“I can’t help it if she got hosed.” I smiled right back at him, using his own words against him. “Let’s consider this, shall we? I need a weapon of some sort, and you need to make sure that the Hollows Group stays happy, because without their recruits buying on a regular basis, I’m guessing business might get slim for you.”

They exchanged a quick glance and I realized that Left was actually a woman. Just very hard in her features. And bearded. I didn’t focus on her, though. I suspected she wasn’t running this show by the way she kept bending her head toward her brother.

“Not much for four hundred,” Right said. “Nothing really.”

I shrugged. “Then I’ll find another seller.”

They laughed at me as I walked away, waiting for them to call me back, but they didn’t. Laughter followed me. I gritted my teeth to keep from . . . oh hell, why not?

“Hyenas, the pair of you!” I threw back at them.

They only laughed harder, but I ignored them and walked all the way back to Gerry. She held a package up for me, wrapped in a tight piece of twine, topped with a pair of boots that looked like they would come up to my knees. “Here.” She handed me the bundle.

“Thanks.” The predominant color was dark gray, and I saw flashes of black here and there. The smell of new leather curled up my nose. “This is great.”

She nodded. “It will change with you.”

Sarge grunted, and I looked at her, not understanding. “Excuse me?”

“The leather will mold to you as you change. So, no need for another set. And I stitched the Hollows Group logo into the top, so you have your badge with you always.” She smiled, and her face softened for just a moment. I looked down at the logo of a triangle with a crescent moon inside. That was the Hollows logo?

I held out a hand and she shook it quickly before letting it go. “Thanks.”

“Good luck. You are going to need it. Things are happening here, not good things.”

“Don’t, Gerry,” Sarge said with a growl.

That was interesting. She snapped her mouth shut. “Not my problem if you don’t mind your people dying. But I like her. I’d like her to survive a little longer than the last few. Perhaps we will have tea together some time.”

Sarge strode out ahead of me, heading straight for the stairs, all but tossing my bag back at me. I caught it and slipped my new clothes into it. The bag swallowed them up, holding everything as if it were nothing. I eyed the steep stairs.

I was not doing those again. I glanced at Bob-John and then tried to peek behind him. “Hey, you got a door out?”

“Goes through the candy shop,” he said. I pulled a ten out and he shook his head.