Poppy planted herself between me and Sea Sprite. “You’re going back? Where there’s Adders?” She threw Julian a hard, dubious glance. “You and what army?”

“Daniel’s there. Inside. Please, we . . .”

“And you’ll do what when you get there?”

I shrank before the aptness of her challenge. If only I had some idea . . .

“Can she use that show-off blade?” Julian put in from behind the wheel.

“Um . . .”

Poppy about-faced, a fighter warming to the attack. She was bigger than any of us, including Hannah.

Julian nodded.

She slid her machete into its back sheath. “Let’s go.”

“This is Poppy,” I said. And that was that.

Hannah waited on the Melville’s forward deck, arms folded, fingers tapping her biceps.

“Do we have to take your sister?” I murmured to Julian as we slow-motored toward her.

He shot me his Dark Boy grin. “Scared you, did she?”

“She . . . comes on strong.”

“Well, get used to it. She’s the best weapon we got.”

The weapon was not happy to see me or Poppy in the boat. “Oh no, you don’t. Den rats ashore!”

“Reinforcements,” Julian countered. “Armed. And dangerous, I hope.”

Hannah scanned Poppy. “Okay.” She jerked her chin at me. “What’s she along for?”

“Maybe keep Danny from throwing himself onto the fire . . . ?”

“That’s ridiculous.”

I thought she was right, but Julian’s shoulders hunched. “Every Adder looks to him like Sara’s killers.”

“He told me to stay put,” I said quietly.

“All the more reason to go. Give him a reason to be careful.”

“Oh, high drama,” Hannah mocked. “You think this is one of your game outings?”

“Fuck you, H. I’m the one who’s been there all night!”

“We’ll be tripping over all this extra fluff!”

“My boat, my choice.”

They glowered at each other as Sea Sprite nudged against the Melville’s squat hull, and I pondered the complex dynamics of the Nathan family. And what he’d called her, was that just H, or maybe, ‘Aitch’? Hard not to jump to conclusions . . .

“Wasting time,” Hannah muttered finally. She pointed at me. “You. In the back.” She swung the tube off her back and lifted her canvas satchel.

Julian tossed me a nod, grabbed his mirror shades from the dashboard and shoved them up high to keep hair out of his eyes. Facing down his big sister seemed to restore his confidence.

I hoisted myself out of the passenger seat to perch on the back deck beside Poppy, feet in the cargo slot, knees clamped around the edge.

Poppy nudged me, eyes all lit. “We’ll have some fun now, eh?”

Hannah stowed her baggage under the dashboard and slid in beside her brother. “Don’t count on it.”

THIRTY-ONE