I found myself nodding, scanning the contented faces around me, searching for anger in the vacationing people. My pulse was fast and my skin tingling. Pam was dead; they would be after me for that if nothing else. Weres were timid, apart from the alpha and the first few down, and since the round was broken, they would stay in the background and keep our squabble private. We’d be okay unless we got ourselves in a blind alley. And there weren’t many of those in Mackinaw City.

“I’m going to call Ivy,” I said, pulling my bag around and opening it.

Body tense, Jenks drew me to a stop to put my back to a brick wall and stand partially in front of me. It was a candy shop—big surprise there—and my stomach growled as I hit speed dial. “Come on, come on,” I crabbed, waiting for it to go through.

The circuit clicked open and Ivy’s voice filtered out. “Rachel?”

“Yeah, it’s me,” I said, shoulders easing in relief. “Where are you?”

“On the bridge back. Why?” She hesitated, and I could hear the distinctive sound of Nick’s truck. “Why do I hear people?” she added suspiciously.

Jenks winced, and I squinted in the sun, backing up until the overhang put me in the shade. “Uh, Jenks and I went on a procurement run.”

“Shopping?” she yelped. “Rachel! Damn it, can’t you just sit still for a couple of hours?”

I thought of the Brimstone running rampant through me, deciding that no, I couldn’t.

Jenks tossed his head, and I followed his grim gaze to a pair of elegantly dressed tourists. They had shopping bags, but they were a little too attentive. Turning his back to them, Jenks angled to block their view of me. Damn it, this was getting dicey. My pulse quickened and I hunched into the phone. “Look, I did some thinking, and you’re right.” I peeked around Jenks, then rocked back. “How long will it take for you to get to that open-air mall?”

“You did some thinking?” Ivy said softly, sounding vulnerable.

Jenks scanned the plaza. “Tick-tock, Rache.”

Anxious, I turned to the phone. “Yeah. I need to start making smarter decisions. But we’re at that mall and Brett and Walter are sitting on the car.” The good feeling the Brimstone had instilled in me had sifted to fear, and I clamped down on my rising panic. At its heart, Brimstone was an intensifier. If you were happy, you were really happy. If you were sad, you were suicidal. Right now I was scared out of my mind. Until it wore off, I was going to be a roller coaster of emotions. Damn it, I didn’t have time for this!

Ivy snarled something at Nick, and I heard a horn blast. “How many?” she asked tightly.

I looked past Jenks, seeing sunlit flowers and cheerful storefronts. “Four so far, but they have phones. We’re wearing disguises, so they probably don’t know it’s us.” Calm down, Rachel, I told myself, trying to use the drug to my advantage. Think.