Sign Here(72)

And there it was. The reaction she wanted. Silas’s face was the thing of her angriest fantasies: a look of absolute shock. She thought she would enjoy it but found, rippingly, that she didn’t.

Just then, Mickey and Ruth came flying down the stairs.

“Mom! Dad! Can we have mac and cheese for dinner?”





PEYOTE





IT HAD BEEN FOUR days since we visited Jason Culver, and Cal hadn’t answered any of my calls. I looked for her in the office but always missed her by a nanosecond: I would catch sight of the sleeve of her sweater around the corner, detect the scent of her soap. But nothing more.

It wasn’t that I missed her, I thought as I watched the door before KQ’s team meeting. Cal was my business partner, my coworker. We had a joint project that needed finishing; that was all. Mutual interests. When she finally walked in at the last minute, I almost waved, before I saw who was behind her, and had her in such stitches.

“Okay, buttwipes, focus up,” KQ bellowed before falling back into her chair. “Who has good news for me?”

I looked at Cal and Trey, neither of whom looked back at me.

I put my hand up.

“We have something, boss,” I said, nodding at Cal. She looked at me like I had just asked her to prom somewhere loud and public and she was about to say no.

“Great, let’s hear it,” KQ said, her feet on her desk, humorless guard dogs.

I cleared my throat. “Well, as you know, Calamity and I landed a fifteen-person deal. We’re in the process of completing it right now.”

Trey’s laugh was the first sound. I shot him a glance.

“Trey is helping too.”

“Helping?” Trey asked, his hand on his heart.

“It’s a good deal. One guy on behalf of fourteen others—”

I looked at Cal again, but she kept her eyes still. She was nailing the innocent-wallflower vibe. “With Trey’s memory clearance, we’ve found him. All we have to do is retrieve what they want from him, and then they are all ours.”

KQ nodded, one hand on her chin.

“Interesting,” she said.

“It’s really a big credit to Cal; she orchestrated it.”

“That’s not what I find interesting, Peyote.”

I flinched at my full name.

“What is interesting, then?”

“Pey, maybe we should talk privately—” Cal started.

I am not proud of the excitement I felt when I first heard her say my name. But then I recognized her tone.

“What?” I asked stupidly.

“To answer your question, Peyote,” KQ said, stretching her hands up and over her head until her belly button yawned, “I think it’s interesting how you’d glom onto Cal and Trey’s deal with such brass. I’ll admit, when you came into my office the other day, I believed it was you who had come up with this. But now that I know what was really going on—shame on you. And trying to drag this poor girl down with you—we’re all lucky Trey had the decency to put a stop to that.”

“What?” I said again; and again, it was stupid.

Trey put both palms down on the particleboard tabletop with a slap.

“I told KQ about how you were trying to weasel in on our deal, and it’s not going to fly. Cal told us everything.”

I looked at Cal, who kept her eyes large and beautiful and wrong.

“Cal, what the—”

“I’m sorry, okay?” she said, her voice all crackle and whimper. “I wanted to be your friend—I know, how naive am I? But I really did; I really thought—” She dragged the sleeve of her sweater under her nose. “I can’t cover for you anymore, Pey. It’s just not fair to me.”

Of course.

KQ nodded gravely, no mouse insults in sight. Just like Cal wanted. Just like she planned all along.

Of-motherfucking-course.

“KQ, can we talk after this meeting?” I asked, my voice and my eyes on her alone.

“Yeah, no,” KQ said, shaking her head. “I don’t want to.”

“But there’s another—”

“You can turn in your training privileges after work. This is not what I had in mind when I told you to teach.”

My pass. My access to the Looking Glass.

And Cal still had my results.

I bit down on my tongue until I tasted my blood, but I wasn’t going to make a scene. I wouldn’t give them that.

“You got it,” I said.

Trey smiled, putting his hand over Cal’s on the table.

“Good to see you are capable of acting like an adult,” he said. “We appreciate it.”

Trey’s hand on Cal’s would’ve made her skin crawl straight off her bones a day ago, but now she looped her fingers in with his and smiled like a doll built to love.

I had a spark of hope that she had a plan, some kind of long game that would benefit both of us. But I struck that thought down instantly, ashamed it had even flickered in my mind. The truth was, anyone who could survive the Downstairs was no longer anything close to human. Even if, against all odds, they had arrived that way, it was not how they would leave.

The truth was, I had never actually known her at all.

“Pey, I am going to put together a disciplinary hearing for you. I realize we’re not known for being choirboys here, but we still have a general code of ethics. Don’t steal other people’s deals. I’d think you’d know that by now.”