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"All on the floor with her clothes" Fresh tears gathered in Layla’s eyes and she bent over the goat It nudged her jaw and licked her chin "I don’t knohat to do Can you help me? Can you find her?"

Cia and Liz shared looks that said, No Yes No Maybe No

Layla eased the goat back into the crook of her arm, placed the expensive pocketbook on the table, and opened the flap "I can pay" She pulled out a stack of hundred-dollar bills and pushed it across the table toward them Neither twin looked at the money, but they both saw it More money than they ain, like a wave at high tide, hard and powerful and angry She leaned forward and said, "We can try Trying is a flat fee of a thousand Success is another two thousand Nonnegotiable" When Liz started to debate the amount, Cia said, "That’s Jane Yellowrock’s fee for a PI job And she doesn’t have et your mom back, the fee is required, no matter what shape your asped, her face paling The coh to be worthy of Jane Yellowrock herself, and the rogue-va brusque Cia entler twin Usually Suddenly Liz remembered what it had felt like to be the brunt of Layla’s cruelty--the goading, the taunting And that one tile indrawn breath, the memory descended, full, complete, and awful

"Boadecia," Layla had hissed "Stupid nairl Some people think the twins have soly" A shove, hidden fro thely freckles When Mother Nature messes up, she messes up bad She made two of them" Another shove A yank of hair

TheCia less stable, more reckless, like stormy waves on an icy ocean, pushed by a full-rown up inside Liz, like frozen rocks hanging on a cliff face, ready to fall

Not fear of the taunting girls, but fear of the control Fear that one of theical reaction through the twin bond Fear that they would ifts and pay the price Then the bell had sounded They had gotten away, barely, before one of theirls

Liz blew out her breath Yeah Okay Cia was right That girl who hurt the theift freely given, the way they were supposed to be for one in need "What she said That’s our price"

"No , she counted out thirty hundred-dollar bills "I pay up front You do your best" She stood, tucking the goat into the crook of her ar it with an absentminded caress

"We need to see the house," Cia said, her tone still hard "We’ll need to take so the day she disappeared To do a working to find her"

Layla opened her pocketbook and re pen and planner She wrote her mother’s address down and tore off the sheet Then she tossed down a business card, glossy and dark, with her contact info on it "Call me"

She turned on the heel of the Manolo and left the café, the icy spring hipping inside

"She wanted us to sacrifice a goat kid"

"She’s an idiot She called us by our full names, as if we’re fae and can be commanded"

"Not our full names," Liz said

"Nope I’m not sure we ever told anyone our full naht you for theave her a hard slash of smile and said, "Good idea on Jane’s prices, huh?"

Liz nodded and opened her mouth to tell Cia that Jane Yellowrock was in town for the hearing about the day their sister died About the day Jane had killed her to save hus needed to die peacefully, things like the , psychotic, demon-drunk misery on live TV So far she had been able to keep the news from her twin Why spoil it?

Cia handed Liz the address and card and said, "Let’s get set up for lunch I have the kitchen, and while the soups aren’t de, the salads and bread are" Cia sashayed toward the back "As soon as we’re done here for the afternoon," she added, "let’s go by the elina never had trouble handling the kitchen," Liz gruet the knack? We need to hire a chef"

"On it," Cia said from behind the kitchen bar "Résumés in a stack" She waved a sheaf of papers in the air "Maybe we should have a cook-off"