“We need to talk,” Daryl said, taking me by the elbow and hurrying me along. I was more startled than scared, so I didn’t have time to consider how he planned to get what it was he wanted from me. He led me to a small office building that had a FOR LEASE sign in front and pushed me down the alley. He pointed to a rusted metal fire escape ladder.

“You want me to climb up there?” I asked, looking up at what seemed like the last place I would ever go, beside maybe the side of a highway in the middle of the night.

He smiled. “You’ll be fine, Mytilda. I’ll be right behind you.”

Not terribly comforted, I contemplated my options. I could refuse and try and outrun him, but part of me was curious to find out what it was he wanted. The other part understood that the likelihood of outrunning him was unlikely. So I handed him my backpack and used both arms to lift myself up onto the ladder. As promised, he came up behind me, his arms never far from my feet. When we reached the top, I jumped off and he followed. I noticed that in the corner of the roof was a doorway. “Why couldn’t we have come through the door?”

“Because I don’t like doing things the easy way.”

I didn’t know how to respond, so I said nothing. He unzipped his backpack and pulled out a brown paper bag, then unscrewed the cap off a bottle and handed it to me. “Drink.”

“You first,” I said, pushing it back in his direction. Without hesitation, he tipped it into his mouth. After several gulps, he wiped his mouth with his sleeve and handed the bottle back.

Besides stealing some sips of wine from my mother’s glass, I had never really had alcohol before. The first sip tasted fruity, but it burned going down and reminded me of cherry cough syrup. I choked a little and he laughed. “What is this?”

“Blackberry brandy. Good stuff.”

I nodded, not knowing any better. The sweetness lingered in the back of my throat, but I could still feel the burn. I wondered what my mother would think of me now. I took a few more sips, this time ignoring the burning feeling, which I was slowly getting used to. He grinned at me; I was now a member of some private club.

“What do you know about Lavi and my father?”