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“We have to stay low profile. Especially if we’re trying to disassociate from Trick.”

“Ah crap, that’s right.” Mark made an exaggerated frown. “You’ll have to run into Cute Neighbor Sadie at home.”

“Wait, she’s your neighbor?” Perry said, voice pitching higher in alarm.

Joan held her palms up. “It’s fine. She thinks I work at a gym.”

“Does she know where you live?”

“It’s literally across the hall.”

“Joanie—”

“Everything’s cool. Relax.”

Perry rubbed at his temples and muttered in Portuguese. “Nothing makes me worry more than when the two of you tell me everything’s cool.”

“Everythingiscool, Per,” Joan said.

“Don’t go near that café. You know better than that.”

Mark looked at her. They shared the same thought in unspoken twin-speak:He hates it when we try to be normal.

Perry had worried when Mark tried culinary school. Worried when Joan had that brief series of office jobs in her twenties. Worried when she’d announced she was moving out of the same building as them to get a little breathing room. No matter how hard the Malone twins tried to live among the norms, it never lasted long.

Mark’s phone vibrated with an incoming text. “Ooh, I’m getting a hot tip that there’s gonna be a shipment of gold bars arriving from Australia on Wednesday.”

That would be a sweet score. The sort of thing they could use toward opening a food truck.

Perry perked up. “Get me the details. Let’s keep this one to ourselves.”

“Like I’d ever share with Melvin and Company unless they already knew about it.” Mark made a face.

Joan touched the napkin with her childlike rendering of her and Mark in front of their Hot and Cold food truck. It really was a pipe dream.

Damn it. They had to avoid Bromley Street until things cooled down. It’d be crawling with cops, and the Supers would be sniffing around. Which meant not seeing Sadie unless they happened upon one another at home.

She should probably steer clear of Sadie anyway, for her cute neighbor’s own good. Getting tangled up in villainy wasn’t something norms should do. Especially not someone unknowingly getting involved.

Joan sighed and slurped her lukewarm coffee.

CHAPTER3

Sadie held the glass door open for her coworkers. Amit and Nyah passed through the front entrance. They all preferred it over walking through the alley behind Vector City Coffee at ten-thirty at night.

She tugged on the door to make sure it was locked. Then she joined Amit and Nyah on the sidewalk. “Hump Day done,” she said, taking her hair out of its ponytail.

Amit grimaced at the still boarded-up window. Work on Allegria Tower was tying up a lot of resources and manpower. The top corner had been taken out by Breeze and Flight a month or two back. A bit ironic, since the building housed the corporate headquarters for Allegria Insurance.

“It’ll get fixed,” Nyah said. She zipped up her carnation-pink hoodie. The bright color made her rich brown skin glow in the streetlight.

“And we have the money to fix it,” Sadie said.

Amit snorted. “Guilt money.”

“Who cares?” Nyah checked her phone. “Mysterious money shows up in our bank account with a note saying ‘For the window.’ Probably from Lunk. He paid for what he broke.”

“I don’t care who it’s from. It’s the bare minimum for what they should be doing.”