Page 227 of Bitter’s Sweet

“How'd you get the code?”

Something changes.

Tiny, but there.

Annoyance.

Not surprise that I know.

Annoyance that I asked.

“Maybe you Grave Prowlers ain't as secure as you think.”

“Who gave it to you?”

His eyes flick left toward the trees.

Too quick.

But I see it.

He had help.

Or he thinks help is coming.

“Doesn't matter.”

“It will.”

He reaches into his jacket.

My gun lifts half an inch.

“Easy,” he says.

Then he pulls out Sweet's mother's picture.

Sweet stops breathing.

The frame I repaired at my kitchen table.

The one she would not let me carry back to her this morning.

The one thing she trusted me to keep safe after she stopped trusting me with herself.

Razor holds it beside her face.

“Pretty lady.”

“Don't.”

Sweet's voice is small.

That scares me more than anything Razor has threatened so far.

It is the first time tonight she sounds close to breaking.

He knows it too.