‘Here’s the only deal on the table,’ Charlie said quietly. ‘I’m not getting involved with fighting dog breeders, or your debt with the Janssens. I’ll give you a million dollars. It’s no fortune these days, but it’s enough to get you out of Nevada and cover rent and bills till you’re back on your feet.’

Juno and Mikey looked at one another.

‘I’ll do all the work myself,’ Juno begged. ‘Just one night in your lab.’

‘This isn’t a negotiation,’ Charlie said. ‘Take it or leave it.’

‘Do you have the money on you?’ Mikey asked.

Charlie laughed. ‘Sure, Mikey. I always keep a million in my purse … It’ll take a day to get cash together, maybe two. Where are you staying?’

‘We’re flat broke,’ Juno admitted. ‘We slept in the car last night.’

‘Has he eaten?’ Charlie said, looking towards Patrick.

‘There’s space food, but the little prick’s fussy,’ Mikey said.

Charlie reached into her bag and peeled eighty thousand out of the hundred she’d taken at the coffee shop.

‘There’s a motel called The Paddler on East Harmon, by the Old Rock Casino,’ Charlie said. ‘I’ve used it for meetings. It looks dingy from outside, but the rooms are clean. They take cash up front, no ID, no questions asked, and there’s a laundromat and a diner on the same block.’

‘We can’t be seen,’ Juno said. ‘Fawn’s got people looking for us.’

‘If you can follow me around town all day, you can wash your kid’s clothes and buy him a decent meal,’ Charlie snarled, and she pushed the bundle of five- and ten-thousand-dollar bills into Juno’s palm.

Juno had always fussed over her nails, and it saddened Charlie to see them all chewed and broken. It was like her old friend’s brain was running different software.

‘You’re a good girl, Charlie,’ Mikey said.

‘Someone will bring the money to you at The Paddler as soon as I can get it,’ Charlie said as she opened the car door. ‘If I catch you tailing me, or I get one sniff of anything else I don’t like, the money is cancelled. Godson or no godson.’

Charlie felt awful about little Patrick as she gently kissed his food-crusted cheek. Then she jumped out of the car, keeping one hand on the pistol as she jogged towards the Porsche.

63 MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

Charlie didn’t trust Juno and Mikey, but felt more disappointed in herself. If those two half-off-their-head losers can track me down and figure out I’m running a lab, then anyone can.

Don’t I take every reasonable precaution?