into my lap, I was ready to move him off. But by the time I looked back up at her, she’d completely shut down, clinging to her laptop and TV remote like they were a shield.

She could have just said no…

If she didn’t want me like that, I wasn’t going to push it. It was probably for the best anyway. With so much going on, it was smarter not to complicate things more than we needed to — at least not until the camera pass off was finished.

It was only a few days away now.

As I walked through the park, I could hardly believe it. Everything was about to change. If the hand-off went well, we would gain unprecedented insight into what was happening inside the pearly gates of Rubin’s compound. We might even find enough evidence for Violence to intervene.

And if it goes poorly?

I bit my lip, refusing to linger on that possibility.

There was a quiet tension lingering in the air: the birds were more distant, the air was chillier. It was as if the park knew what was coming. Perhaps better than we did…

As I crossed into Black Doubloon, though, the park’s eerie silence broke, giving way to rock music playing off a tinny, portable speaker. I followed the sound to its source and found Blade perched on the plank of the big pirate ship, legs dangling off either side.

The fact that Blade had chosen the plank of all things as a work surface made my chest tight. One unexpected sway of the ship, and all of her shit was going into the water.

She didn’t seem to notice me approaching — or at least, she didn’t look up. Her hands were busy with a tiny set of tools. I couldn’t quite make out what she was tinkering with, but the magnifying glass hanging from her headlamp told me that it was delicate work.

I leaned against the center mast, trying not to startle her. But my idling was met with a chuckle. “Who’re you hiding from, Trinket?”

“Not hiding. Just didn’t want to interrupt.”

“Please,” she glanced up, waving me over with a smirk. “You’re never interrupting.”

Once I got closer, I could see that the project was so much more delicate than I’d anticipated. Sprawled out in front of her was an assortment of tiny wires and motherboards, mini camera lenses, microphone pieces.

And at the center of it all was one hollowed out crucifix necklace. Even looking at the casing, I could tell it was a bit bigger than the golden ones I was used to — guys at Velvet Paradise wore them all the time.

But it was also more ornate. There was some sort of circular shape at the intersection of the cross: a halo, if I had to guess.

My stomach twinged as the boat rocked and a spare screw tumbled overboard. “You stress me out.”

“What?” she laughed.

“How can you do such sensitive work here?”

“I like the fresh air,” she smiled. “Plus, a bit of danger makes me move more carefully. The thing is almost done, anyway. Wanna see?”

I actually never wanted to think about this again. The stress of this plan was going to give me a hernia — especially since I was the one who had signed Lola up for it all. But if she was willing to take this risk, the least I owed her was double-checking every step.