Still, Stuart’s mocking laugh did make her uneasy, as much as she tried to hide it. Campus was her escape from the stress of her sisters’ bounty hunting business, and knowing he was lurking around her, following her, ruined that feeling of safety.

Anger filled her as she rushed down the stairs, her shoes thumping on each step, creating enough of a clatter that she couldn’t hear anything else that Stuart tried to say. When she reached the ground floor, she couldn’t keep herself from glancing up to see if he’d followed her. The stairs were poorly lit, the steps quickly disappearing into the gloom, and she felt the prickle of goose bumps ghost down her spine.

That’s what he wants, the reasonable part of her brain said. He wants to freak you out.

Despite knowing that, she still had to hide a shiver as she shoved through the door out into the late afternoon sunshine. As she strode toward the parking lot, pretending that she wasn’t relieved to see the clusters of students scattered around the area, Cara set her jaw. No more chickening out. She was going to bring in a skip and show her sisters that she could be useful in the field. That way, Charlie and Felicity could focus on finding their mom and bringing her back.

Cara was going to do whatever she had to in order to get their lives back to normal. She only had to be a badass for a short time, and then she could go back to worrying about normal things, like class projects and finding a student-teaching position next semester and whose turn it was to clean the bathroom.

Her cell phone dinged, the ringtone telling her it was a work call, and she pulled it out with brisk motions, caught up in a wave of determination. “Pax Bail Recovery.”

“Hey, there.” Barney’s slimy voice made her wrinkle her nose. Between him and Stuart, she was getting a full dose of creeps today. “Which pretty Pax sister am I talking to?”

“This is Cara. How can I help you?” She put on her best professional tone. Before everything happened, she would’ve blown him off as quickly as possible, but now that he held their mom’s bail bond—which meant he’d own their house if she didn’t show up for her next hearing—she had to be polite to him, which just about killed her. That was another thing that needed to go back to normal as quickly as possible. She was going to relish being able to hang up on Barney again.

“I have a job for you.”

She had to bite her tongue to hold back a groan. The last skip Barney had wanted them to bring in had almost killed Molly multiple times, and Cara and her sisters had almost been blown up.

At her silence, Barney hurried to add, “He’s nothing like the last one. This one’ll be easy. A walk in the park. I’m actually doing you a favor by telling you about him.”