I snorted. “Sure.”
“We have to go to the addresses,” Sunny reminded me.
“It’s some stupid speeches, Sunny. I don’t think it’s worth the risk.”
“Well, I’m going.”
I buried my face in my hands, stifling a groan of impatience. Of course she’d go. Someone in charge had told her it was mandatory, and she wouldn’t even consider stepping a toe out of line because she was the perfect cleric and I was the disappointment who rebelled against her temple.
Did Sunny know that by insisting on going she was forcing me to go along too? I wouldn’t leave her by herself there, not for all the money in the world. If she was going, I was going. I grumbled into my palm.
“You two are staying here.” I pointed to Sawyer, who seemed like she was about to protest. “No arguments. None.”
“But you’re going?” Sawyer asked. “If you’re going, it has to be safe.”
“That logic is so profoundly wrong I don’t even know where to start. I am very rarely the beacon of a safe space,” I reminded her.
She looked crestfallen. “But you protect people.”
Sunny gave Sawyer a soft smile and squeezed her arm.
“I don’t protect people intentionally,” I countered. “I promise you any and all heroics are entirely incidental. If you guys are there, I’m going to be worried about you the entire time. I can’t find this killer if I’m thinking about your safety.”
“Killer?” Sawyer’s eyes got big, and she glanced at Leo and then me. “Wait, hold on. Killer? What killer?”
Shit.
“It’s nothing,” I lied.
“You don’t get to say you’re hunting for a killer then say it’s nothing.” She stared at me like I was an idiot. I think she was beginning to realize I wasn’t quite the person she had believed me to be when she started this journey.
I had tried to point out the cracks all along, but I guess she had to see them for herself.
“Someone made some threats against the clerics.” Sunny cleverly dodged the part about the dead kids, for which I was grateful. I wasn’t sure how I was going to explain to Sawyer that we were sitting here eating a casual breakfast when a guy who had murdered twelve kids younger than her was somewhere nearby. Like, how do you contextualize that?
I could barely make it make sense to me, and I was an adult. I didn’t think she’d be able to see me the same if I disclosed that extra detail. I’d never known anyone who looked at me the way she did. Like I was someone worth being.
Disappointing her would change that.
“So you knew someone might attack the convention?”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t do anything?” Her tone was an indignant snarl. You’d think she was the one who had gotten injured yesterday and not me.
“I did. I brought it up to two different people in power, and they tightened security and took the steps they thought necessary to keep people safe.” I was getting a bit annoyed. I felt like I had done more than my fair share to keep things secure at the convention. Short of canceling it myself, there wasn’t anything else I could do.
The show must go on and all that.
She didn’t immediately have any snippy retorts to lob back at me. Guess she realized it was hard to be a brat when you have no ammunition.
“You should have told me.” Sawyer crossed her arms and pouted at the table.
“I should have? Okay, Sherlock Holmes, you tell me what good that would have done. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to be scared. I didn’t tell you because for some impossibly stupid reason I thought maybe you’d be better off not knowing about a killer hanging around the same city where you were on this little runaway vacation of yours. I made my decision, I stand by it, and if you don’t like it, then maybe you should have stayed in Lovelock.”
Everyone at the table fell silent. I was mirroring her sulky gesture, my arms crossed, leaning back in my seat, a glower affixed to my face.
I guess she must have been used to more coddling because suddenly her stern expression cracked and tears welled in her eyes. She opened her mouth, trying to come up with something to say, but all that came out was a sobbing sound.