“You’re not, and you won’t be fighting him, you’ll be fighting whoever he sends in his place. You won’t see it coming. It could be anyone—someone posing as a UPS driver, a student sitting next to you in class, someone panhandling for change on the street. You’ll have to look over your shoulder every second of every day, not knowing if the person you just passed is the one aiming to punch your ticket. Is that what you’re ready for?”

“Yeah.” Jung answered defiantly, but the uncertainty, the fear in his eyes, told a different story.

“Get out of the car, Jung.”

I got out and shut the door behind me. Jung got out on the other side. “I don’t need a babysitter.”

“Good, because you’re not getting one. I’m offering you a safe place to be, that’s it.”

He slammed his fists on the roof of the rental car, the reverb cutting through the night like a single beat of a deep drum. “I’ve got to make him pay for what he did to Tim.”

“Hey. Back up.” I jabbed an angry finger at Jung. “Now.” He moved back, watching nervously as I checked the car for dents and scratches. On top of everything else, I did not want to have to battle the rental car company over damage to the Cruze. Relieved the car was fine, I took a moment, counted to ten, keeping my breathing steady, remembering Jung was in way over his head and more afraid than he’d probably been in his entire life. I watched him, seeing, beyond the fear, the person he was before all this started. “How? How do you plan on making him pay?”

Slowly Jung seemed to deflate. It was clear he hadn’t a clue. He was a student on the lifetime plan, a yoga-loving, vegan-eating sandwich tosser. “I’ll track him down. At the marina. His boat. I’ll do to him what he did to Tim.”

We stood quietly. He was talking nonsense, and I think he knew it. Finally I headed for my front door, hoping Jung would follow. He did, eventually.

“I can’t make you stay,” I said, my key in the lock. “If you want to take off, go on, I won’t chase you. But stay or go, tell me now.”

Jung’s chin fell to his chest. “They had him and they let him go.”

“There was nothing solid yet to hold him on.”

“And there never will be. I’ve been around people like him my whole life. They believe their money protects them, and they’re right. There are always lawyers and more lawyers to cover things up and do the dirty work. Now you want to hide me here while he has the run of the city.”