Chest tight, I looked over the coffeehouse noisy with conversation, only to jump when Jenks’s phone rang. Ivy, I thought, then realized it was playing “Ave Maria.” Maybe it was Matalina? When I flipped the lid, the name WARM FUZZY came up. Unsure, I tossed my hair from my face and thumbed the connection open. “Hello?”

“Hi, Rachel.” Ivy’s voice came clearly. “Don’t tell me where you are. Are you okay?”

I blinked in surprise at Jenks’s nickname for the vampire, then felt a ping of worry as I got her message that the phone might be compromised. “So far,” I said, looking past Pierce to scan the tables to see ordinary people doing ordinary things. My hair started to prickle, as if we were being watched. “How’s the arm?”

“Broken,” she said simply. “By tomorrow, the cast will be hard enough to break heads.” I went to say something, and she blurted out, “Rachel, I’m sorry. You can’t go to Rynn’s. I’m so angry I could rip someone’s throat open.”

Pierce frowned, and the feeling of a storm gathering tightened. “Why not?” I asked.

“He got a call from Brooke,” she said sourly.

Slowly my shoulders fell. Crap on toast.

“The coven knows you have connections to him, and they asked him to turn you in.”

“Nice,” I whispered, and Pierce leaned closer, though I knew he had a spell to hear at any distance.

“Rynn isn’t happy either,” she finished tersely. “He’s not going to turn you in, but if you show up on his doorstep, he can’t fall back on plausible deniability. I’m sorry. They’ve got him by the short hairs. He can’t risk the coven turning against him. He uses witch magic as much as any dead vampire. If you can take care of this without him, he’ll back you, but if you show up, he has to hand you over. You want to meet somewhere?”

My hand went to my head, and I stared at the table. “No. I’m okay,” I said softly. “Do you have David’s number?”

“Uh,” she said, hesitating.

I exhaled softly. “I’m not calling David, am I.”

“He’s in Wyoming,” Ivy said, apologetic. “The Were muckety-mucks pulled your alpha position into doubt, and he had to go and file the paperwork in person.”

I glanced at Pierce, startled to see Tom. Never mess with a witch. Never. They fight with magic and red tape. David was probably upset, seeing as it was the new moon and he’d be at his personal ebb. The coven played hardball, chipping away at my support so I had nowhere to go. “So what do I have?” I asked, my caffeine rush not enough to keep me feeling good.

“Just whoever’s with you. Meet me at Sharp’s digs?”