Page 35 of Blind Luck

“I was thinking of ‘instead,’ but ‘as well’ is also possible.Although isn’t it usually the other way around? Men like to have a whole harem of women?”

“Not this man. A one-to-one ratio works great for me. Or it did until… Never mind. What kind of assholes have you been hanging out with?”

Oh, I didnotwant to go down that road. Fortunately, Sin saved me from avoiding the question by joining the conversation at the perfect moment. Did she know about my past? I figured there was a good chance she did if she was friends with Jerry and Alexa because they knew almost everything.

“Hey, homies. You want to take the scenic route back?”

“We can’t. We’ll lose Kelsey.”

“There’s a better-than-average possibility that somebody who will remain nameless might be tracking her phone right now. You can just catch up with her later.”

“What?” Rusty said. “You’re tracking her phone? Is that even legal?”

Sin turned and flashed him a grin. “Pretend you didn’t hear that part.”

“How did you even get her number?”

I could guess the answer. “It’s probably on the company website. If she’s here on a work trip, she’ll be carrying her work phone.”

“I see. But I’m still not sure?—”

“Are you two going to make up your minds?” Sin asked. “There are some neat rock formations to the south that look great from the air, and we can fly past the Hoover Dam if you want.”

Wasn’t Sin supposed to be busy doing top-secret security stuff? “Don’t you have to get back to the Batcave?”

“I’d rather not. Our house-elf is on a cleaning jag, and if I show up, he’ll only put me to work.”

“You have a house-elf?” Rusty asked. “Is that a southwestern thing?”

“He prefers the term ‘estate manager,’ but he has delusions of grandeur and way too many shoes. He won’t let us swear, so that rules out most of the other nicknames we might have chosen, and he vetoed ‘houseboy’ as well. Even though he’s the only boy in the house. The rest of us are women, apart from our boss, and he’s all man.” She cut me a sideways glance. “If you ever meet Priest, don’t tell him I said that. It’ll go to his head—the big one, not the little one.”

“Priest? Tell me you don’t live in a cult?”

“It’s just a nickname.”

“Do you want to go the scenic route?” Rusty asked me.

“You’re the client.”

“Am I?”

“Well, what else would you call yourself?”

“Partner in crime?” he suggested.

“We’re not doing any crime.”

“What do you call phone stalking, then?”

“Crime adjacent?”

He sighed. “Let’s take the scenic route.”

CHAPTER 12

ERIN

Sin flew low again, low enough for me to count the cactuses—cacti?—on the desert floor as we skimmed over the mesquite and yuccas that dotted the rocky landscape. From up here, it looked pretty barren, but I knew if I sat on the gritty sand and waited, there would be life. There always was. Back at the Promised Land, I used to escape the house and hide out in a clump of trees at the base of a nearby bluff, and the longer I sat, the more I saw. Sometimes, I’d empty crumbs out of my pockets for the ants to eat.

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