“You mean why are we so pale and she’s so dark?” Spenser asked. “Our mom is a full-on ginger. Her parents—our grandparents—are both gingers and both fifty percent Scottish. Our dads are third generation Armenian-American.”

They all looked ar me.

“Naomi looks like her dad. We look like our mom,” Kansas said with a smile.

“So how are you liking it here?” Watts asked.

“Uh … it’s good, I guess. I came here for a job,” I said.

“From where?” Sugar asked.

“Vegas.”

Like everyone did when I told them I lived in Vegas, they looked impressed, as if I lived on the strip and enjoyed the clubs every night. I worked night security for some high-profile clients and slept during the day. I kept just busy enough not to think about Matt when I was conscious. It wasn’t really a life at all.

“And where are y’all from?” Sugar asked my cousins.

“Arizona,” Spenser said.

“Desert life. They like it hot,” Watts said.

Kansas laughed. I tried not to roll my eyes.

“What kind of job?” Sugar asked.

“Contract security,” I said.

“She’s a Marine,” Zeke said. “She’s the biggest bad ass of us all.”

“Really?” Sugar asked.

I nodded.

“Explains a lot,” he said.

I smiled. “Why do people keep saying that?”

“Have you heard all the rumors about this town?” Watts asked. “The fire will be approaching the Cheyenne Mountain Complex if the winds don’t change. I wonder how they’re going to handle it. It’s a top-secret facility. The Air Force has a base there, but NORAD is there too. Tanks and Green Berets … what the hell are Green Berets doing at an Air Force Station? I heard President Bush went there for 9/11.”

“That’s a myth,” Kansas said.

“Don’t forget about all the science shit going in and out of there,” Zeke said. “A friend of ours who’s from here saw a wreck on NORAD Road involving a government truck. They unloaded a metal coffin with a window on top and some tech and piping connected to it. Put it in a new truck and zipped it away to Cheyenne Mountain.”

“A metal coffin,” I repeated. “He followed it all the way to the mountain?”

“As far as he could,” Sugar said. “If you go too far down the one road, soldiers’ll point rifles at you, and you’ll be escorted straight to prison.”

“What do you think was in it?” Spenser asked.

Watts smiled. “Some people say they’re doing experiments deep in the Complex. Aliens and stuff.”

Spenser and Kansas laughed.

“You can see it from the roof. Wanna go?” Sugar asked.

“To this roof?” Spenser asked, pointing up.

He nodded.

Spenser looked at her sister, and Kansas nodded.

“Naomi?” Kansas asked.

“I’ll pass.”

“I’ve seen it,” Zeke said.