“And it’s a bad idea anyway,” I point out. “How would we explain what we’re doing with her?”
Pan considers. “Yeah, right. So then…”
He trails off, staring at the freeze-frame on the TV.
“Do we know anything about those guys?” I prompt. “Her brothers?”
He snorts. “Besides the fact that they have enemies, you mean?Had,I guess.”
Christ. “You know what I mean,” I say. “They came to games, right? So they got on the list somehow. Someone vouched for them?” I’m more hopeful than confident here, but maybe there’s something.
Pan squints again and rubs his eyes. “I don’t keep records like that, and you know it,” he says. “Too risky to have a list of names and addresses or whatever lying around.” He opens his eyes again. “She say anything about her dad yet?”
I shake my head. “Not really. I can try and ask, but…” I breathe out. “Sort of hard to ask about without seeming suspicious.” I pause a half-second. “People can tell when you’re trying to pry something out of them, you know?”
“Yeah.” Pan thinks. Then nods, slaps his thighs, and stands up. “Well, that means there’s only one thing to do.”
There is?I think. “Which is what?” I say out loud.
Pan grins. “Host another game,” he says. “Which I was gonna do anyway, just for our little cash flow situation. But now it’s two birds I can hit with one stone.” He closes one eye and aims an imaginary slingshot. “Get all the usual suspects back in, ask around, find out what people’ve heard. Bing, bang, boom.”
The back of my neck prickles. “Yeah…”
Pan folds his arms, clearly displeased that I’m not an enthusiastic yes. “Yeah what? I know that tone, Tink.” His expression flashes serious, then right back to grinning. But with a little edge to it. “What’s your issue?”
“Just…I dunno.” Idon’tknow, is the thing. Pan doesn’t exactlyplanwhen he’s going to host games, not like witha schedule or anything, but even this seems a littletoospontaneous. Especially if Wendy’s still here, which of course she will be.
But maybe not that much longer. If this works.
“See? It’ll be great.” Pan drops back on the couch. “It’s been too boring around here anyway. We’ll get some whales in, maybe see if Treasure will give some of the girls a night off to earn some extra tips…”
The more he elaborates, the less I like it. But I also don’t have a good objection. Not one he’d listen to.
“And we’d somehow figure out more about them,” I say. “About Wendy’s brothers.”
“Yeah, yeah, for sure.” Pan nods, already typing on his phone. “You leave all the talking to me.” He looks up and studies me, must see the expression on my face. “Relax, Tink.” He smiles. “When have I ever,everled us wrong?”
CHAPTER 17
KIT
It’s too earlyfor this shit.
I don’t say that out loud, obviously. Not with the kid around. Wendy. But I sure am thinking it.
It’s barely ten in the morning, the caffeine hasn’t hit my bloodstream yet, and I’ve got a shit ton of ink to scratch into people today. Now, on top of all that, there’s a child lurking around my shop space that I’m supposed to keep occupied for…however long Tink and Pan need to do their scheming, I guess.
Great.
From my station, I glance back in the direction of the staircase, to see Wendy hovering at the little step between the landing and the shop floor proper. Like she’s a vampire and needs to be formally invited in. Which, weirdly, I do kind of appreciate.
“You can come in,” I say. Just in case sheissome kind of vampire and we’ve got a Kirsten-Dunst-Lestat situation on our hands. She does, stepping forward in her bare feet with the dog close at her heels.Right.The dog. Well, I can’t say I object to saving an animal either. Fox was always the one whoreallywanted a pet; I’m just neutral. But this one seems fine.
We hang out there in silence for a moment.
I grab for my coffee cup and drain the last little drop, partly just to have something to do and partly because I’mbeat,and I have an hours-long sleeve outline today that I can’t just be falling asleep at. I haven’t even really finished the design, actually, so that’s going to be step one.
“Well, I’ve gotta…work,” I say, feeling the need to explain to her.
