No Fair Lady

But actually…

For me, it’ll be easier than snapping my fingers.

If the intel on the drive identifies their port of launch, and I triangulate Tim Rook’s movements with a little common sense itinerary mapping, perhaps gain access to a crumb or two of Coast Guard radar data…

Easy.

Galentron’s MIA Chief Technology Officer will be in my hands in no time.

Also at my mercy.

Leo squints at me, his brows furrowing. “Why are you still after this, lady? The Galentron pack are racking up prison sentences left and right. There’s nothing left. They even got Leland Durham. What’s in it for you?”

“I have my reasons. I’ve always had my reasons.” I cock my head with a smirk. “You boys just made the mistake of thinking you ever had the slightest clue what those reasons were.”

Gray looks at me skeptically over his glasses, his emerald-green eyes flashing. “Hardly. I’ve never made the mistake of assuming I understand a single thought in your head.” Then his eyes narrow. “Your entire aim with these games we’ve been playing for months…it was never to publicly expose Galentron, was it?”

I shrug, folding my arms over my chest. “Expose them, raze them to the ground in a cataclysm of fire and vengeance…meh, either accomplishes my ends.”

Leo snorts. “And what are those ends, Fuchsia? What the hell are you after now?”

“What’s mine,” I say simply, the resolve cold inside me.

I’ve said enough. That’s all they’re getting out of me.

Some things are too personal to expose to the light of day. Or to two small-town heroes who’ll go to their graves believing they were the biggest victims of Galentron’s ruthlessness.

They do surprise me, though.

I’m expecting more derision. More suspicion. More disgust.

I’ve given them zero reason to trust me, after all.

What little I’ve done for them has barely tipped the balance of the scales against what I’ve done to them.

What I don’t expect is the way they look at each other.

Or the way Gray—icy, cool Gray, the overeducated town veterinarian, who’s only so cold and withdrawn and mistrustful because I helped to make him that way—softens his voice as he takes a step closer to me.

“Do you need help?” he asks—so sincere.

He’s always so sincere with everything that matters to him, and always has been, even when he was wet behind the ears. Dr. Boy Scout. “We started this together, Fuchsia. If there’s something that needs to be finished with the company, we finish it together.”

Okay.

I don’t want to admit how…

How that makes my chest clench like I’m being wrapped up by a particularly huge, angry snake.

Together.

Do I even remember what it’s like to be together with anyone, even as comrades in arms?

I delay a second too long in answering.

Just long enough for the agreeable lidding of Leo’s strange violet-dark eyes, the warmth in them saying he gets it before I speak.

I sniff sharply, lifting my chin, turning away from them with a flick of my gloved fingers. “Nonsense. You’d only weigh me down. You have…people. Kids and wives and friends to care about now.”

I don’t know how to say what I really mean.

That I work alone, and that goes double for what’s coming.

I don’t know how to be any other way.

I don’t know what I’d do with them, if they tried to help me.

Probably get them killed on this insane, almost certain-to-fail quest of mine. Rook will be the easy part, but there’s no telling where he’ll lead me.

For once, I’m not just being a raging bitch for the sport of it.

It’s the greatest kindness I can manage to cut them out.

This time, leave them the hell out of my problems.

They have lives here in Heart’s Edge. Happy new lives in the brightness of the sun, in the warmth of human company.

Hell, Gray’s even started going soft on me. I suppose that doe-eyed little slip of a thing—Ember, of all the names—has done quite a number on him with their new baby.

With my back turned to them, I can’t help but smile, my throat tight.

Good.

It’s good something was able to sprout up from this ruin.

Whatever hope I ever had for a different life was already dead years ago.

Now, I just want the truth, served with a steamy and oh-so-satisfying side of vengeance.

I look up at the wreckage of the Paradise Hotel, two burnt beams leaning against each other to form a spire. It’s like some kind of strange, creepy church high over me, a house of worship for lost souls.

“Just stay out of trouble,” I tell them. “Both of you. That’s the best thing you can do to help me.”

“Not something we’ve ever been good at,” Leo says with a laugh. “We’ll try. But will you?”

Knitting my brows, I glance over my shoulder at them. “Will I…what?”

“Stay out of trouble,” he finishes quietly, watching me intently. “Whatever you’re after, is it worth it, Fuchsia?”