Chapter 36 · Never Alone Again

The Meridian's horn blasted like a church organ dropped down a stairwell.

Every soul on the pier jumped.

Not me.

I kept both hands locked on the cold brass rail. The wind off Beacon Harbor was vicious, sharp with salt and frost, but November water doesn't care how much your coat costs.

Down on the wet planks, two federal marshals were marching my sister toward the transport van.

June caught me watching. Even in steel cuffs, even with a marshal's grip biting into her elbow, she still threw her chin up. She still tried to look down at me from below.

"You think this makes you somebody, Viv?"

"No." I leaned over the rail, loud enough for every dockworker to hear. "It makes me the woman who signs the checks. That's way better."

"You were on your knees in my hallway!"

"I was." I let the silence hang, right along with the wind rattling through the rigging of eleven hulls behind me. "And you were standing over me in six-hundred-dollar heels. Funny how only one of us dressed for the storm."

Her mouth twisted into something venomous. The marshal didn't give her time to spit.