“Dad will fucking kill you both,” he said, but he sat in the chair next to them, pushing himself to the edge so his knee touched Ruth’s.

“Not if we don’t get caught,” Ruth said.

She didn’t move her leg one inch.

PEYOTE

“I’M SORRY, DID YOU just say fifteen in one deal?” KQ asked, her eyes darting between Cal’s and mine. “As in, we do one thing and we get fifteen Quarter Pounders with fries? Just like that?”

“That’s what he said.”

“Well then, what the fuck are you doing in here talking to me? Go do it!” KQ shouted, waving her hands. “Right now!”

“There’s one catch.”

We agreed before we walked into her office that KQ was most likely to flex her power if she had another woman to flex it over. So Cal stood next to me, wearing downcast eyes and her most deeply beige sweater, the clothing equivalent of a dry, untoasted bagel.

“I don’t like catches.”

“If it were anyone but you, it would be tricky,” I said. “But you can take care of this, no sweat. We just need your John Hancock.”

KQ smiled, lapping up my bullshit like she’d never heard of table manners. “I’m listening.”

“We need to find this guy so we can find what the marks are looking for, and the only way to do so is to use the Looking Glass.”

KQ’s head shot up, her eyes in slits. I was about to ask her if she was okay, when she slammed her palms down on her desk.

“Fuck it. Fifteen souls in one deal are more than even those Sixth-Floor pricks could say no to. Give me the slip.” She held out her hand, wiggling her fingers. I handed her the clipboard and a fistful of pens, my heart in my throat.

After all of this planning and scheming, all I had to do was smile and ask real nice.

When we closed the door behind us, I tried to hide how my hands shook. I knew Cal would be excited, and I could share in the appropriate amount of that excitement. But I hadn’t forgotten who Cal was. Even in moments of success, she was smarter than anyone else I had encountered in Hell. If she caught on that I had my own agenda, the perfect balance of happenstance that had fallen into my lap could dissolve into nothing.

“Holy shit, that worked,” she said under her breath as she fussed with a pile of papers in her arms.

“Let’s go tomorrow,” I said. “First thing.”

Of course, I wouldn’t wait. I was already counting the steps between me and the elevator.

As if she could read my mind, Cal shook her head.

“Let’s go right now.”

LILY