CJ’s expression doesn’t change.
I sigh. “It’s to steal a soul from the Afterlife, okay?”
CJ presses their lips together and takes a deep breath through their nose. When they let it out, they say, “This is about Dante.”
“No, of course not, why would you say that?”
CJ levels me with a stare, and okay, maybe it was a little foolish to think they wouldn’t put two and two together.
“We’re not doing this again,” CJ says.
“Doing what again? We’ve never stolen a soul before. Nobody has. We’re not doing anythingagain. What we’re doing is brand-new.”
They put aside their tools. Unfortunately, that leaves the body’s mouth hanging open, this time with a crisscross of string inside.
CJ waits for me to make eye contact. “Dante’s gone. It sucks. But you have to accept it. Even if we could resurrect someone—which is impossible—Dante’s soul is gone. We’ve checked. He’s passed on to whatever’s after…after.”
That’s probably the most I’ve heard CJ say at one time, so I’m surprised that they aren’t done with their rant.
“This insistence you have that we can bring Dante back is what broke up the crew in the first place.”
I admit that stings a little, but I scoff. “Who can say why the crew broke up?”
“You yelled at us that if we wouldn’t help you resurrect Dante, then we could fuck right off, and we took that literally.”
“Well, surely notliterally.” I clear my throat, scuffing my shoes on the tile floor. “You know, ‘yell’ is really a strong word. I spoke loudly at best.”
CJ looks at me flatly, then goes back to their work, jaw set. That usually means the conversation is over, but I’m not giving up that easily.
“It’s different this time. There are…Things have…Just trust me.”
CJ raises an eyebrow behind their goggles. “Trust a con artist?”
“You’re not a mark. You’re my crew. And you have to trust your crew.”
They just shake their head. In the silence, I hear the first hint of sirens in the distance. CJ does too, and it snaps them out of their stupor.
They yank the goggles off their face. “What did you do?”
“Me? What? Nothing?” I say, backing away. “Unrelated, that car outside, is it free for a quick getaway?”
“The hearse?”
“Yeah, is there a body in there?”
“Would it matter?” they ask, but they’re already pulling off their protective gear.
I shrug. “Not really. It’s just, we either take that or the Rolls they’re looking for.”
CJ closes their eyes, and I know I have them.
Stealing the car wasn’t about transportation. I could have easilytaken the commuter rail out to Salem. But the Rolls comes with a built-in tracker. The owner gets a notification when the car gets too far away from them. Easy enough to disable, but I turned it back on once I got here. If I gave CJ enough time to think this through, they’d just keep coming up with excuses. But if I can get them to say yes now, I’ve got them.
Once they’re in, they’re in.
CJ groans. “I’ll drive.”
I clap my hands together and do a little hop. “Let’s go!”
