I beamed at them. It felt great to see Amelia, and I felt relieved that my conversation with Eric had been interrupted. We did have to talk about our future, but I had a creepy feeling that finishing that conversation would make both of us unhappy. Postponing it probably wouldn’t change that outcome, but both Eric and I had enough on our plates of problems. “Come on in!” I said. “Eric’s here, and he’ll be glad to see you both.”

Of course, that wasn’t true. Eric was completely indifferent about ever seeing Amelia again in his life—his long, long life—and Bob didn’t even register on Eric’s radar.

But Eric smiled (though not a large smile) and told them how glad he was they’d come to visit me—though there was a bit of a question in his voice, since he didn’t know why they were here. No matter how long a talk Eric and I had, we never seemed to cover enough ground.

With a huge effort, Amelia repressed a frown. She was not a fan of the Viking. And she was a very clear broadcaster, so I got that with as much volume as if she’d yelled out loud. Bob eyed Eric with caution, and as soon as I’d explained the bedroom situation to Amelia (of course, she’d assumed they’d be upstairs), Bob vanished into the room across from mine with their bags. After a few minutes fiddling around in there, he ducked into the hall bathroom. Bob had gotten good at evasiveness while he was a cat.

“Eric,” Amelia said, stretching unself-consciously. “How are things going at Fangtasia? How’s the new management?” She couldn’t know she’d hit a nerve. And when Eric’s eyes narrowed—I suspected that he thought she’d said that on purpose to rile him—Amelia was staring at her toes as she touched them with the palms of her hands. I wondered if I could do that, and then my mind snapped back to the current moment.

“Business is going all right,” Eric said. “Victor has opened some new clubs close by.”

Amelia understood immediately that this was a bad development, but she was smart enough not to say anything. Honestly, it was like being in the room with someone who was shouting her inmost thoughts. “Victor’s the smiley guy who was out in the yard the night of the takeover, right?” she said, straightening and rotating her head from side to side.

“Yes,” Eric said, one corner of his mouth going up in a sardonic look. “The smiley guy.”

“So, Sook, what troubles do you have now?” Amelia asked me, evidently considering that she’d been polite enough to Eric. She was ready to plunge into whatever problem I described.

“Yes,” Eric said, looking at me with hard eyes. “What troubles do you have now?”