Daniella held up her hands in a gesture that was as close to mea culpa as she would ever get. “Fair enough. I’ve just never paid attention to what anyone said on a tour.”

But Rinn, being perfectly insufferable, said, “Oh, you probably have, you just don’t realize it. We pay attention to tons of things we don’t realize at the time. But they become the voices in our head anyway.”

“Sometimes I wonder if she’s human,” said Imogen, a little bit of awe in her voice.

“She is,” said Daniella conspiratorially. “That’s the worst part.”

But Rinn just stretched out her hand to help Daniella up. Ignoring rudeness the way she always did, with such aplomb. “Are you going to help me break the news to Jo or not?”

Daniella didn’t think. She took Rinn’s outstretched hand, and together they were going to save their little corner of the universe.

23

Scratch a Lover and Find a Foe

2:57 P.M.

Rinn

In retrospect, maybe kicking the door—which was already ajar—all the way open so that it slammed and reverberated against the wall might have been going a bit far.

Rinn had startled both Jo and Brock Harvey—who were sitting across from each other at Jo’s desk. They both looked directly to the door, and they were both staring at Rinn. Daniella stood next to her, frozen in position. Imogen was on the other side of Rinn, offering her presence as support. And Jo looked concerned that any of them should be there.

Brock looked so smug, and it took all of Rinn’s incredible amounts of self-control that she had honed in over the years of literally working with other humans across the internet to not continue kicking into the room until she got to Brock’s horrible, smirking face and his perfectly gelled and receding hairline.

How had she ever admired this living cesspool of a human?

Perhaps Rinn had less self-control than she realized because Imogen had grabbed hold of the upper part of her arm. She was shaking her head—not a No, don’t do it, precisely, but more of a Wait just one minute.

Rinn would wait a minute, but then she might be done waiting for all eternity. Because whatever it was that they were about to dole out, Brock Harvey had it coming. As much as Imogen had slowed and halted her forward motion, that didn’t stop Rinn from pointing her finger directly at Brock Harvey and saying, nearly on a shout, “Get him out of this store.”

The about-face, in terms of Rinn’s sheer adoration of the man not a couple of hours before, left Jo gobsmacked. She stared at Rinn. Then she turned her head and stared at Harvey.