“I’m a salesman.”
“Does Levi know you’re here?”
“I’m not afraid of Pup,” he challenged. “Besides, Sundays are my nights off.” He grinned wickedly. “I figured you might remember.”
Reymond went scarlet. “Muck off, Harvey.”
He yanked Enne away from the table, back toward the bar. “I leave you alone for fifteen minutes, missy, and you manage to find the seediest person here.” He shook his head. “Don’t tell Levi about this. He’ll blame me, and hehatesthe Guild. He and Mardlin are real holier-than-thou about it.” Reymond took the card out of his pocket. “What did Harvey give you?”
“It’s nothing,” she muttered.
“I can hear lies, missy,” he hissed.
“Itisnothing. I...didn’t want to take it.”
Reymond squeezed her arm tighter, so tight it hurt. “Why is it that half the time you speak, I can hear the lies on your lips?”
Enne’s ears heated in a sort of shame. She hadn’t realized she’d been lying to him—and to herself. Shedidwant to know after all. She’d broken plenty of Lourdes’s rules since leaving home, but doubting her mother felt like the worst sort of betrayal.
Reymond leaned down lower. “I don’t care if you hide something from me, but Iknowyou’re hiding something from Levi. Why is he helping you?”
“Because I’m paying him to,” she said, her voice rising. She snatched the card out of his hand and thrust it in her pocket.
“You’re lying again.”
She froze. Sheintendedto pay Levi, once they found Lourdes. Enne didn’t have access to the bank account or the volts on her own. But if Reymond told Levi, then Enne would be without help. Levi had promised they were in this together, and she thought she believed him, but it was hard to be sure. Volts were more of a guarantee than good intentions.
“Levi’s in trouble,” Reymond said. “He won’t tell me exactly what it is, but I have my suspicions. And if I find out you’re leading him into more, or if anything happens to him, then I will find you.” He didn’t need to add on another threat. Enne understood him perfectly well. “Levi isn’t like us. He’s better than us.”
Us,he said. But he and Levi were both criminals—Enne was better than both of them.
“I’m not like you,” she snapped.
“Lourdes was. I recognize a familiar face when I see one.”
He let her go, and Enne rubbed her arm where he’d squeezed, where her muscles ached.
“They’re over there.” He nodded at a table in the corner, where Jac and Levi were laughing over several empty glasses. Reymond left her to join them, and Enne wandered over slowly, slightly shell-shocked, still slightly drunk.
Levi locked eyes with her, and he smiled. It made her stomach knot. She needed to sober up.
“I like the lipstick,” he said.
“Did you find anything?” she asked, ignoring Reymond’s suspicious stare as she slid into the seat beside Levi.
Levi held up a napkin. “I won this.”
“Impressive.”
“No, there’s an address on it. We’ll go tomorrow.”
Enne relaxed. They wouldn’t leave empty-handed.
Shewasn’t empty-handed, though. She still had the business card in her pocket. It was a terrible idea, but shedidwant to know the truth about herself.
Of course, she’d rather hear it from her mother. And the address Levi had could lead them straight to Lourdes, which meant Enne didn’t need a blood gazer. Not yet.
“I didn’t find anything,” Jac said sheepishly.
