I took this as an old joke between them. If I’d been more on the ball, I’d have let it play out and learned something useful about the Nathans. But I was fixed on course.

“What about the arrows?”

Daniel’s mouth was full. “The what?”

“The arrows.”

“What arrows?”

Not again. I set my apple down. “No, really.” I jerked a thumb at Dark Boy. “Maybe he didn’t see them, but you must have! They landed right in front of you! Out of the trees!”

Offering more cheese and bread like it might soothe my overheated imagination, Daniel shrugged. “Hell of a lot going down right then. Must’ve missed them.”

My hands were fisted so tight, even my nubs of nails cut into my palms. “I should’ve ripped one out of the ground and brought it with me!”

“Some kids playing around?”

“I didn’t see any kids.”

Behind the dam of rational thinking, the flood of my doubt and frustration was rising. I was sure I was being stonewalled. Like, if I asked about the diamond bracelet, would Dark Boy say, what bracelet? All this snappy chitchat and brotherly banter suddenly struck me as a smokescreen. Sure, a family has a right to their secrets, and yes, I had intruded into their business. But with the three of us hiding out together, wasn’t I in as deep as they were?

I popped up, ready to make a scene, but the space was too narrow for a real fit of umbrage. I pinwheeled my arms, fighting the whine I knew would get me nowhere. “I am not delusional, no matter what you’re trying to make me think!”

“Why would I do . . .” Daniel began.

“I know what I saw! Okay, you won’t talk about the arrows? How about the papers? A hair-raising rescue of a bucket of wet scraps? What’s all it about?”

“Whoa, whoa,” placated Daniel, but he glanced sideways down the room.

“Wet but legible,” Dark Boy said.

“Glim, listen . . .” Daniel gathered up scattered bread and cheese and set it on the arm of the couch. “It’s just family business. Some stuff my sister needs got left in the books . . .”

“Got hid, you mean!”

“Okay, but I needed to recover it before the goons torched the place. I knew they were going to. I’m sorry you got mixed up in it.”

“Way I heard it, you barged in on your own,” Dark Boy reminded me.

“That’s so helpful, Jules.”

“Fuck you, too.”

I glanced from one to the other. I needed to slow my brain down, get a grip. Spunk always said everyone’s got an angle. To really know them, you had to find out what it was. “Solar bikes, cell phones, apples from Canada! Old pails full of paper scraps? Is it some sort of black-market scheme you two are running?”

Daniel was rueful. “A black market in books?”