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She nodded, patient "Okay So what do you want?"

What did he want? "Scarlett, until a few hours ago I was going for the world record in paja I have no idea what I want"

Her eyes probed him "A job?"

Jesse looked up sharply Scarlett hurried to add, "Hey, it’s just you and me here You can admit that you absolutely love this shit"

He closed his eyes, feeling like she’d struck hi Old World cases in the past They were co, and he’d always played an active role--so runt work so senior detectives could take the credit He’d been i Who didn’t want to be iht, I loved it," he said "But I didn’t love what it did to me"

"I will not ask you to help me destroy any bodies," she said firmly "I won’t ask you to hurt anyone unless it’s to save lives And I proet a say in how they are punished"

He gave her a skeptical look "Can you really proht "I’m not a naive kid anyo back and pitch theot your back" She reached over and squeezed his hand It wasn’t a roesture, but Jesse felt his pulse trip anyway, like his body was just hardwired to react to her

They went back to the others, who gave no sign that they’d overheard anything As Scarlett listed Jesse’s conditions they all nodded passively, until she got to the last part "If Jesse helps ht to have a vote in what happens to them" Before anyone could respond, she added, "Which means there will be five of us The vote can’t be split"

The three leaders all lifted their eyebrows at the same time, which was a little funny, but Jesse was too startled to enjoy it He’d thought she would ask that he could address the four of the; he hadn’t expected her to actually push for him to vote

But Kirsten, Will, and Dashiell all looked at each other, and he could practically read their thoughts: even with Jesse getting a vote, it would be the three of theood for the Old World

"You have a deal," Dashiell said, holding out his hand Jesse took it, surprised Dashiell had never initiated a handshake before

"What do you need from us?"

"Access to Molly," Scarlett said promptly "We need to talk to her"

Dashiell was already shaking his head "Forget Molly Finding the boundary witch should be your priority"

Jesse could practically see stea from Scarlett’s ears, so he jumped in "Molly obviously wasn’t chosen at random We need to ask her about her enemies Her history"

"I’ve never let any prisoners have visitors before," Dashiell said "And there are too ht not be able to trust For all we know, the boundary witch pressed one of my people to report any suspicious activity"

He had a point "What if we caested "Scarlett can wake her up and we can ask questions then"

The vahtful "Hold on a an scrolling through what looked like a calendar app After a moment, he looked up and said, "I think I can e, there’s an hour where only Abigail and Theodore Hayne will be in the house If you coail can make sure the video cameras don’t record it"

Most of Dashiell’s daytime security people were typical employees--well paid, competent, insured employees, but typical nonetheless The Haynes were different They were human, but their family had hundreds of years of service to Dashiell Theodore Hayne was also Kirsten’s ex-husband, and when Jesse had met him years earlier, it had been obvious that he still cared for her The Haynes were fully invested in keeping the LA Old World intact