“That’s very true,” Kenzie said.

“I’m wondering if there’s even a good way to go about this. I’m not trying to screw you guys up, I’m genuinely wondering.”

“It might not be as complicated as it seems,” Sveta said. “I can move quickly if I have to, Ashley doesn’t have much occupying her days, when she doesn’t have her appointments, and I don’t think she minds much. She’s happy to wake up early and read on the train, she even goes to the New York hub a lot, and that’s a full day trip. As for you, you can fly again—”

She squeezed my arm as she said it, rocking a bit side to side as she did it. I rocked a bit with her.

“—and the way you were talking about things, this wouldn’t be a full-time thing for you,” Sveta finished. Her enthusiasm had risen as she talked, and only dropped with that last part.

“Maybe,” I said. “It seems you’d want a location that was closer to Kenzie and Chris then. Closer to Rain.”

“Yeah,” Rain said. He was looking around a fair bit. “I don’t mind the trips, either.”

“You okay?” I asked him.

“Yeah. Forgot for a short while that I have an attempt out on my life. I really should dwell on it more, to be safe, especially with Kenzie in tow.”

“I can hold my own,” Kenzie said.

“It’s an attempt on my life,” Rain said. “Lives could be lost. I don’t want yours to be one of them. I would feel insanely shitty if you jumped in to help and you got hurt or killed.”

“Insanely?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

“I’m going to call my ride, I think. See if she can catch me en route instead of me going to her,” Rain said.

“She? Erin the lady friend?” Kenzie asked.

“Erin the friendship I’m not going to mess with,” Rain said. He pulled out the phone and stepped a bit away, walking at the road’s edge instead of on the sidewalk.

We reached an intersection, and Rain stepped away, one hand to his ear while he held the phone to the other. His eyes roved, looking at nearby rooftops and the dark spaces between buildings.

The building at the corner of the intersection was a bar, and a group of ten or so people were standing outside, smoking. The place and the people smelled like the cheap alcohol that was barely a step above moonshine, that was being sold on the cheap in a lot of places. Made to fill a need, now a surplus, with cheap, shitty beer available to fill the need instead.

Their attention was on Sveta.

“Hey,” one called out.

She glanced at them, then set to ignoring them. I took her cue.

“Hey,” the guy called out again, drawing out the word. “Hey, you with the paint.”