Chapter 29 · No Photos

"Smile," Renata said, and turned her phone around so I could see myself on it.

Me. Nico. His hand fisted in my shirt, my mouth open against his jaw, the hallway light doing exactly nothing to hide what it was. Last night. The door hadn't even been locked.

"Get that out of my apartment," Nico said. He didn't raise his voice. That was worse than if he had.

"Your apartment." Renata smiled with just her mouth. "Funny. The lease says otherwise."

I stood up off the couch too fast, and the room tilted a little, blood catching up. "Whoever you are, delete it."

"Eli Tan." She said my name like she was tasting it for rot. "The stand-in. The one who signed his actual, factual name on a job contract because somebody" — her eyes cut to Nico — "got sloppy and let him."

"It's not a crime to sign your own name," I said.

"It's a liability." She set the phone face-up on the counter between us, screen still glowing with that picture, like she wanted it in the room breathing. "A finisher's marriage is paperwork. Paperwork doesn't grab paperwork by the hair."

Nico moved. Not fast —