I didn’t want to hear any more. Nick … Well, what had I expected? At least now I could write him off. I mean, I had, but now there were no lingering doubts that he was only doing what he had to in order to survive. He’d lied about my stealing the statue. But as I looked at the erotic thing in the faint light, I decided that nothing had changed. Nick might have been working both sides to get us in there, but I was the one who walked through the wall. It wasn’t all fake. We could still do the sting, and the pornographic statue would be a better attention getter than a doctored picture. Trent seemed desperate to get it back. And I started to smile.

“Sir,” Quen said as the office chatter grew loud again. “He’s bugged.”

“Shut the door!” Trent said, and the sound of steps rang out and then the thump of a door.

“Shit,” Nick exclaimed. “Rachel, this isn’t what it looks like!” he cried, but it was far too late to lie to me again.

There was a tussle, and a loud scraping. From a distance now, I heard Nick take a rasping breath and his soft swearing. “I think this is exactly what it looks like,” Trent said, his voice very clear. “Rachel, if you’re listening, think about who you’re playing with. Return that statue or I will kill you. Not your mother, not your friends. You.”

There was a crunch, and the high-pitched, bone-vibrating sound exploded into existence. From the back, the pixies all squealed, and Jenks stomped on the off button, his hands over his ears and his wings flat against his back.

“Return it is exactly what I intend to do, Mr. Kalamack,” I whispered, dropping the radio in Ivy’s bag and hefting the statue instead. It wasn’t very big, but it was heavy.

Ivy slowed and took a quick right into a pull-off, and I put a hand to the dash. “We’re at the river,” she said, and I felt a sliver of fear. Why are we stopping?

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I said as she put it in park. “We are not going to abandon my mother’s car and run out of here, Ivy.”

Dogs. Trent had dogs. I’d stolen something from him before, and he’d ridden after me. The moon was new. It was the Hunt. But no one was listening. And as I sat, terrified, Ivy got out, quickly followed by Pierce on my other side.

“I’m not getting out of this car!” I shouted, my grip tightening on the statue. “Ivy, he’s got dogs! I’m not going to be torn apart by a damn hound!”