“Gerry does nice work,” Eammon said. “Expensive, but the best.”

I nodded. “I like her.”

Then I pulled my two knives and the leather strapping out of my bag. “Can you help me with this? I’m not sure how it goes on exactly.” I held it out to Eammon, and he recoiled as if I were offering him a snake. “What?”

“Where did you get that?” His finger shook as he pointed at the worn black leather. “And those!” Now he pointed at the two short knives I held in my other hand.

I put the knives on the ground and started fiddling with the straps, trying not to freak out along with Eammon. “I got them from a vendor.”

He put his hand to his head. “I should never have sent Sarge with you. He just let you run off, didn’t he?”

“Probably not.” I shrugged. “But I got a better deal on these—”

“No, you probably didn’t. What did you sign?” Eammon helped me get the harness across my hips, attaching the straps for the sheaths around my upper thighs.

“Nothing.”

“What?” That slowed him down. “Feish didn’t make you sign anything?”

“See, you knew exactly where I got these.” I patted the leather, bent with a small groan, and picked up the daggers. I slid them into the sheaths and there was a soft click, like they’d locked in place. Nice. I put the turquoise one in the right sheath, and the silver in the left.

“Feish never lets anyone out without signing a contract.”

I shrugged. “I didn’t deal with Feish. I dealt with Crash directly.”

Eammon swayed where he stood and then sat with a thud on his stool. “Go run. We will talk when you get back.”

The other trainees had already taken off, and I realized then that I was the only one left with the five trainers. I looked to Corb but couldn’t read the look in his eyes. Tom and Louis were not laughing anymore, and Sarge looked green around the gills.

As I pulled my sorry butt up the stairs, he was already apologizing. “Eammon, she said she needed girl stuff. I left her on River Street. I didn’t think she’d be pulled down Factors Row.”

I didn’t understand the fuss about the weapons. Crash seemed perfectly normal, and far more helpful than any of the men here. Sure, he was probably shady as hell, but he’d done nothing to me.