Page 217 of Bitter’s Sweet

Mercy goes on. “Sweet promised me she'd stay.”

Of course she did.

Sweet means what she says.

Unlike me.

“Then?”

“She slipped out the rear door while we were dealing with him.” Mercy's jaw tightens. “She thought if she showed herself, she'd keep Razor from throwing that frame into the hole long enough for Hyde's men to get there.”

“That is the dumbest fucking plan I ever heard.”

Mercy steps into me so fast I almost reach for her out of instinct.

“Careful.”

She's five foot nothing in boots and looks prepared to kill a thirty-five-year-old biker with her lipstick.

I breathe.

“She thinks she can save everybody herself.”

“Wonder where she got the idea she shouldn't depend on anyone.”

That lands exactly where she aims it.

I nod. “Me.”

Mercy's anger falters for half a second.

“She didn't call you, Bitter.”

I look at her.

“She let Hyde help. She let Crypt stay. She let me lock the doors. But she did not call you.”

I expected that.

It still hurts.

“Yeah.”

“I wonder why.”

“You don't gotta wonder.”

Hyde cuts between us before Mercy decides whether murder is worth the paperwork.

“Later. Right now we find her.”

“Where's her last camera?”

“CSI's pulling it.”

My phone rings.

Nevermore.