“I’ll show you how to make them.” Eddie sealed up his gun’s belly and holstered it at the small of his back. “The fact that you can carve wood’s going to help.”

When they went back to the others, Vin was pacing around and Marie-Terese was sitting on the bed. Eddie ditched his coat, and rifled around in the Hannaford bags that were now mostly empty.

Taking out the fresh sage, he popped open its plastic container and gave the bundle of leaves to Marie-Terese. “You hold on to this and stay out of the way. No matter what you see or what happens, you do not drop this and you keep this against both of your palms. It’s going to offer you some protection.”

“What do I do?” Vin demanded.

Eddie glanced over his shoulder. “Take off your clothes.”

CHAPTER
38

Last time Vin got naked for a crowd the context had been way different.

As he tossed his shirt and pants and boxers onto the dresser, he made sure his gun was front and center on the pile, and when he turned around, he was ready to get whatever this was over with. Funny, he’d been operated on only once in his life, back about a decade ago. He’d had to get his knee rebuilt after years of playing basketball and tennis and running on the damn thing—and he was exactly the same way now as he had been then: Ready to get back to normal. Hoping that the outcome after the pain faded was the right one.

He glanced over at Marie-Terese. She was sitting absolutely still on the bed, holding the sprigs of fresh sage between her hands so that the fluffy leaves peeked out by her thumbs and the little stems hung free on the far side. As her eyes met his, he had to go over and give her a quick kiss on the mouth. She was scared but she was strong—and however much he wished she weren’t a part of this, he agreed with Adrian: No chances with her. There could be no chances with her, ever, so they had to assume Devina had taken that earring.

Eddie took out a compass and four white candles, and after doing some Boy Scouting with his gadget, he and Jim did a north, south, east, and west, marking each of the points on the bare floor with the waxers. Then it was more salt running in a circle around the setup. As Vin watched them, he had to admit the ring-around they did was tidier than the one he’d pulled off over twenty years before, but he’d had to hurry back then. There had been no telling how long his parents would remain passed out.