Page 74 of Gunslinger Girl

Her cheeks flushed. “I never actually said that.”

“You didn’t have to. Here.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a med injector. “Luster snatched this for you.”

“What is it?”

“Same cocktail Starr doses us with. Lasts for six months or so. You don’t have to take it, but she thought it might be one less thing for you to worry about.”

Pity thought for a moment, then held out her arm. “Go on, do it.” She winced at the brief prick, but the pain brought a measure of comfort. They might show it funny, but these folks care. Garland was right about Max, too. Of everything that was eating at her, that was the one she had control over.

The question was, did she have the steel to do something about it?

This was no show, Pity told herself, and no battle. She didn’t need to rush in. She could collect herself first. In the Gallery, she pulled up a stool and began formulating what to say to Max.

Olivia came over. “Getcha something?”

“Not today, thanks.” You’d best start keeping your wits about you.

Pity straightened as Siena Bond appeared in the mirror behind Olivia, heading toward them. Over the last few days the bounty hunter had become a too-familiar sight. Pity had spotted her in the stands of the theatre, watching as she practiced, and in Eden, always alone and smoking ugly, hand-rolled cigarettes. But the woman never approached her again or said a single word.

Today, something was different. Siena moved with the deliberateness of a mountain cat, pack slung over one shoulder.

“So?” Olivia said when she reached the bar.

“So Daneko is in the wind,” Siena replied. “And I’m on the job.”

“Huh. I almost feel bad for him.”

“I don’t. Not with the bounty Selene’s offering.” Siena nodded her head at Pity. “Guess I’ll have to wait to catch your act, Jones.”

“Guess so,” Pity croaked, her mouth suddenly parched.

“Next time,” said Olivia. “She’s not going anywhere.”

Siena’s mouth crooked up at the edges. “I’ll keep that in mind. See ya around, Liv. Jones.”

Pity watched until the bounty hunter was gone, a sensation in her gut like a block of ice melting.

Olivia tapped the bar to get her attention. “Are you all right? You look like someone walked over your grave.”

“It’s just…her.”

“What about her?” Olivia’s brow furled. “Pity, did you do something to cross Siena? Because that’s a very bad—”

“I didn’t do anything. It’s only that…” She glanced back the way the bounty hunter had gone. “What if she came to Cessation looking for someone? And what if… that person was me?”

Olivia blinked at her. Then she laughed.

“It’s not funny!”

“Yes, it is,” said the bartender. “You can drop that notion right now. Siena is not after you.”

“How do you know? You don’t know my father! What if he hired her to—”

Olivia raised a hand to cut her off. “Pity, there are two very good reasons why I know your father didn’t employ the best bounty hunter on the continent to hunt you down. The first is that if Siena Bond wanted to get you, you’d already be got. You aren’t exactly hiding, you know. Or is there a glut of CONA-raised young ladies in Cessation who shoot like the Angel of Death herself?”

“No,” Pity said. “I guess not. But—”

“Remember that former occupation I mentioned to you? I know Siena because I spent three years chasing bounties with her before I decided that life wasn’t for me and settled in Cessation.”