Chapter 31 · The Kill Switch

The taser hit wet wool, not bare skin. That's the only reason I wasn't twitching in the gutter.

Forty thousand volts buzzed straight into heavy navy Melton and found nothing to fry. My knee hit the asphalt anyway. Broken oyster shells cut clean through my denim, grinding into bone. When my palm came off the curb, it was smeared with black grease and pink grit.

Rain slammed down sideways off the harbor, cold enough to feel personal.

"Look at that," June called out. The electric window of her black Lexus hummed down two inches. She had the stun baton resting on the sill, its blue arc snapping in the dark. "Back on your knees, Viv. Where this town likes you best."

I spat out a mouthful of brine and blood. Couldn't tell which was which.

She looked immaculate. Salon blowout pinned tight under an ivory hood, tailored camel coat, and the diamond studs our father bought her thirty-first birthday. In her manicured right hand, she swung a heavy plastic fob. The orange hospice tape was still peeling off the plastic casing: *OUR LADY OF THE CAPE. ASSET 114.