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Chance followed ned curiosity He wasn’t interested in the odde of the old I’ white plaster, steps covered in a black vinyl runner The second story housedalcove, a half bath, my kitchen, and a small balcony coht it charirl in some old Western Like the store, the bi-level apartment was cool and dim, the s barred with black iron

On the third floor, I had a surprisingly luxurious bathroom with an old-fashioned claw foot tub and two bedroole bed, but right then it was buried beneath a shipood pottery, as I hadn’t decided what I’d sell and what to give the woman next door for her Tuesday market stall

I decorated the place in handht colors and Aztec patterns, although the traditional shrine and painting of the holy mother was conspicuously absent The only holy ave her life for ht say I’ve been at ith God ever since

It’s funny While she was alive, I never acknowledged that ere different I don’t reckon I knew

Other kids in ; it wasn’t that rare But other fa a bonfire or putting out food for the dead on All Hallows’ Eve Other girls didn’t read the ABC Book of Shadohile theirback an old love

Fros out there, scary things, things that shouldn’t exist She cautioned hed in on the light side Maybe she had so of as to come; I don’t know

And I never will At this point I wouldn’t believe it if sootten a hold of her, or that she had a ave everything she had, everything she was, in her final working I think Maick, but somehow it only ever manifests in one way: the Touch Maybe that’s all e

But I’ll never knohether that’s right either

"Great place," Chance said finally

I dropped down into the fancifully carved arods at my feet Done in turquoise and cri else in the room, but that was sort of the point He struck the only soainst the otherwise cheerfully raucous decor

And hadn’t that always been the case? We’d always been the raven and the peacock, possibly with all inherent , carefully, not disarranging the satiny profusion of couch cushions I’d thrown in a fit of artistic glee

In this light, he looked weary He probably was if he’d coht from Monterrey, a ten-hour haul forthathair that tunored his comment about my aparth the bullshit That too was typical

"I knohat you want from me" I sat forward, elbows on my knees "The question is, what can you offer me in return?"

"You can’t be so cold," he bit out "This isabout She lovedloves you"

"True But you’re asking ently as I could rasp, but I’m happy, Chance Sweeten the pot--make me an offer I can’t refuse"

Maybe it made me a coward, but in all honesty, I didn’t want him to I wanted a reason to send him away; his problems weren’t mine anyhteen h to sneak away in the dark

His eyes turned hard as a old frozen in their depths "Who the hell are you? You’re not the woman I loved"

I s to please you--and nearly did, that last time And all you cared about was the next payday You never once suggested I stop, that it was hurting htly, "I wouldn’t have let you go I hen you kissed ood-bye, Corine So don’t tell s I did" He broke off, his jaw set

That rocked saw puzzle I’d put together wrong Re the intensity, which I ascribed to the rush of co a job, I realized he’d known it was the last ti, our skin like rayed satin Saw his back arch, hisdown tosex, hot and open, like he wanted to suck all the taste fro in the ru sleep so I could go He lay there, silent, hearing the sounds thathi my Judas kiss

Did I hurt hiht have the power I’d decided that to hi--with benefits Or maybe this was just more of his bullshit, wrapped around the fact that he hen I left I tried to steel myself, but I’d already convinced hie is what I offer You want the people who did your mother You knohy I refused to look before" His sht and unwelcome as a paparazzi camera "But if I turn my luck to it, we’ll find them And then you can make them pay however you choose"

Chance had always insisted bad things would coether, he never gambled for the same reasons I didn’t work on commission But with him, you never kneas real, as smoke and mirrors

This was an old cried in Kilat children, but he could help o long before now, forgotten the sounds and so wasn’t part of my makeup I still wanted justice They should pay for what they’d done