“I don’t think so. Sorry, I don’t know for sure, but Weld was asked and he said no, but he said he’d be free a little while after. She could have waited and had Weld sit in, but she chose you.”

“And she seemed okay, almost relieved, at me doing this,” I said.

“As okay as she is with any of this,” Sveta said.

The display on the wall lit up. The trill of the phone filled the room.

“They’re calling us first,” Tristan said. “Everyone come. Seems like Rain is going to miss this. Sucks.”

We gathered at the desk.

“We need something to call you,” the woman’s voice on the other line said. “Dido speaking, with Auzure.”

“Dido, this is Capricorn. You’re on speaker with most of the rest of the team listening in. We’re working on the team name. We’ll have something soon.”

“I wanted to go over the particulars, make sure we do this right. We’re going to be calling…”

I mostly tuned it out. Tristan had it handled, and it wasn’t rocket science. I wasn’t that fond of Auzure, either.

Natalie had asked me what I was doing.

I’d been asked to be here. I was damaged, and Mrs. Yamada knew it. Why was I here, then? Yesterday, I might have said it was so I could provide this kind of direction and guidance. So I could talk to the lawyer, handle situations like Kenzie’s and Ashley’s, and be a friend to Sveta.

Was I right? Thinking that Yamada had felt like she’d done her job in putting me here? Was I overthinking things after my talk with Natalie, paranoia rearing its ugly head again?

“Beautiful,” Dido said. “Should we conference you in?”

“No,” Tristan said. “We’ve got a number you can call, it’ll route through to them, and it won’t be as blatant as a conference call.”

“Lovely. I wondered if I should mention something. Good to work with people who know what they’re doing. What number?”

Sveta mouthed the word ‘slimy’ at me.

Water off my back, now. I’d just dealt with my mom and this was easy by comparison.

Tristan gave the number, and the call was terminated.

He checked his phone.

“Rain wants to know if people are okay with him inviting Erin. They’re still half an hour away. She gave him a ride and they stopped along the way. He says he’s safe, no trouble, but he wants to talk, and he wants her here when he does.”

Tristan’s voice was just a bit tight.

“I have suspicions,” Sveta said.

“I know, I think,” Tristan said.

With that, I felt like the musings crystallized. I wouldn’t know until I talked to Jessica, but I had more of an idea. Things made a degree of sense.

“Not here,” I said.

“Hm?” Tristan asked.