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Saverin leaned through the truck window and tapped Tanya’s nose lightly until her absurdly long lashes fluttered open.

“Get up, sleepyhead.”

“I was dreaming,” she mumbled.

“Of what?”

She wiped away the gathering tears and shook her head silently. For a moment he was tempted to break his vow to keep her out of the plans he’d set in motion. With any luck he would soon make Tanya the happiest woman in Virginia…no later than tomorrow. But what if he failed? It would be cruel to get her hopes up.

“What time is it?” She covered a delicate yawn with her hand.

“Five.” Saverin climbed into the driver’s seat and turned the truck on. “I got the whole back unloaded and you didn’t turn a whisker.”

Tanya peered out at the porch, where the old veteran was still sitting. He waved to her and she waved back.

“This doesn’t look like Black Florin,” she observed.

“It’s not.”

“Who’s that man?”

“A friend of mine. Next time you can meet him, but I figured I’d let you rest.”

“Thank you.”

“You hungry?”

She declined. “I have to check on my friend,” she said. “I can’t run around with you all night. It’s so late already and I’ve been meaning to see Bee for like three days.”

They drove out of the holler. Saverin was in no hurry to give up his limited time with Tanya but he put his selfish wishes aside. With any luck his scheme tomorrow would win her, or at least make her realize his affections weren’t some passing lust he might have had for any female. His heart, he felt, was true when it came to Tanya. It was alright to wait if it meant he could spend some quality time with her later.

Passing his cousin Laura Jane’s house, he considered mentioning the connection. After all, Laura Jane owned the Appletree where Tanya worked. But since he’d already determined to have a private talk with Laura about her it was best let sleeping dogs lie for now.

“What’s wrong with your friend?” He asked instead.

“Who, Bee? It’s really her husband that’s the problem.”

Saverin eyed her sideways. “Well, ain’t that her business?”

“You don’t know her husband.”

At that moment Tanya’s phone chimed. “Speak of the devil,” She said. Annoyance flashed in her big brown eyes as she read the message. “She says Durk is home and she doesn’t want me coming over. But I know Durk is always out of town on Tuesdays. She’s lying!”

Saverin didn’t know where Tanya got her friends with the strange names, but if Bee or Flea or whatever her name was didn’t want to hang he saw no reason to force it. He envisioned taking Tanya back to his place, or maybe out to dinner. “Maybe she just wants some time to herself,” he suggested, not without some satisfaction.

“Can we drive past her place?” Tanya got that wrinkle in between her eyes he knew all too well. “It’s just not like Bee to lie to me on a Tuesday.”

“Does she lie on a Wednesday?”

“Tuesday is our day ,” Tanya informed him.

Since it meant so much to her he could only agree, but privately Saverin hoped Bee was taking some personal time and would tell Tanya to get lost. On the short drive he suggested listening to country radio. Tanya disagreed that Hank Williams was the ‘best to ever do it’ and took advantage of his old truck’s CD player to slip in a copy of The Velvet Rope she was going to return to Bee. Saverin had to admit it was some damned fine music if a little feminine, but nothing on Hank Williams.

“A black man taught Hank Williams guitar anyway,” said Tanya. “You can look it up. My granddaddy knew the man– I swear to God.”

“Bullshit,” declared Saverin.

“You’ll see,” said Tanya with such confidence he made a note to check later. Well, did anything surprise him anymore?

They pulled up to Bee’s spot. This ‘Durk’ person’s car wasn’t in the driveway, but Bee was clearly home. Her kitchen window was open and the lights were on. The soft notes of Motown music drifted into the street, mingled with laughter.

A man’s laughter.

“Maybe it’s her husband,” Suggested Saverin reasonably, since Tanya looked ready to jump out of the truck and kick down the front door.

“Durk doesn’t laugh about anything.” Tanya squinted as if she could X-ray through the curtains. “I wonder who it is. That was definitely a man.”

“Brother?”

“She’s an only child.”

“Father?”

“Dead.”

“Maybe she doesn’t want you to know, nosy.”

“Damn,” said Tanya, putting it together like a church gossip. “I wonder if it’s her neighbor. That preacher.”

At that moment her stomach growled loudly. Saverin seized the moment. “How about dinner?” he suggested.

“Alright…”

A loud female cackle came from the window. “I guess she’s okay,” said Tanya. She looked back at the small tidy house as Saverin pulled away, clearly disturbed.

“It’s good that you care, Tanya, but you got to let folks do their own thing sometimes.”

“Bee is like a sister to me. You know if she never brought me out that night we never would have met?”

“Hmph.”

“Aren’t you glad we met?”

He liked when Tanya teased him, but she was mistaken to think he’d celebrate some hussy that had supported her in that reckless decision. He said as much. “She enabled you to whore yourself out, I’m not so sure this girl is the friend you think she is.” He tried to soften his words but failed. “You shouldn’t hold company with jezebels.”

To his annoyance Tanya burst out laughing.

“What?”

“Bee isn’t a jezebel. She’s a Christian.”

“That dog ain’t a dog, it’s a canine.”

“You’re wrong for that,” said Tanya, not laughing anymore.

“I ain’t saying all Christians are jezebels, I’m just saying bein’ a Christian doesn’t mean you can’t be a jezebel.”

“All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares?”

“If you like.”

“Bee really isn’t like that. She tried to stop me from going out that night, actually. She even gave me money.”

“A nd you still went ?”

His tone brought Tanya up short. “Hold on,” she said, putting up her hands. “Hold on, Saverin.”

“Yeah?”

“There was a good reason I didn’t take Bee’s money. But I can’t tell you why without tellin’ her business, and she’s my friend so I won’t do that.”

He could accept that, though he wondered what was more important to this “Bee” girl than Tanya getting money to find her missing son.

“When you’re all up in people’s business, who’s lookin’ out for you?”he asked.

“You do,” murmured Tanya. Saverin reached across the console and took her hand briefly before changing gear and turning left towards Rowanville.

“Okay,” he said. “So what happened at work that’s got you all laid out falling asleep on me and all?”

Tanya looked at her hands. It was then Saverin noticed the torn skin on her knuckles.

“It’s nothing,” she said.

“Tanya.”

“My manager tried to fight me, but it was nothing.”

“Is your manager female?”

“No.”

“Walk me through it,” said Saverin, his hand tensing on the wheel.

Tanya shrugged. “He called me the n-word, I called him a redneck, he choked me out— he’s just lucky someone stopped me.”

“I wouldn’t say lucky,” Saverin said, staring glassily at the road. “Is that what’s got you all stirred up?”

“Yeah, and customer bullshit.”

He sensed there was something else but didn’t probe. He’d find out later.

Tomorrow.

“You need another job,” he said.

“I’d love to hear your suggestions. Before Amari…You know, I was trying to apply to different places. There’s no work up here at all if you aren’t moving with something.” She shook her head. “Anyway, where are we going to eat?”

“I’m thinking seafood.”

“I ain’t really hungry, Saverin, to tell you the truth.”

He snorted. “I bet you haven’t had a bite since morning.”

“You can take me home.”

Saverin shook his head. “No way.”

“Excuse me?”

“We passed the exit and I’m hungry. Consider yourself kidnapped.”

“You don’t get to just take me off somewhere against my will because you’re fine and you have money.”

“Wrong,” he said.

Tanya shook her head. “Everything works when you have money. Everything goes your way. You never had to fight— ”

“Lucky me,” he said.

Her woman’s antennae picked up something in his tone. “You know, I don’t know anything about you,” she said, as if realizing it for the first time. “What you do, who you are…nothing. You never say a word about it.”

“I’m rich, like you said. Apparently ‘fine’.” He rubbed his jaw and asked, “Still?”

“Yeah,” she said. “You are sexy and I think you know it.”

He felt her fingers gently push his hair off his collar. She pulled back sharply. “What happened to your ear?”

“Gunshot.” It had happened the night they met.

She was silent for a while. “Can I ask you something?”

“Go on, honey.”

“What happened to your brother?”

The question came out of nowhere, taking his wind. Did I ever mention Sam?

“He’s dead,” Saverin summarized. “Got shot.”

“Accident?”

“Murder.”

“Was he young?”

“About your age.”

Tanya shifted in the seat and began playing with the strap on her bag. “I’m sorry for making assumptions.”

“It’s alright. I’m better off than most, it’s true. But ever since…ever since the night we met, I figured if I don’t use what I have to help people then there’s no point sticking around.”

“Sticking around Florin?”

No.

“Yeah,” he said.

They hit a sudden knot of traffic.

“It’s a wedding!” Tanya exclaimed, leaning out the window to look. He had a sudden vision of her head getting struck off by a passing car. He jerked her by the belt loops back into the truck and snarled, “What the fuck are you doing?”

“Hey! Ow! I saw the bride! She’s got like ten miles of that dress.”

“Well you don’t need to leap into traffic over it. Christ!”

“You’re bugging. I barely had my head out!”

He turned on the radio, hands shaking. The moment she had stuck her head out he felt a cold, deep fear. He imagined the worst. What was wrong with him?

I’m so lonesome I could…

He slammed on the button so forcefully the speakers spat out static. Shit, had he broken it? He was running too hot.

“What’s wrong with you?” she asked, eyes wide.

“Nothing. Just watch yourself next time.”

“Okay.” She rolled her eyes and seemed irritated. But then a minute later she reached across and touched the back of his hand, as if to say she understood the heavy thing he carried, and she didn’t mind.

Tanya stared down at the feast laid before her in wonder. Scallops in butter and lemon garlic sauce, raw oysters over ice, a baby greens salad, mashed potatoes, crab cakes, butternut squash soup, sourdough bread and something called “rosemary honey butter”, all paired with a dry white wine that had a fancy name she couldn’t pronounce.

“Everyone here’s all dressed up,” she whispered to Saverin. “Look at us! We look like something the cat dragged in.”

“You look fine.” He brushed some wood shavings off his shoulder. “I’m the one that smells like a hog pen.”

“I could have changed into something, at least.”

“Like that red dress,” Saverin reminisced. “I wouldn’t mind seeing that again.”

“Ha!” Tanya tore a crust of bread and tried it. It was delicious. Everything was.

“Tanya.”

“Mm?”

“Would you call this a date?”

Saverin’s husky voice shivered up her neck.

“You want this to be a date?” she said carefully.

“I do.” He looked her in the eye.

“I can’t really be seeing anyone right now, Saverin.”

“If everything was normal,” he said very slowly, watching her, “Would you consider it?”

“I don’t know.” She hesitated. “There’s a lot to think about.”

“Like what?”

“We’re very different people.”

“I’m white, you’re Black. And so what?”

“No,” said Tanya. “You’re a millionaire, and I am a waitress. You like hunting and fishing and Hank Williams. I like Roberta Flack and going to the library.”

He grinned and then he started laughing. It was rare to see Saverin’s usually-serious face crease up with pure joy. In those moments she could see the man he’d been before the scar…before sorrow had ravaged his life.

Tanya had long suspected there was more to Saverin’s past than he let on. The burns on his body were undoubtedly connected to the trauma that still followed him like a shadow. It was part of what connected them, this shared grief, even though his was different. Maybe it was all they really had in common, and she found herself wishing there was more than that.

Saverin just leaned back in the booth, watching her down his long proud nose. For all his talk of being hungry, the food didn’t seem to interest him.

His thick black hair was pulled back at the base of his neck, showing off the fine proportions of his face and the missing tip of his ear which only added to his dangerous appearance. Tonight his scar didn’t even look that bad, and the broad slope of his shoulders under the T-shirt combined with the rough hand he laid on her knee under the table made her think of making love in dark and secret places and little else. Well, they had that in common– they loved having sex with each other.

Anyway…

The food smelled too good, awaking her long-buried hunger. Since Amari went missing she had barely felt like eating. But this… Maybe just one bite of the crab cake? Delicately she picked up her fork and tried it. Next thing she knew she had polished off all three, and was moving on eagerly to the salad.Saverin still hadn’t touched anything. Tanya pushed the bread basket towards him and he just shook his head.

“Aren’t you hungry, baby?”

Jet-black eyebrows went up. “I am, baby .”

“What are you thinking about?”She flushed, hoping he didn’t take it the wrong way. She said baby a lot, everybody did. But Baby was for boyfriends…sugar daddies too, maybe.

Is he my sugar daddy ? Lord .

“How much do you know about the McCalls and the Baileys, Tanya?” he asked.

She frowned at the unexpected question. What she had learned since moving to Florin, most of her information coming from Bee or the far more knowledgeable Gwen, could fit on a postcard .

“The McCalls run businesses on the white side,” she answered slowly. “People say they grow weed and sell it out of state. I don’t know much about you Baileys, except it’s another big family, like the McCalls. There was a dust-up with the McCalls a while back, I think. I remember hearing about that.”

“A dust-up,” he repeated. “Meaning what?”

“There was a big fire somewhere,” Tanya frowned, struggling to remember. “A shootout. All that. People said it was over a black girl but I never believed that.” She took a sip of the wine. “You know about that?”

“I was there.”

“Oh.” She stared at him. “ Oh .”

“The building that exploded was a meth lab. I was sent to blow it up. I’m no chemist, put it that way. That’s how I got my scar.”

Tanya could read between the lines. Her heart skipped several beats. “Are you a drug dealer, Saverin?”

“Not anymore. On everything I’m done with that.” His eyes got that glassy look again. “I just figured– you were probably wondering.”

She began tasting the scallops. Saverin tore up a piece of bread but didn’t eat it. What is he thinking…

“Saverin, would you say you’re happy?”

He blinked. “Right now, yes. Why?”

“I’m just wondering if money makes you happy.” She showed him the lottery ticket Gwen had given her. “After getting Amari back, there’s not anything in the world I want more than to be safe, with a roof over my head nobody can take away from me. I’ve dreamed of that since I left home. But if I don’t get him back, even if I won this billion I don’t know if I’d be happy again. ”

“You won’t win,” he said briefly, returning the ticket. “It’s just a tax on the poor.”

“Thanks,” she grumbled. But she remembered she’d said basically the same thing to Gwen.

Saverin took her hand– above the table this time. He said, “You won’t win that lottery, but you’ll have your son back, Tanya. I promise.”

Anger and false hope warred in her chest. She snatched her hand away. “I tell my son don’t make promises he can’t keep. You shouldn’t either.”

“I meant it.”

“Stop, Saverin.” She glared at him, but he seemed dead serious. Maybe he was just trying to be hopeful, to make up for shooting her down about the lottery ticket. But it wasn’t helping. She didn’t need false hope and lies. She needed reality. The reality was that her son was still missing and nobody really cared.

Saverin backed off and she chalked up his strange comment to his even stranger mission to make her happy. Well, she might as well enjoy the dinner and go home to her lonely house with a full stomach.

What if Colton is there? Should I tell Saverin?

But it wasn’t Saverin’s problem, number one, and number two, how was she so sure she hadn’t imagined Colton standing on her doorstep?

“Alright?” Saverin asked, nudging her foot under the table.

“What? Yes, I’m fine.”

Tanya fished an oyster out of the dish and in a more stable voice said, “I’ve never tried these.”

“Me neither,” Saverin admitted. He leaned forward, looking tired and strong and kind. She remembered how he’d looked sleeping next to her, his scars buried in the pillow, more peaceful than she’d ever seen him. Her feelings for him grew dangerously every minute she spent in his presence. “Shall we?”

Each of them took an oyster and knocked the shells together like champagne glasses.

“Geronimo,” said Saverin and they both tried it at the same time.

It was vile. Saverin had another.

“Who knew digested sea dirt could taste so good?” he grinned. The corners of Tanya’s mouth trembled.

“What?”

“I don’t feel good,” she said. “Excuse me.”

She came back from the bathroom looking a little gray in the face. “Saverin, I have a question.”

“Answer mine first— do you have a shellfish allergy or do I need to have words with someone here?”

“No,” she said firmly. “It wasn’t poisoning— though I might be allergic to whatever the hell that thing was. How is that legal?”

“Oysters? Some say it’s an aphh— aphro-something. The stuff that makes you fuck.”

“Aphrodisiac,” said Tanya.

“Right. So what was your question?”

She dabbed her mouth with a napkin. “Can two people win off the same lottery numbers?”

“You’re more likely to get struck by lightning at the end of a rainbow.”

“But can you?”

“Was that what you were thinking of in the bathroom?”

“Something like that.”

They both looked down at the food.

“Take it to go?” He suggested.

At the very top of her stairs she lingered, as if she didn’t want to go in yet. Her armstwined around his neck, and he backed her against the paneled wood.

“Saverin,” she whispered, pulling back from him.

Her eyes glowed up at him in the darkness like lanterns on a river. He’d become good at reading Tanya and understood there was something on her mind. Maybe she was afraid to go to work tomorrow.

“Remember what I told you the night we met?” he said. “Anybody gives you a problem they deal with me. I’ll talk to your manager.”

“No, Saverin. I got it handled.”

“I’ll talk to him.”

She shivered at the dark intention in his voice. “It’s not Kyle I’m worried about.”

He hesitated. “Starting tomorrow a lot of things are gonna change.”

“Saverin, wait.” She squeezed his biceps as if for support and took a deep breath. Her eyes darted to the door, then back to him, as if she wanted to delay the inevitable. Of course she knew she could come back up the hill with him and sleep in his bed like they’d done the night before…

“I wasn’t able to get the pregnancy test,” she said.

Saverin hadn’t been aware of a pregnancy test. Was that what worried her? He pinched her chin. “I didn’t unload in you at the springs. We should be good.”

Something rattled in the corner of his mind. He recalled the night they had met. Something about a condom.

“Hold it,” he said.

Tanya started talking very quickly. “I went to Rowanville and couldn’t find the pill. I looked everywhere, Saverin. I just want you to know. I don’t think I’m pregnant anyway but I thought I should tell you.”

“I— you’re telling me this now ? What about when we were in Rowanville?”

She turned and started fiddling with her keys. “Trust me, a baby is the last thing I want right now.”

Saverin’s mind raced through the possibilities. A kid? With Tanya? Hesitation never crossed his mind. He’d already considered a life with Tanya if and when Amari came back, this would be another happy blessing. A kid between them meant change. He’d have to change everything. Life to replace death.

Of course it wasn’t a sure thing…But if it happened…

“You’d have to come live with me. We’d raise it together,” he said.

She faced him. “ What ?”

His head spun. Tanya, pregnant? With his son…

We’ll name him Sam. Or some other strong Bailey name. Like Matthew.

“There’s a good doctor down the mountain,” he said, thinking out loud. “He took care of Laura Jane and her sister when they were expecting. I’ll set it up for you. You’d have to quit work–”

“Hold on just a minute,” said Tanya in her are-you-fucking-kidding-me voice. “Slow down, cowboy. I don’t know about all that. I don’t want a baby– I don’t want to be a mother again. I’m already a mother. I have a child.”

He stared at her. “What are you hollering for?”

“You don’t own me, Saverin. You don’t get to decide what I do and if I should quit my job. My life can’t be your project because you hate yours!”

The Bailey temper was a curious thing. It could lay dormant under the most brutal attacks, but then suddenly flare like a chemical explosion. He felt it stirring now.

“You don’t know half of nothing and you better watch your mouth.”

“I know you’re using me to fix your guilt. Guilt about what, I don’t know. But I’m not here for that! You don’t own me — you can’t use me to fix yourself!”

“You need me, Tanya, damn it!”

“I wish the hell I didn’t!”

Only a woman could cut a man down to size without lifting a finger. Saverin stared at Tanya like she’d grown six heads. She was shaking with fury and for the life of him he couldn’t understand it.

Some powerful emotion was rocking through Tanya, eroding at her reason. “You think I don’t know this game? You start paying for my ass, then you own it.” Tanya shook her head, her scars as livid as his own now. “Maybe I want– I want– real love !”

Saverin took the key from her shaking hand and opened the door.

“I ain’t gonna do this with you out here, darlin’.”

She shoved past him, dumping her bag on the floor. “This was all a mistake. You should just go and we forget we ever did this.”

He fumbled for the light. “Not until we—”

He saw the shadow before she did. He had seconds. Less than seconds. It was the space of time between a spark at the end of a dynamite wick, a match touching a well of petroleum, than the distance between light and darkness; it was all he had.

Saverin shoved Tanya down as the killer unloaded.

The second bullet took out the switch, shorting the circuit and cutting off all light. The room was pitch black and the dark new moon outside revealed nothing. It turned out to be what saved them. That and the Kimber.

In hindsight it was reckless; the gunfire that penetrated the crumbling wooden walls could have killed somebody. Pure animal instinct put the Kimber in his hands. He unloaded back at an enemy he could neither see nor hear. He fired and fired and fired until the trigger depressed on an empty click and a ringing silence settled.

Tanya was still screaming, but it was over.

The room stank of gunpowder and blood. Adrenaline whipped Saverin’s heart into a bloody sprint. He was alive. Right? Once again he’d looked death in the eye and lived. Tanya’s headhad nearly stopped the bullet.

He stumbled back and knelt next to her, checking her blindly in the dark. She’d curled up with her hands over her ears and stayed there.

Who was he here for? Her, or me?

“TANYA,” he said. Blew out my fuckin’ eardrums…

“Mm…”

Saverin stood up and fumbled for the light. In the fog of the moment he hadn’t understood what had cut the lights off. His fingertips discovered the scorched hole in the switch. He removed his hand quickly.

Saverin took out his pocketknife and clicked the penlight on, washing it over the killer who made a crumpled heap on the floor. Blood pooled out of the body like oil. Saverin made no assumptions; he’d seen men rise from worse than this. He went over and took the gun, which was a piece of shit just like its owner, and emptied the last round.

It thudded heavily to the floor.

He went over to Tanya and helped her up and out of the apartment. Fresh air. His boots were slick with blood but not his, nor hers. It had to be a miracle.

Tanya collapsed on the step, holding onto the railing for dear life. He pulled her into his arms.

“We’re fine,” was all he said.

There were people coming out of the bottom apartment now. Her neighbors. They were shouting, maybe even screaming but he was deaf to them, looking only at Tanya.

“Breathe,” he told Tanya. “Breathe slow and easy; we’re alright, honey.”

She did. He crouched in front of her at eye level. Already his nerves were calming, cool instinct taking over as it always did in a crisis.

“You need to look at him and tell me if you know him.”

She understood what he meant. Quick, beautiful Tanya. But she stared at Saverin in a tight-lipped refusal.She was not going back in that apartment.

“You need to do it before the cops show up,” he said. “Baby, you have to.”

In the end she went inside with him and walked slowly to the dead man. Saverin’s comforting arm around her shoulder also pushed her forward, not lettingpanic send her running back. Crime waspredictable. It was not the stranger in the night so much as the ones you laid your head next to on the pillow. And it was always better to know the truth than to imagine it.

Tanya made a small noise in the back of her throat as they came to the body but she didn’t run. Trying to get it over with Saverin turned the man over sharply, suppressing his nausea at the doll-like spasm the body made. He was going to have a devil of a time explaining this to Roman.

Tanya convulsed as the man’s face was revealed. The bullet had struck him through the heart and killed him quickly. He had lain in wait inside, which meant he wasn’t looking for a fast getaway. For that reason Saverin doubted the man had come here to find him.

No, the bastard had wanted to trap Tanya in here with him.

Who knew how long he would have tortured her before killing her? If he meant to kill her at all…It could have been so much worse.

It was no surprise when Tanya said, “I know him.”

“Is it the man you fought today?” Saverin demanded. “Your manager?”

“No,” she whispered. “That’s Amari’s father.”

She swayed against Saverin but he held her up strongly. “Oh my God,” she whimpered. “He really tried to kill me…”

“It’s okay, Tanya. He didn’t get you, right? That’s what matters. You’re safe, honey. He’s dead, and you’re not.”

Tanya turned around walked out the door with a hand over her mouth.

A deep apprehension rolled over in Saverin as he stared down at the would-be-murderer. Her ex.

Death set things in motion; death was never final, really. Cause and effect. Making sure Tanya stayed outside, he crouched next to the body and very carefully went through the dead man’s pockets.

It was never a good idea to move or touch a warm body; Roman had impressed that on him often enough. But they were in Florin, and nothing could happen to Saverin here.

In the left pocket he found a wallet, and in the right pocket was a piece of paper was made of stiff card material. Saverin unfolded it with extreme care. He had seen it before among Tanya’s papers when he’d gone through her apartment.

The birth certificate said AMARI WEAVER.

Tanya was listed as the mother, and under the father’s name, an empty space.

The time to go down to Rowanville was now. Everything else could wait. Saverin checked his watch and began rearranging the times in his head. He would have to leave at first light, and do it without Crash Walker or not.

He tucked the birth certificate back where the dead man had found it and went outside to meet the law.

The killing was deemed a clear-cut self defense, as Saverin had known it would be. He was met outside Tanya’s building by Florin Police Chief Lucky and his new stand-in deputy, Absalom.

“What happened to Deputy Daniel?” Saverin asked his cousin warily. The whiskey-loving Florin deputy had been a reliable stooge to the McCall empire for ages and seeing the troublemaker Absalom in the lawman’s uniform spelled trouble.

“Deputy Daniel’s taken a sick leave,” Absalom revealed, dapping up Saverin. “Took the wife and kids to Myrtle Beach.”

“When’s he coming back?”

“Couple weeks,” shrugged Absalom.

“Does this mean you’re turning honest?”

“Not on your life, Bailey.” The sandy-haired man was cool as a cucumber, offering Saverin a cigarette. “Taking back the harvest is still our number one priority.”

“How does Roman feel about that?”

“You can imagine he ain’t too happy. But what Roman thinks doesn’t concern me anymore.”

Saverin refused the cigarette. “Thanks for coming by.” He turned to go but Absalom caught his arm and jerked his chin at Tanya, who was talking to one of her neighbors. “So who is she ?”

Saverin knew how he meant it. Who is she, to you?

“She’s my girl.”

Absalom spat on the ground. “You see what she is?”

“Both my eyes work,” said Saverin. “I suggest you keep yours to your own and off of mine.”

“We’ll see tomorrow,” said Absalom. He was better looking than most Green Trees, with the face of a McCall. It unnerved Saverin whenever he encountered one of Duke’s bastards in the wild. He saw it now, but he hadn’t before. I’ll be damned.

Roman’s father had ruled the mountain as a tyrant, loved by his friends and hated by his enemies, of which there were a great many. Like his bastards. Their number seemed infinite. Every now and then a face would appear from a knot of male cousins, a face like a hungry wolf, or a demon that had learned to blend in with its surroundings. Duke’s face.

The tide of Duke’s murder had lifted his heirs into power, and Absalom was now challenging the oldest and most powerful for the throne. And Roman might fall…Roman might fall tomorrow.

For two years Saverin had merely been pulled by the current of Florin’s greatest forces, neither sinking nor rising, but ever being drawn into dark deep waters he did not trust. He’d allowed it to happen, and all he could do now was swim faster.

Something licked his hand. He looked down in surprise to see that ugly yellow dog, beating the stump of his tail happily.

He used to keep Fang’s treats in the pocket of this jacket. Saverin found one crumbling in the recesses, and held it out to the dog who devoured it happily before running up to Tanya.