A few hours later, she picked up Karah from the hospital and drove her home where she fixed them all dinner. A couple of Band-Aids had replaced the bandage around her head, and her arm was sprained, but not broken. She could have been hurt so much worse.

As they ate, Jada talked about a report she was doing on child sex trafficking. Karah wasn’t happy to learn that the curriculum at her daughter’s parochial school included the seamiest side of street life, but Jada kept going. “Do you know there are, like, girls younger than me right here in the United States that are—”

Karah reached out to brush a lock of hair from Jada’s cheek. “Let’s talk about this when we’re not eating dinner.”

“But, Mom...” Jada’s amber eyes flashed with outrage. “Some of these girls are, like, being raped a bunch of times every day by these old guys, but when the police show up, they arrest the girls for prostitution. Girls my age!”

Piper had done some reading about child sex trafficking and found the subject so disturbing that she’d pushed it into her mental back closet. But witnessing a fifteen-year-old’s outrage made her ashamed of her apathy.

Jada stopped eating. “They’re victims of this horrible sex abuse, and it’s so not right for them to get arrested. We’re going to write letters to Congress.”

“Good for you,” Piper said.

Karah squeezed her daughter’s hand. “I’ll write a letter, too.”

After dinner, Piper changed for work. She dreaded going back to Spiral, dreaded anything that would put her near Coop and closer to getting permanently fired. As she deserved...

The house was packed. Coop and Tony had pulled out all the stops to overcome the bad publicity from the cockroach invasion—specials on top-shelf drinks and lots of celebrities scheduled to show up all week: football players, actors, and a beautiful country singer.

Jonah greeted Piper with a grunt and a rough slap on the back, his simian version of an olive branch. She gave him an elbow to the gut but was glad she didn’t put any force behind it because at least one of the bouncers stayed close to Coop all evening, something Coop didn’t look pleased about.

Deidre Joss showed up again, this time alone. She and Coop disappeared. When half an hour passed and he hadn’t returned, Piper started to worry.

She checked the alley first. New security cameras had been installed as she’d recommended, and Coop’s Tesla sat there unharmed. He must be in his office. But what if Deidre were still with him? Piper couldn’t imagine anything worse than walking in on the two of them doing whatever they might be doing, and she knocked loudly on the door. When it swung open, Coop looked irritated. “You need something?”