Page 34 of The Company We Keep

He was impressed with her vast mechanical knowledge — and of course it made sense. She could drive or pilot anything with an engine. It shouldn’t be surprising that she could take them all apart and put them back together again.

Dust admitted to knowing next to nothing about cars, so Leta had him follow her around the garage with a rolling toolbox. He handed her what she needed and put it back in its place when she was done.

“So what are your first impressions?” she asked, straining to be heard. She was on a creeper under a car, changing the oil on Carrow’s preferred sedan.

“About what?”

“Us — The Company, the penthouse. Still thinking you want to be a part of this?”

“Absolutely,” he said, not bothering to keep the enthusiasm out of his voice. “I’ve never seen a better organized crew.”

“And what about the household? You wouldn’t be opposed to being added to the chore wheel?”

Dust laughed.

“Do you really have a chore wheel?”

Leta laughed too, a sound he was beginning to love.

“No,” she admitted. “Though last year when Wayles said he had no idea where we kept the vacuum cleaner, there was a brief discussion of creating one.”

“It’s all a bit more…domesticthan I’d anticipated. But it makes sense. I mean, you can’t hire a maid because of the security risk. It makes sense to live together if you’re going to work together. The place is like a fortress, but somebody has to maintain it.”

“Exactly,” she said. “That’s why Carrow wanted you to come see what it was like. Lots of people want the benefit of the protection and the money. Not everyone would want to go swimming at midnight with a bunch of criminal dorks, though.”

“I don’t see why not,” Dust said quickly through a smile.

“And that,” she said, rolling out from under the car, “is why I think you’re going to fit in.”

Early in the evening, there was a knock at Carrow’s office door. He was lounging on the sofa at the window with a paperback in his hands, trying not to think about the job ahead of them, trying not to wonder how Dust was doingwith the rest of The Company, or to question the fact that he hadn’t spoken to the man since breakfast.

“Come in.”

Dust pushed the door open with a look of caution on his face.

Speak of the devil.

Carrow straightened up, taking his feet off the furniture and placing the book in his lap.

“Am I interrupting?” Dust asked.

“Not at all.”

He crossed the office space but didn’t approach Carrow yet.

“Can I ask what you’re reading?” Dust asked, pausing behind a chair across from the couch.

“The Magus.”

“Fowles?”

“The one and only,” Carrow said. Dust seemed to be waiting for permission to come closer or sit down. “Please, make yourself comfortable.”

For a moment, Dust looked unsure. Should he take the chair or come to sit by Carrow on the sofa? He chose the chair. Carrow let the silence spread out between them, but Dust seemed content to take his time in voicing his reason for showing up.

“I’ve been working on my redundancy. But you never specified: should I try to learn whatyoudo, too?”

Carrow honestly hadn’t thought about it. Leta tended to be his backup for every circumstance, and the rest of The Company had never expressed an interest in learning how he kept their business going. It might be a relief to have someone else to rely on when he needed to send a trustworthy party out into the world.

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