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I hear it from three feet away because Tink’s got the volume cranked and there’s nothing else to hear in the desert.

“Who took her?” Tink’s already moving. “Fox. Who.”

“A guy—there was a guy, he came into the shop—” Fox is breathing like he just ran a mile.

“County.” That’s Blue. “Child services.”

Shit. I think it at the same time Tink says it.

I didn’t want a kid. Obviously, I fucking didn’t—me? I have no business caring for a child, I can barely care for myself—but I like Wendy. If Wendy’s what it’s like to have a kid, then you know what, fine.

Like how if Tink’s what it’s like to have a…

A Tink.

I touch my fingers to my lips.

“Shit.” Tink swears again and spins in a circle, hand clutching her head, and I crash back to Earth. “Fuck. Okay. How long ago?”

She’s looking at me now. Like I’m gonna know what to do better than she does.

Like that’s ever, ever been the case.

“I dunno, five minutes?” Fox again. “Ten? I’ve been blowing up Pan’s phone, but they left⁠—”

“They,” Tink interrupts. “Is Nana there?”

“What?”

“Is the dog in the shop,” she enunciates. “Is Nana in the shop with you right now.”

Her phone crackles. There’s a few thuds, a voice that’s maybe Kit’s in the background.

“No,” Fox says. “She’s—no. They let her take her. The guy said it was fine, he said they’d⁠—”

“Okay.” Tink squeezes her eyes shut. “Wait. Shut up a second.”

And she goes quiet. Full quiet, eyes closed, the pink of the sun flaring around her in silhouette.

“How would they know?” Her eyes fly open and she stares at me. “CPS, or whoever. How would they know she was there?”

I’m not sure if she’s asking me or Fox or whoever else is listening in on the phone. But I shrug anyway.

“They wouldn’t.” Blue again. “They—fuck,” he roars.

“That wasn’t CPS.” Tink’s back on her phone, thumbs working furiously.

“Tink.” I come around her shoulder. “Tink, what⁠—”

“I put a tracker on her.”

I blink. “You put a what?”

“On the dog. On her collar. An AirTag.” She doesn’t look up. “Zuzu gave it to me⁠—”

“Zuzu?!”

“Yes.” Tink lowers the phone an inch and glares at me. “Look, after Wendy…ran away, I made her promise she’d never pull anything like that again. And then Zuzu had these little, I don’t know, self-defense kit things with AirTags in them and she said I should use it for something I didn’t want to lose⁠—”