Nora Sakavic

There was nowhere for Neil to stand except up against Andrew, but somehow Neil didn't mind. They'd been apart for seven weeks but Neil keenly remembered why he'd stayed. He remembered this unyielding, unquestioning weight that could hold him and all of his problems up without breaking a sweat. For the first time in months he could finally breathe again.

"The next time someone comes for you, stand down and let me deal with it. Do you understand?"

"If it means losing you, then no," Neil said.

"I hate you," Andrew said casually. He took a last long drag from his cigarette and flicked it off the roof. "You were supposed to be a side effect of the drugs."

"That isn't fair."

"No," Abby said, and cupped his face in her hands. "This isn't fair. None of this is."

Sometimes I think this job is going to kill me," Abby said. "Seeing what people have done, what people continue to do, to my Foxes. I wish I could protect you, but I'm always too late. All I can do is patch you up afterward and hope for the best. I'm sorry, Neil. We should have been there for you."

"I wouldn't have let you be,"

She wouldn't have held him like he was a hard breath away from shaking apart.

"Oh, to be young and filthy rich," Nicky said. "Must be nice."

Allison considered her manicure with lofty boredom. "It is."

If I wanted to remember, I wouldn't hide the knives in my closet like a shameful secret I couldn't revisit or let go of. They weren't doing me any good, so he said he would carry them until I needed them again.

She'd put her faith in mankind and her Christian piety on hold and show him how to cut a man open throat to groin if he asked her to. Neil was starting to understand why Andrew liked her. She was crazy enough to be interesting.

You hate me, remember?"

"Every inch of you," Andrew said. "That doesn't mean I wouldn't blow you."

"You like me."

"I hate you,"