Page 155 of The Best Shot

Annie: ominous

Ava: i mean we keep an eye on him. nothing weird, nothing he’d notice

Tabby: he’ll notice

Ava: not if we’re smart about it. we just... hold the fort

Annie: hold the fort?

Ava: Yes, keep the man alive and return him to Yasmine un-feral in five months

Tabby: we can do that

Annie: definitely

Carter: I don’t understand what’s happening.

Grant: Don’t try to.

45

“YOU DIDN’T HEAR IT FROM ME.”

A MONTH AFTER THAT

HALE

Yasmine had been gone a hundred and nine days.

I knew because her first email had come the morning after she left, and I’d counted every one since.

Ricochet on a Monday was half-empty and low-lit, the way I liked it lately. Grant sat on the stool beside me, working on the same beer he’d had for an hour, watching the TV over the bar.

My friends had been taking turns with me since Yasmine left. Nobody admitted to it, but I was pretty sure there was a schedule.

Monday was Grant’s night.

I didn’t know why. Maybe he’d volunteered. He’d started finding reasons to stay late at the shop, then reasons to end up here. I hadn’t asked any of them to do it, but nobody seemed to think that mattered.

We’d been sitting a while when Grant said, without looking over, “You planning to go home tonight?”

“Eventually.”

“Before or after the bartender starts stacking chairs?”

I grunted and turned my glass a quarter turn against the wood.

“You’ve been leaving the shop later,” he said.

“Busy.”

“And ending up here.”

“Thirsty.”

“Right.”

He went back to the TV, leaving the lie where I’d put it.