More silence. But tenser, this time.
“Are you fucking serious?” Blue all but yells. There’s something in his eyes I’ve never seen before—something beyond irritation and grumpiness. Something more likefury.“No. Take her back.”
“Taking her back?” Fox repeats, concern written all over his features. “To who?”
“Doesn’t fucking matter,” Blue spits. “Whoever’s there.”
Kit laughs. “What, you mean two body bags and a pile of ashes?”
“No,” I cut in quickly, because now I’m seeing where Blue is going, and it feels like a little possibility opening. “To, you know, a social worker or something.”
Fox stiffens. Kit lets out a short, hard laugh.
“She doesn’t have any other family?” Fox looks, for some reason, at me.
“Idon’t know!” I screw my eyes shut. “She mentioned her dad, maybe? But…”
Everyone waits.
“But it sounds like he went out for cigarettes and never came back,” Pan finishes for me, casually studying his fingernails. “Tale as old as time.” He shrugs.
“So she’d just end up in the system,” Fox says. And there’s a note of what sounds almost like…heartbreak in his voice. He looks at Pan. And Pan looks at me.
“Well, I…” I stumble a little, my heart racing. “I mean, Jesus, what’s the alternative? Blue’s right. She can’t stay with us.”
If Blue appreciates the backup, he doesn’t show it. Asshole.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Pan counters, rubbing his chin. “Could be fun. She could be like a mascot or something. Don’t you have a little bike in the garage she can ride around on?” He mimes revving a clutch at Fox, whose face brightens, then clouds. “Or she could be like a…what’s that thing in sororities?” He snaps his fingers. “A house mother.”
“House mother?” Treasure echoes. “You better not be trying to make some little girl act like your mommy.”
“Okay, okay.” Pan backs off, chastened, and tries again. “So we give her a job. Can twelve-year-olds tattoo?”
“Ten-year-old,” I say.
“No,” Kit and Blue say in unison.
“God,fine.” Pan sighs again, drumming his fingers on his upper arm. “Well, I’m out of ideas. Tink, you’re the problem-solver here. Do…something.”
At that, someone laughs. Blue.
And for some reason…for some reason that makes me mad. Mad enough to look him in the eye, even though he came so close the other night to seeing me, to finding it all out.
“What?” I say, and fold my own arms. “We should’ve just waited there for the fuckin’ fire department to show up? And cops, probably?”
Blue’s eyes are hard and cold as ice on mine. But I don’t back down.
Don’t have anything else to say, either.
But after last night, the way I felt like I was pinned in place…
I can’t let Blue think I’m a pushover.
It’s too big a risk.
“Yeah.” To my surprise, it’s Fox who speaks up. “I mean, we panicked, I guess, but Tink’s right. It would have been really bad to get caught at the…you know.” He lowers his voice. “Scene of the crime.”
“Ah, of course. So you brought her home,” Kit drawls. “To a tattoo parlor across the street from a titty bar.”
