Page 70 of The Angel Maker

I love you.

Written out of duty, of course. Or worse, out of pity. He refused to allow himself to believe she could possibly mean it—and if she did, she shouldn’t.

Not after everything he had done.

He picked up a couple of sandwiches and took them over to the counter.

“A black coffee as well, please,” he said. “Large.”

The man just stared at him, waiting. Chris fought down the anger inside him. He found his wallet, picked out the money required, and put it down on the counter between them.

The man looked at it, then back up at Chris.

“A. Black. Coffee,” Chris repeated slowly. “Large.”

James was sitting half in the entrance of the tent when he got back,wrapped up in his own coat and hugging his knees. Chris handed him one of the sandwiches and the coffee.

“Here you go,” he said.

“Thanks.”

James shuffled over to make space for Chris to sit beside him, and then they both ate in silence, occasionally passing the coffee back and forth between them.

“Now what?” James said.

Chris screwed up the empty sandwich packet. There wasn’t much they could do yet, but it felt important to take charge. James’s spirits were down, which meant his needed to be up—that was one of the secrets to making a relationship work. They were like seesaws that way.

“Now,” he said, “we get ready.”

Most of the belongings they’d brought with them had remained packed away in their waterproof backpacks, but it still took them half an hour or so, either through lethargy or out of some desire they both had to keep themselves occupied. If you were busy, you didn’t have to think.

Outside, he started removing the poles from the canvas.

“The tent too?” James said.

“Yeah.”

“What about tonight?”

“We’re not going to need it anymore, are we?”

James didn’t reply.

As they worked, Chris noticed how nervous James was. Not just nervous, butfrightened—scared for both of them, but especially for Chris. The arrangements for tonight were simple. Chris would be meeting the buyer alone. James would be waiting nearby with the book, close enough to bring it if Chris decided he trusted the man. It was better for them not to be together if things went wrong. After all, it was the book the man wanted. That would give them control over the situation.

A little extra leverage.

James didn’t like the idea, and Chris hadn’t expected him to. If thesituation had been reversed, he would have felt the same. But for him, it was non-negotiable. It was he who had taken the book in the first place—he who had gotten them into this—and so he would get them out. Which wasn’t to say he wasn’t nervous himself. His chest was growing tighter the whole time they worked. But he was doing his best to ignore it.

James said something.

“What?” Chris said.

“We don’t have to do this.”

“We don’t really have any choice.”

“Ofcoursewe have a choice.”

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