Page 108 of Amber Gambler

“What about the other girls?” I drilled my stare into Audrey’s temple. “Do you know who hurt them?”

“Everyone loved Farah.” She tucked her hands under her armpits. “She was Ian’s girl, and Ian ran things. So, they listenedto her. Even without him, they would have done anything for her. She was justgood.”

Spoken like a true best friend, one who had yet to grasp the perilous hierarchy of her new status.

“And in return for her taking you in when you ran away, you stole your best friend’s boyfriend.”

“No.” Her face turned blotchy. “He wanted me. I didn’t want him. He told me if I didn’t agree to…” Hate I recognized, born of helplessness, darkened her eyes. “He would have kicked her out. Little too. He knew how much Farah loved that kid. He let Farah keep her like a pet. Ahumanpet.” Tears rolled off the tip of her lashes. “Ian told me not to tell her the bargain. That it was our secret. And I let her die thinking that I betrayed her. But I didn’t. I did itforher.”

After the brief moment required to partition my anger at Harrow in a separate box away from her, I told her the truth. “She knows.” I overlooked her adoration of him to comfort her. “Her spirit stayed behind. For you. To make sure you were okay.”

Audrey was a victim in all this. I had to remember that. I had been where she was, and I understood how easy it would be for a girl in her position to fall prey to Harrow in the sense he was offering her shelter, a safe place to stay, and asking nothing of her in return. Not sex. Not money. Not violence.

Her fanatical loyalty to him, forged in such a brief time, was understandable.

After all, he had tamed me to his hand with far less when I had been just as wild.

A sob broke free of her that cracked open some deep well of tears, and snot, within her.

“Tell me what put you on Armie’s radar,” I bargained, feeling two inches tall for withholding aid, “and I’ll act as go-betweenwhen this is over. You can say a proper goodbye and put her mind at ease.”

Maybe learning the truth and seeing for herself that Audrey was okay would help Farah to move on.

“You can do that?” She sniffled. “Really?”

“She can,” Harrow confirmed, knowing his word carried more weight with her than mine.

“The first time I saw the guy with flames for hair—” she wiped her cheeks dry on her palms, “—I didn’t think much about it. I figured he was an elemental or something. Armie met him out back, and he didn’t seem worried, so I figured the guy was a friend and that’s why he dropped his glamour in front of him.”

Except it hadn’t been a human glamour concealing an elemental, no, it was a dybbuk consuming its host, rising for the hunt.

“You saw him before the flames.” I could tell where this was heading. “You saw him as a human.”

Even if she hadn’t noticed Lyle around before, she could have identified him later.

“I didn’t know who he was then.” Audrey cut Harrow a look. “Armie didn’t see me, I don’t think.”

“He would have dealt with you sooner if he had,” I confirmed, hating how hard it was to carve someone out of a heart, out of a life. “You said the first time. There were others?”

“Ian got a flat one night on his way to pick me up, so I knew I would be stuck at the restaurant for a few extra hours. I figured I might as well take a nap, but I hid so no one could see me from the road.”

Again, that pang of camaraderie struck me. “That was smart.”

“Thanks.” Her gaze slid to the shale path. “I was curled up under one of the benches. Since my jacket was brown too, I used it as a curtain.” She drew in a slow breath. “Their voices wokeme. Armie and the elemental guy. They were discussing how to kill vampires.”

“They managed it too,” I said bitterly, grief at losing the Minchins still fresh.

“Yeah.” She held herself tighter. “I heard.” She darted a glance at Harrow. “The third time, the last time I saw the one I thought was an elemental, I was on the clock. He sat in my section, so I had to wait on him. I didn’t like how he smiled at me. And then Armie joined him.”

When she stalled out, I nodded along to get her going again.

“I knew they were on to me. I could tell.” She shifted her weight from side to side. “The old guy watched me the whole time. He didn’t try to hide it. Armie saw it, but he didn’t ask him to stop like I thought he would. He had a zero harassment policy. Mess with his employees, and you got banned. But I guess he didn’t expect me to be his problem much longer. It was like, I don’t know, they were waiting to see what I would do. If I would run. I wanted to, so badly, but Armie was a shifter. That’s what everyone said. I didn’t want to trigger his instincts or whatever.”

“Then Harrow joined them.”

I made a point of inserting that detail to ensure she didn’t gloss over his role.

“Yeah.” A scowl cut her face when she looked at me, as if I were asking her to slice out her own heart for me to crush beneath my heel rather than verify known—and video-documented—facts. “He showed up, chewed out his uncle, and then left.”

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