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“Where are you going?”
Dixon dug out his notepad and a small pencil from his pocket. Checking out the lead.
“What lead?” Lila asked.
“You’re not at one hundred percent. You need to rest.”
We went out today.
“That apartment was supposed to be empty, and Lila and I were with you.”
Fry and Dice are going too. We’re only watching. No fighting. Dixon didn’t look up as he wrote, neither requesting permission nor waiting to see if it was given. See you tomorrow.
“Just wait, okay? Let me get my things. I’ll come—”
Dixon cut him off with a look, a look that plainly said he wasn’t invited.
That wasn’t the only look Dixon threw out. He glanced at Lila for only a split second, but that glance said volumes. Annoyance and frustration twisted his face.
They’d been friends before the incident in the tunnels. They’d laughed and joked. He’d once pushed her closer and closer toward his brother.
Now he didn’t even want to be in the same room with her.
Dixon hitched the small bag on his shoulder and shuffled from the room.
Tristan followed him to the door. “Be careful,” he called out, frowning as his brother’s boots thudded on the stairs.
“What lead?” Lila asked again, instead of asking the question she wanted to ask. Of course, she already knew the answer. They hadn’t talked yet, for the wound between them still festered.
What would Tristan do if they did talk and Dixon spoke against her? Who would he choose this time?
She could barely handle a day apart from him.
She stared at her thumbs, realizing the truth. When had her feelings turned so serious? For gods’ sake, they hadn’t even started anything, unless awkwardness and far-off stares counted.
“I have a lead on Natalie, but it’s not much of one,” Tristan said, stuffing his palm in his pocket, pizza forgotten. “One of my people overheard a matron talking to a spy. Chairwoman LeBeau, so you can guess how seriously I’m taking it.”
“Seriously enough. You put two people on it.”
“Not really. Fry and Dice are still smarting over losing Oskar at the auction house. They needed something productive to do, even if it’s a fool’s errand. I’m no different. We’ve chased ghosts ever since. I should never have gone for the other kid. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“Your heart was in the right place.”
“Sometimes it needs be somewhere else.”
Lila looked down at her screen. “I’ve found a few places we can check out.”
“Where?”
“It’s not a short list, Tristan, and I’m not even done yet. I’ll finish going through Natalie’s account data tonight, and we can start tomorrow. I’ll work on the rest from home.” Lila tugged the star drive around her neck and stuck it in the port, saving her work. “I haven’t even begun to look into the oracle’s files.”
“Someone’s already looking for those girls. Oskar doesn’t have anyone looking for him, not anyone who doesn’t want him for their own uses. He’s our priority.” When Lila pulled the pendant from her laptop, Tristan took both from her and set them on the coffee table. Then he stood and offered his hand. “No. You’re going to have something to eat and a nap before you go.”
“You never ordered.”
“You never told me what you wanted,” he said, pulling her from the couch.
Tristan didn’t drop her hand. He intertwined his fingers through hers and stared as though he longed to say something more.
