“Having the police show up to take her away might make her dig her heels in more,” Sveta said.

“Stupid,” Erin said. “So fucking stupid. Colt and her parents both.”

Her eyes were a touch moist as she shook her head, arms crossed, and ducked past Sveta and I.

“Too close to home?” Sveta asked.

“I can’t talk about home. Sorry. Give me a second.”

“Okay,” Sveta said. She met my eyes.

I had worries, but they were ones I’d rather not voice aloud. Nailbiter had a history that had seen her arrested and sentenced harshly, without much delay. Post-Gold Morning, she’d settled back into her role as a violent cape, serving as what might have been Beast of Burden’s second in command.

She was calmer than she’d been reported to be in the one article I’d been able to dig out of my boxes of notes, part of an article from a magazine, listing the Birdcage’s residents at the time. The last page of the article, annoyingly, hadn’t been preserved. I’d pulled the page out for whatever article or image was on the other side.

Either way, violent, as might have been expected for an ex-con with rusty nails instead of teeth. Prison and nine years might have changed her a bit from the person described in the article, but I doubted Colt was in good hands.

“Okay,” I said. “We don’t want to ignore this. I’ll make some calls later. I’ll see what I can find on Nailbiter. She was from North Carolina, I think, and some of their capes are still around. I’d have to track down a veteran. We’ll see what we’re up against. If I get a chance, I’ll have a conversation with her.”

“And say what?” Chris asked. “Parents don’t want her, intense nails-for-teeth lady does.”

“She didn’t want to go, and I think her parents wanted her to stay,” Tristan said.

“‘I never want to see your face again’ sounds like a real term of endearment,” Chris said.

“If she’s with Nailbiter,” Tristan said.

“I’ll talk with her,” I said. I looked at Ashley. “Given the crowd you’re likely to run into while you’re over there, there’s a chance you may see her.”

“She hit her mom, several times,” Ashley said.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Her mom was willing to hit her back. Colt learned that behavior from someone.”

“You’re assuming she picked that up from her parents? That’s a bit of a leap. We can’t know for sure,” I said.

“We can guess,” Ashley said.

“But we can’t know,” I said. “It’s… far from great, that situation, Colt, her parents. Maybe think about what you might say or do if you run into her.”

Ashley shook her head slightly.

“No?”

“I was thinking more about Nailbiter,” Ashley said.