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“And you trust the fucking feds to just hand it over? How many forms do we need to get notarized?”

“We’ll make it work. Where’s the heart?”

“They’re going to screw this up, and if you complain they’ll make it your fault and there goes your agency.”

“Stark, where is the heart?”

One room over, Vincent is watching TV with Kasabian. If things go wrong, that’s all he’s ever going to do until Townsend’s body wears out and he floats off to where McCarthy is waiting for him.

“Beneath the fight ring on the main floor. Buried under the floorboards.”

“Good. I’ll pass that along.”

“I want to go in with the raid.”

“You know that’s not possible. I want you staking out the necromancers working with Tamerlan. Something you should have been doing all along, I might add.”

“More busywork.”

“Not if you do it right. We still want to know which necromancers helped at the Murphy Ranch ritual.”

“The Vigil will get that from those clowns ten minutes after they arrest them.”

“Candy has the list of necromancers you’re to check out.”

I look at Candy and she holds up a sheet torn from the hotel memo pad.

“Remember our deal,” says Julie.

“I know I owe you, but you’re playing this all wrong.”

“It’s the way it has to be.”

“Okay, then. Is there anything else?”

“Stay home. Eat something. Go to bed and get an early start in the morning. We’ll meet with the Vigil after the raid and go from there.”

“Sure. Good night.”

“Good night.”

I put down the phone and Candy turns up the sound on the TV. I reach across her and retrieve my tamales.

“What does she have you doing tomorrow?”

“Same as you,” says Candy. “Babysitting Dead Heads. We divvied the list in half.”

“You know she’s making a big mistake.”

“Maybe. But I don’t want to go to jail, so she calls the shots.”

“She wouldn’t rat you out.”

“I don’t think she would either, but I just want to be an employee with a job who does what she’s told for a while, you know?”

“Yeah. I know.”

“So, do what you’re told. We can talk on the phone. If you’re lucky, I’ll get bored and sext you.”