He coughs, trying to catch his breath. “You’re gonna shoot me in the head,” he says finally. “What the hell else am I supposed to do?”

“I’m not going to shoot you.”

“You told me to turn and face the wall.”

“I told you to face the wall because I need to change my clothes and you’re not going to watch me while I do it.”

Tane pauses, considering. “Oh,” he says.

I haul him up and push him against a wall, then pull out a pair of zip tie cuffs and put one around his wrists. Part of me is impressed, reluctantly. Another part of me wants to punch him in the face. Instead, I take a deep breath and sit Tane down and put another zip tie around his ankles. He doesn’t resist, as if all his energy has drained away. While I take off my gear and strip off my high-tops and jumpsuit and put on my street clothes, Tane sits docilely in the corner, facing the wall, not saying a word.

“You should have waited for me to start getting undressed,” I say.

Tane raises his head, listening, but he says nothing and continues facing the wall.

“I would have been more vulnerable that way,” I continue. “Harder for me to react if I’m half out of my clothes.”

Tane clears his throat. “I’ll remember that next time I try to mug you in a storage locker.”

A FEW MINUTES later we are on the street in front of the Store-N-Go, waiting for a cab. I’ve got the duffel bag with most of my gear over one shoulder, although I’ve kept the boot knife strapped to my leg and the revolver is holstered at the small of my back under the leather jacket. Tane has remained quiet, looking anywhere but at me. While he’s not a big guy, he’s taller than I am, so it must sting that I took him down so easily.

“What’s up, buttercup?” I say. “You haven’t bitched about getting a hamburger for a whole five minutes.”

Tane clears his throat, looking down the street. “The pepper spray wasn’t pointed the wrong way, was it?”

“Nope,” I say cheerfully.

He nods, his face glum.

Soon a cab pulls up to the curb, and Fitzroy leans across the front seat to look through the open passenger-door window. “Hey there, miss,” he calls out. “Got your call. You got company, I see.”

I steer Tane into the back seat and get in next to him. “Hi, Fitzroy,” I say. “Thanks for picking us up.”

Fitzroy smiles in the rearview. “Long as you pay me, miss, I’ll pick you up anytime. Where we goin’?”

“Chastain Park. Can we go through a drive-thru on the way?” I look at Tane. “You like Steak ’n Shake? Good hamburgers.”