He’d seen her only one time, or really two times in one night. He’d watched her from where Jonathan had told him to wait, hidden from view of the open lot where he was supposed to go once everyone got there. She had strode up the sidewalk right past him, hands shoved into the pockets of her long, flowing coat, her boot heels striking the concrete like a metronome, even and solid. She was glowing. Drawn straight and tight as a bowstring.

She was the kind of person you couldn’t help but look at. Everything going crazy didn’t change that. She’d whirled to the clamor that Roy started, those first shots a mistake, a complete surprise to everyone, including Roy. Her coat flared out around her in the turn; the streetlight ran a halo over her shiny cap of hair; her surprised expression lit up and fell into shadow as she moved.

The aim follows the eyes. He hadn’t meant to do it.

Her hair was long now. She was wearing regular clothes. Her face was rounder, but her jaw tapered away at the right side, uneven. The edge of a thick, pitted scar twisted up her neck and disappeared into the curtain of her hair.

Roy’s eyes burned. She’d spoken quietly, but he had only enough air in him for a whisper. “I’m so sorry. So sorry.”

Her face trembled with rage. “Don’t you fucking dare. If you say sorry again to me, I will scream and say anything it takes to make them beat you to death right here.”

The cashier called out to them. “Everything okay, ma’am?”

She stared into Roy, fighting to keep her shoulders from heaving with her shuddering breaths, quaking. John had told Roy that he’d killed her. This should be better. It was better. And it was breaking him. He thought his throat would tear from the cry trying to come up over top of the breath that was trying to go down.

“I’ll do whatever,” he whispered.

The woman glanced back at the cashier. “Yes. It’s fine.” She turned back to Roy. He couldn’t stand her looking at him. He wanted to die. “We know each other,” she called over her shoulder.

The woman scanned the layout of the little store. “We’ll go sit down.”

Roy waited to follow her over, but she didn’t move from facing him. With a furious double tick of her head toward the diner, he felt stupid. Of course she’d never turn her back on him.

That was new and awful. No one trusted him to get things right. In this place they didn’t even trust him not to steal. But no one had ever been afraid of him before. He had to go first so she could keep watch on him. It felt strange to lead the way.

“Wait. Give me your keys.”