Page 96 of Concealed in Death

“Maybe, just maybe. She’s no leader, but can be led. Iris went to church, like Lupa, like Carlie. Lots of churchy talk with Jones and Jones. Where does that fit in? Does it?”

When she rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands, Roarke took her arm. “Let it sit for now. Get some sleep.”

“I feel like I’m circling it, like I’m close, but not close enough to see it clearly.”

“In the morning you might.”

She shot him a look when he led her out. “You could find Sebastian’s flops. You could,” she pressed when he said nothing.

“I imagine I could.”

“Just keep that on tap, okay? I won’t ask unless I have to ask.”

“Agreed, if I agree with the ‘have to ask.’”

That had to be swallowed, though it was hard going down. “Good enough.”

Again, all the pretty girls sat in a circle. More had faces of their own now, young and sad in contrast with their bright clothes, bright hair.

They didn’t chatter like the girls in Times Square, or giggle at jokes only they could understand. They sat, they watched.

Eve thought they waited.

“I’m getting close,” she insisted. “It takes time, and work—and maybe some luck. There are so many of you. I only need two more IDs.”

And the two wearing her face turned and looked away.

“There’s no point in being pissy about it.”

“They don’t like being dead,” Linh told her. “None of us do. It’s not fair.”

“Life’s not fair. Neither’s death.”

“Easy for you to say.” The girl named Merry sneered at her. “Your life’s totally mag. You’re sleeping in a big warm bed with the frostiest guy on or off planet.”

“Her father beat and raped her when she was just a little girl,” Lupa told Merry. “Younger than us.”

“She lived through it, didn’t she?” Shelby stood up, crossed her arms over her chest. “And landed in the prime. Now she’s blaming me for everything.”

“I’m not blaming you, for anything.”

“Are too. You’re saying it’s my fault we’re dead. That just because I wanted my own place with my own friends, everybody got killed. Like, what, I knew it was going to happen or something?”

“Listen—”

“So what if I sucked off a few fuckheads?” She threw her arms out now. “So the fuck what! I got what I wanted, didn’t I? And shit for my buds, too. If you don’t take what you want, somebody takes it first. No way I was going to be stuck in that ‘holy higher power meditate your brains out’ shit until some jerkwad who didn’t know jack about me decided I could get the hell out. I decide for myself. Nobody was going to push me around again, ever, ever, ever!”

“Wow.” Eve gave her a considering nod. “You really were a bitchy little whiner. Not that you deserved to die for it. Maybe you’d have grown out of it, or maybe you’d have been a bitchy grown-up whiner given the chance. But you didn’t get the chance. And that’s where I come in.”

“You’re no different than the rest of them. No better than the rest of them.”

“I’m what you’ve got.”

“Fuck you!”

“Sit down. Shut up.”

Mikki hauled herself to her feet, hands bunched to fists at her sides. “You can’t talk to Shelby like that.”