Page 54

"I'll be fine."

"You sure?"

"So long as none gets on me."

His chest moved against my shoulder with what I thought was a laugh. "I promise."

I thought about Valentino Lupetto. His brothers. Their businesses. Their alliances. The wolves who would gather around the ring tonight, loosened by alcohol and adrenaline, talking too loudly because they assumed everyone else was watching the fight.

Men were remarkably careless with information when they believed women weren't listening. And I had become exceptionally good at listening.

"I want to go," I said.

Gunnar's arm tightened around me.

"Good."

I smiled.

Yes, it would be.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

GUNNAR

Iloved Astrid. I would kill for Astrid. I had killed for Astrid. But right now I wanted my sister the fuck out of my car.

"Gunnar used to steal my dolls. I'd come home from school and find Barbie tied to a chair, or hanging upside down from the banister. Once, he pulled her arm off and told me she'd cracked under questioning."

I groaned and rolled my eyes, keeping them on the road.

"When I told Ma, he said I couldn't prove anything."

Rosalind burst out laughing.

I'd planned to have my wife to myself on the drive into the city. Forty-five minutes with my wife sitting beside me. Forty-five minutes of her scent filling the car. Forty-five minutes where I could figure out how to make her run towards me when we got home tonight. Instead, Astrid had opened the back door and climbed in before I'd even realized she was coming with us.

Now the two of them hadn't shut up.

Rosalind was smiling, giggling, looking entirely at ease. Her face was turned toward the passenger window. Her pale, unfocused eyes were tilted upward behind her sunglasses.

The moon was out. I wondered if she could see it. I'd started wondering exactly what Rosalind could see. There were too many little things that didn't fit. Nothing large enough to challenge her on. Nothing I could point to and say; there, you lied. Just inconsistencies.

I understood inconsistencies.

The human body was a functioning system. Bone supported muscle. Tendons connected muscle to bone. Ligaments stabilized joints. Nerves carried messages. Blood supplied oxygen. Damage one part and the others compensated until they couldn't anymore.

People worked in the same way. So did lies. One inconsistency meant nothing. Enough of them meant the structure wasn't sound. Rosalind's blindness had inconsistencies.

Normally, I couldn't tolerate unanswered questions. My job was to find answers. Sometimes I asked nicely. Sometimes I broke fingers.

My wife was a puzzle. My puzzle. And I had time.

We pulled up to the venue. I rounded the car to help Astrid out first. Rosalind didn't budge. My wife sat still as though it never crossed her mind that someone wouldn't open her door for her.

"You might want to learn how cars work."

I looked down at my sister. "What the fuck are you talking about?"