“It was in the drawer with the extra rolls of receipt paper.” Imogen shrugged. It was not a shrugging matter, but she found she couldn’t do anything else in the moment. She didn’t feel casual about any of this, but she felt like she had to do something casual to counteract the enormity of what she had gone through. It was an hour in an instant. A lifetime. She could sense the scream still there in her scratched-up throat, trying to claw its way out again, just in case.

Jo, for her part, let out a stream of profanities that ended in, “Goddamned Archer Hunt Junior.”

Listening to Jo swear helped. Made Imogen feel like she wasn’t alone. Like this wasn’t always and forever on her. Like she maybe had help out there. They couldn’t decide the big things, but others were there to swear on her behalf and take the gun away. The scream trapped in her throat slid back down, as though it was feeling safe enough to rest for the moment.

“I thought that this was under lock and fucking key. I had no idea the asshole stuck it in such an easy-to-find spot.”

“You knew it was there?” Imogen couldn’t believe it. Couldn’t believe Jo would let a gun on the premises. Wouldn’t warn them all that it was there.

“I knew that there was one. I knew that when Archer hired me, he told me that he had one. That there was a gun on-site. It was the one thing I didn’t tell the employees, because you’re nearly all underage and I know how tough that is, and I just didn’t want any of you to even consider it. That it was there. And then I never found it, so I’d forgotten about it. He must have moved it recently. I would have known if it was with the receipt paper and moved it before this. I would never have left a weapon in that spot. Christ. What was that man thinking?”

“Is there any way to get rid of it?”

“Considering it’s not mine, I don’t know.”

Imogen’s hope fell.

Jo reached out, put her hand on Imogen’s shoulder. “That doesn’t mean I’ll do nothing. Let me make some calls. See if I can’t get rid of it.”