“I don’tpoachanyone.”
“You talk like you do.”
“Then come with me. It’ll be an easier sell with you there. We can all go.” He looked at Bryce and wiggled his eyebrows. “A few cold drinks could do us some good.”
“How many times will you make her say no?” Bryce asked, and Harvey scowled.
“He has a point,” Lola muttered.
Though Enne believed Harvey’s intentions were good, it didn’t matter how much time she spent at the Guild lately—they were associates, not friends. Enne wore her mask to every appointment. She’d still never given them a name other than Séance. And when Rebecca attended their meetings—though infrequently, as of late—she made it clear she still viewed Enne as a fraud.
Enne also suspected she wasn’t the one Harvey was trying to convince to join him for a night out.
“But if you just—” Harvey started.
“I said no,” Bryce snapped, making Harvey stiffen. Bryce stood up and sighed. “I’m not your villain,” he murmured, and then he walked out of the room, and Harvey buried his face in his hands.
Enne and Lola exchanged an uncomfortable look.
Lola cleared her throat. “Well, I think we should be going.”
“Yes, let us know about those recruits...” Enne gathered her belongings and followed Lola out the door.
The pair made their way through the prison’s hallways, keeping their voices low.
“Why do they have to be so strange?” Lola hissed.
“They’ve always been like—”
Lola elbowed her sharply in the side. “It just got stranger.”
Rebecca leaned against the wall by the exit with a gun in her hand.
“This isn’t typically my weapon of choice,” she told them, examining her revolver.
Both Lola and Enne froze.
“Is there something you’d like to say?” Enne demanded. When it came to Enne, Rebeca always had something to say—but not usually while brandishing a firearm.
Rebecca let out a hacking cough, splattering flecks of blood on her sleeve. “We don’t need your business. It would be better for everyone if you stayed away.”
Lola stiffened beside her, but Enne wasn’t so easily threatened. “How do Bryce and Harvey feel about that?” Enne asked, reaching for her own gun inside her purse.
Rebecca let out a laugh. “As if Harvey’s opinion matters.”
Enne didn’t want to get into an argument with someone who was clearly ill. Rebecca didn’t look well enough to stand, let alone challenge them to a shoot-out. And either way, Enne felt she would win.
“You can either step aside, or we can go through you,” Enne told her darkly. “It’s your choice.”
Rebecca narrowed her eyes and backed away. “Just don’t come back.”
Enne and Lola passed through the broken gates outside. Lola walked stiffly, like at any moment, she might be shot between the shoulder blades. Enne kept her hand on her own gun, trying to figure out when Rebecca had stopped treating her like dirt and started treating her like an enemy.
“I knew Rebecca was ill, but I’ve never seen her like that,” Lola told Enne as they turned onto the block where they’d parked her motorcar. “No wonder Bryce has been a mess.”
Bryce had unnerved Enne from the first time they’d met, but now Enne felt a pang of sympathy.
“What is the Balfour family talent?” Enne asked.
