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“You work for the OCU. Isn’t it literally your job to find things out?”

I hear him swallow thickly. I can almost feel the nervousness and desperation permeating off him from here.

“You’re being serious? You want to help me?”

The last thing I want to do is to help him. I could probably ask around, but Hayden was right. We need to keep this quiet. If I start poking around The Snake with questions about Haze, it might get the wrong attention. The best way to make headway on this is to find out what Alex already knows. Going to him keeps this quiet. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.

“Let’s not get carried away,” I say.

“Right,” he says. He swallows again. “Where should we … I mean, where should I meet you?”

“I’ll text you the address,” I say.

“Sure—”

I cut the call, not bothering to hear what else he has to say. All those years ago, Alex chose to use me. I don’t see the harm in using him back.

Chapter Three: Alex

Ipulled the Death card for you this morning,” Halle says, placing a Strawberry Shortcake-themed mug of hot chocolate on the table in front of me. On the Sundays we’re not working, Halle and I try new breakfast places and assign it a rating out of ten.

After that, we come back to one of our apartments to watch a movie with hot chocolate or some fancy cocktail she’s learnt how to make from the internet or from the high-end bar sheworks in—wellusedto work in. They fired her as soon as they heard she might be up for the murder of a client she met in their establishment.

It’s always been our dream to open up a bar of our own since we were in Canning working late shifts for under the table pay. Maybe when we’re old and grey. Maybe when we survive this.

“Why does that sound ominous?” I ask.

Her apartment smells of sage and almost every surface is covered in creeping ivies that I suspect will soon take over the entire living area if she isn’t careful. There’s one I suspect listens in to our conversations.

She laughs, her eyes catching the blurry silver light. “That solely depends on you.”

“Of course it does.”

She rolls her eyes. “The card fell sideways, so it could mean anything.”

I remember the night Halle moved in with us at Jim and Irina’s place. She had a wild mess of curly hair and eyes that looked too large for her face. I was the youngest foster kid they were taking care of and the two older boys enjoyed using me as a punching bag to ease their childhood traumas.

Halle was a year older but just as small and yet somehow she packed a mean punch. She taught me how to punch them back—knuckles up, palm down and just go for it—and we’ve been inseparable since. From the streets of Canning to a life across the river.

Everything we’ve ever wanted.

“Anything like what?” I ask.

She sighs loudly, as if she’s the one being inconvenienced. Her interests have jumped from the occult to astrology to palmistry. Name it and she’s tried it. Her latest obsession is Tarot, and I’ve received dozens of messages with pictures of card spreads I barely understand.

She crosses her legs on the plush blue couch across from me, a golden cuff circling her tattoo-covered left arm. “If the card is upright, it can mean you’re letting go of old patterns, or you’re transforming into something new and releasing bad energy.”

That doesn’t sound so bad. I really need a breakthrough right about now. “And if it’s upside down?”

“If it’s upside down, it can mean you’re afraid of changing or that you’re repeating old and harmful patterns. It could point to stagnancy and, at worst, decay.”

“Fun,” I mutter.

“Are you refusing to let go of old patterns, Alex?” She wiggles her brows with a playful smile. “Ex-boyfriend maybe?”

My mug pauses at my lips. Of course, I know she’s messing with me, but it still makes my heart stutter. She’s the only one I’ve ever confided in about Rowan, and even then, I kept the details vague. To the OCU, I was a rising star who had successfully infiltrated the most dangerous clan in Senna. But the truth is, it didn’t make me a great detective—it just meant I fell in love with him, and he was intrigued enough to let me stick around.

Not wanting to keep my thoughts spiralling because of Rowan, I turn the attention back on Halle. “Has the lawyer been in touch?”