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She’d struck aa stop to Wally’s revolving door of bad She grinned

When a car rurin faded Waaaay too hot She could feel the dragon’s breath

"Come stay with us, Josephine Just try it out," MizB said "There are only so "

Jo went iven that dickwad foster dad, the look that got him to yank his hand away and back off "You report us, and I’ll bust Thaddie out just like I always do, and I’ll take hiain We clear?" You’re already gonna do that, Jo

Hoould MizB react? It’d probably break her Which Jo didn’t care about At all Jo’s job was looking out for nuers fro Child Protective Services every day"

"I arub into his mouth

MizB softly said, "A mother would want better for her son"

She sounded reasonable, but here was the thing: Jo was feral There’d be no living under so someone else’s rules Rules didn’t apply to Jo and never had

There’d be no sharing Thaddie with a woman who desperately wanted to be his mother

He’s mine, not hers He was Jo’s number one

But a tiny part of her said, Thaddie’s not feral Not yet Sometimes Jo had dreams about him with the Braydens The three of them as a family

Those dreams weirded her out, because she wasn’t in theotta blaze Be back in an hour or so" She swooped in to kiss Thaddie "Mwah!" Then she whispered to hi, you tit-punch her"

He nodded happily S cornbread, he said, "Bye-bye, JoJo"

MizB walked her to the door "Out to pick pockets again?"

"Yeah, you want rew really serious "How can you touch a child so innocent and good when your hands aren’t clean?"

Jo shoved the chicken leg in herboth hands Around the drumstick, she said, "Clean as they’ll ever be"

"That’s not true, Josephine I think you’ve forgotten you’re just a little girl"

"Little girl? I’ve been a lot of things, but that ain’t one of them"