“They didn’t get in.”
“That is not the comforting part you think it is.”
“Someone scared them off.”
“Police?”
I snort. “In Halo? Please.”
“Who, then?”
I hesitate.
Mira’s eyes narrow. “Oh no. That face.”
“What face?”
“That is a man face.”
“It is not a man face.”
“That is absolutely a man face. I work in emergency care. I know symptoms.”
I take another drink. “There’s this Vakutan.”
Nara blinks twice. “That sentence arrived with shoulders.”
“He’s been around the neighborhood for months. Huge, quiet, scary-looking, probably ex-military. People avoid him.”
“And you…?”
“I waved at him.”
“Of course you did.”
“He stopped some Poison Memories idiots from breaking into the bakery last night.”
Mira’s concern shifts into something sharper. “Was anyone hurt?”
“No. They ran. Fast. Like spiritually, physically, and genealogically fast.”
“Good.”
“Then I talked to him from the upstairs window.”
“Evie.”
“I was inside. High ground.”
“You flirted from a siege position?”
“I did not flirt.”
“Did you make jokes?”
“Maybe.”
“Then you flirted.”
