Kalico stepped back for the box of spices she’d ordered, lifted them out. “Step, it’s all we’ve got until Kel, Ghosh, and Lawson come up with some way of protecting the subs and seatrucks. That, or I could hire Talina to come out and teach my people about shooting . . . if only I had enough bullets so that they could practice.”

“Yeah, well, that’s another thing.”

“What is?”

“Tal’s off in the forest with that Taglioni character. Seems he got himself in a mess out in the bush.”

“With the gotcha vine, right?”

“Right.”

Kalico set the box down, an unfamiliar quickening in her pulse. “You mean they never made it back to town from Dek’s claim?”

“Oh, yeah. But before she did, word is that Dek started to give up the ghost, crapped out completely, and Tal gave him CPR. Now, I just heard the story from Raya, but she says that Dek got a whole rafter of quetzal TriNA in the process. Made him more than a little cucking frazy. Back in PA, Tal ran him down just before he blew a hole in the new school. She figured to save the rest of us from having to shoot his chapped ass after he did something dumb, so she flew him out to Two Falls Gap in case the quetzals took him over.”

Kalico’s heart skipped. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me this before?”

Step arched a scarred eyebrow. “Didn’t know it was a matter of Corporate concern given sea monsters and all.” His gaze narrowed. “Besides, Tal’s the best person he could be with . . . unless you’ve got other concerns.”

Do I? Kalico asked herself.

Michaela was carrying the last of the boxes of vegetables to the seatruck, giving her an evaluative look. But then the woman had had an affair or two with Dek back on Ashanti.

Kalico kept her voice casual. “So, Step, what if, as you say, the quetzals take him over? What’s Talina’s plan?”

“Said she’d shoot him in the back of the head rather than let the quetzals kill him.”

“She wouldn’t.” But, damn it, this was Talina. If she said she would, she meant it.

“’Scuse me,” Step muttered knowingly. “Never seen a seatruck before. Think I’ll take me a look.” The man nodded, ambling off in the seatruck’s direction.

Kalico chewed her lip, seated herself on the back step of the airtruck’s cargo bay. Dek wasn’t just soft meat. He was a Taglioni. And if anything happened to him, there would be pus-bloody hell to pay.

And what will I do? Images of Dek’s smile, his roguish dimple and designer eyes, played through her memory. What does Derek Taglioni mean to me?

She was trying to sort through her complicated relationship with the man, their rather rocky history, and who he had become when Michaela asked, “Where’s Lara?”