“You were right,” I repeated myself. “The reality is that when we showed up at the Center tonight, it was because we wanted to communicate with Love Lost.”

“Love doesn’t really talk, you know that right?”

“How does that even work?” Spright asked.

“If it’s important, she writes it down, prints it out, and hands it out. Game plan. If it’s not, why say it? We know she’s all class and she’s professional as shit. If she says jump we jump and it works out.”

“So far,” Swansong said.

“Oh go fuck yourself. You can’t even talk. She beat you and scared you off. That’s why you’re talking to me and D.J., you got lucky and you got us after you rolled our car off the road and I sprained my lower back.”

“You don’t have a lower back.”

“Fuck you.”

“We came to talk to Love Lost,” I said. “Because we have it on good authority that Cradle is likely to take March’s offer.”

“Offer?”

“I’m willing to bet Love Lost got the same offer. She’ll know what it means.”

“Not if you don’t tell her, and she’s not going to accept a meeting with you assholes.”

“When we said we were bringing you here to talk, we meant it. We’re letting you go,” I said.

“Bullshit. Trying to soften me and D.J. up.”

“We wanted to get a message to Love Lost. You’re going to take it to her,” I said.

I saw Shortcut stand a little taller. Behind his mask, his eyes went wide, intense.

Yeah, this was never going to go over well with him. I’d left him out of the loop as I’d filled in the others, and Spright had too. I felt pretty validated that Spright was tacitly agreeing with me here.

“If you want to stir shit up or make this harder than it needs to be, then we could just send the most cooperative of you two. Or try leaving a message with one of your crooked cops.”

“Sensible cops—”

“Allegedly,” Disjoint added.

“You keep using that wrong,” Lookout said, almost plaintive. “Stop.”

“Am I allegedly using it wrong?”

“Yes!”

Sidepiece leaned back. “We’re talking sensible alleged cops who recognize that the only towns that have a shot at making it are ones with protectors. And not pussy focus-tested superheroes or asshole freaks like you all, either. Actual make-your-enemies-go-away protectors.”

“Allegedly,” Disjoint said, again. Lookout crossed her arms, trying to look tough.

“A-guaranteed-ly, ackshully,” Sidepiece said, with a dangerous tone. “It’s what we’re about. There can be no allegedly about if we’re going to grant any protection there.”