“Maybe I took a little creative license with her words,” Lou said carefully.

That didn’t make sense. “A little creative license? To threaten me on behalf of the Lady?” I chewed my bottom lip. For some reason, I saw the look of skepticism on Jackal’s face as Lou gave the cease and desist orders on Carrigan. “Lou, what do you mean you—”

“Excuse me,” the bartender leaned into us again. “Can I get you ladies anything else?”

“No,” I snapped. I made the mistake of glaring at her. Instead of being offended, she smiled at me and made a finger gun, snapping it at my head.

“I didn’t expect you back so soon,” she said.

I glanced at Lou, who was looking between the two of us. “I think you have me mistaken for someone else,” I said. “We’ll take the check.”

“I’m sure I know you,” the bartender said. She reached up and pushed a curly lock of hair behind her ear from where it had escaped her ponytail. She grinned at me, stuck her tongue in the gap between her teeth. “I remember that pretty face.”

My breath caught in my throat. “Nope, sorry. Not me,” I said. “The check, please.” I turned to Lou, who was still staring at me with narrowed eyes. But she had something to answer, too. Had it been the Lady or Lou who had threatened me? And if it had been Lou, why had she done it? It didn’t make any sense. “Lou, what did you mean when you said—”

“Jo, I think that was a backhanded compliment,” Lou said, sliding her eyes to the bartender. Freckles dancing across her nose as she crinkled it. “She remembers your pretty face, only it wasn’t you.”

“Honest mistake,” I said.

At the same time, the bartender said: “Can’t blame a girl for trying.” She winked at Lou.

“What about my pretty face?” Lou leaned across the table. “Would you remember me?”

I watched them flirt, and it was like watching sand drain through my fingers as the promise of our fresh day of hooky together slipped away. Lou was laughing, giving me the full cold shoulder—still pissed about the “lie” I’d told her, no doubt—tossing her hair. At one point, she reached forward and grabbed the bartender’s hand, tracing her fingers over the tattoos on her wrist.

I stood up and made my way to the bathroom. I tried to focus, tried to get back whatever thought had been on the edge of my brain before Lou’s flirt fest, but when I closed my eyes, all I could see was Lou’s open mouth, laughing, her face lit up by someone else, and then, even worse, Ellen’s smeary eyes, her twitching white shoulders, the sound of a car door dinging.