“Your wife?” she whispered.

“Would it have killed you to just follow instructions?” he said at the same time.

They each scowled at the other. Ezra folded his arms. Frankie thrust her hands onto her hips.

“This was your idea,” he said finally. “The brick, the . . . whole thing! We need to start at Lemonhead, you said.”

“If you want to get something done, send a woman to do it.” As soon as it was out of her mouth, she realized it was not really the defense she’d hoped to mount.

“If I want to get something done, I tend to do it legally, regardless of gender,” he retorted.

“Please,” she said. “I heard the stories about the card counting.”

“It was once.” He leaned in close to her face.

“Twice,” she said.

“Fine! It was twice.”

“You got caught twice.” Frankie couldn’t cite other examples of when he’d been anything less than a Boy Scout, so she hoped they changed the subject soon.

Ezra threw his hands into the air. “Look, can we just agree to stand here in silence before you make this any worse? Because I do not feel like landing in a squad car when I have plenty of other shit to deal with right now.”

“They’re not arresting us! They’re campus security! I don’t even think they have that authority!” Frankie prepared to launch into a story of this one time, in Nashville, with Paxton Sunshine, but Ezra cut her off.

“How do you have any idea what they’re doing? Are you the lawyer now? Did you not see his Taser? My God, this is not the time to deal with your issues with authority.”

“Well.” She pouted. “I would not say that your legal skills did us any good.”

“You are the most infuriating person who has ever walked the planet.”

She was about to point out that he was in fact the most infuriating person to ever walk the planet, and she’d circled the globe more than a few times so she would know, but one of the guards called to the other inside, and both Ezra and Frankie fell quiet.

Frankie tapped her foot. Her toes were getting cold, but that wasn’t the reason why. What were they doing here? Why were they wasting time? Who cared what campus security threatened them with? Frankie had tangled with real cops in Bangkok (not the same trip as the concussion); she’d talked her way out of situations in cities across Europe. This was petty crime shit, and she wasn’t going to wait around to see if they ticketed her for a broken window.

She felt Ezra staring at her.

“No,” he said. “Do not. No.”

She raised her finger to her lips. Yes. She nodded.

No, he mouthed back. Then louder: “Goddammit, Frankie!”

She cocked her head around the doorframe, but there was no sign of the security guards.

Before she could give herself another second to hesitate, she looked at Ezra and then she whispered, “Run.”