“Why?” I asked. “You have a life of your own. Why do you want me in it now?”

Lexi swiped at her cheeks as if she was furious with herself for the display of emotion. She sniffed and glanced at the closed curtains and then back. “All right, I’ll be honest. I’m only in Phoenix temporarily for a job and I’m in a jam. I need your help and your connections, Nicky. I need your power.”

I stared at her for a beat and then I threw back my head and laughed. I had no power. It had all evaporated the day my body betrayed me. “I really can’t help you.”

“Yes, you can,” she said. “Listen, I’m currently building a net-zero housing development that could revolutionize the industry, but I’m making enemies, Nicky. There are a lot of developers who want to see me fail, well, a few of them want to see me dead, but that’s not why I need you.”

I felt Jackson stiffen beside me. I could tell his protective instincts were kicking in just like mine. I’d rip anyone apart who harmed my sister, whether we were in each other’s lives or not, even if I had to crawl to get to them.

“Who wants you dead?” I demanded.

“Relax, that was hyperbole,” she said.

She didn’t meet my gaze, however, so I suspected a death threat had been made.

“Bullshit. Tell me all of it, Lexi,” I said.

“It’s simple. I received a green building grant from the Environmental Protection Agency and the State Energy Program, to pair zero-emission designs with affordable homeownership on a vacant lot,” she said. “Most low-income homes spend about ten percent of their income on utilities. With the alternate sources of energy we’re putting in, the residents should have no utility bills. The goal is to create a cost-effective, completely self-sustaining housing development of twenty small homes on an abandoned lot in Central Phoenix. It’s about the greenest build you could ever imagine.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“You mean aside from the utility companies who most definitely do not want housing developments to become self-sustaining? Or the construction companies who don’t want me to upset their established practices by pushing through innovations that could slow them up if adopted into the building code? Or the investors who are suddenly panicking at the budget and want me to switch to cheaper non–environmentally friendly materials? And let’s not forget the local politicians on the take from all of the above. I’m getting slammed with supposed building code violations that don’t even make sense. And then there’s a whole anti-gentrification group of protesters, who are ridiculous because I am literally building on an abandoned lot.”