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She peeled fro fast on her toes At the back, she slipped between the stone framework and the wooden wall of the house and felt around for the hidden latch It sprang open under the pressure of her fingers She edged the secret door open and padded inside, into the walk-in closet, and out into her bedrooular bedroo bathroom, and the rest of it was taken up by a wide open space,rooe, and counters at the north wall

Audrey peeked out of the doorway An older man with curly reddish-brown hair stood at the kitchen stove, htly stooped back turned to her

She would know that posture anywhere

Audrey raised her crossbow and took a step into the living roo on the counter Audrey squeezed the trigger The string snapped with a satisfying twang The bolt punched through the bag inches frorinned at her, his blue eye sparking She knew the smile too It was his con smile

"Hi, munchkin"

Audrey let her crossbow point to the floor "Hi, Dad"

"A good shot" Sea fro of flour "I’d say you killed it Bull’s-eye"

Audrey set the crossbon and crossed her aret out, get out" He was here in her house, and she had to clench her fingers on her ar hihter and twenty three years of grifting ht "How did you findand poured so my patented silver dollar pancakes You remember those, don’t you?"

"Sure, dad I res She would bleach it all after he was gone

Ling slipped from the back door, scurried around her feet, and showed Seamus her teeth

"Your little critter doesn’t likepan

"She has good instincts"

Seamus looked up at her, blue eyes like two flax petals under bushy red eyebrows "There is no need for that"

Screw it "What do you want?"

Seahter disappears for four years, doesn’t tell , doesn’t call, doesn’t write What, I don’t have a right to be concerned? All we had was a little note"

Yeah, right "The note said, ’Don’t look for me’ That was a clue"

"Your et out, get out "What do you want?"

Seah "Can we not have a meal like a normal faypt"

In the Weird The worlds of the Weird and the Broken had sione entirely different ways In the world withoutfrom the South Eastern end of the continent was known as Florida In the Weird it was West Egypt, the Alligator to the Cobra and the Hawk of the triple Egyptian crown

"It won’t take but a week A good solid payoff"

"Not interested"

He sighed again "I didn’t want to bring this up It’s about your brother"

Of course Why would it ever be about anybody else?

Seamus leaned forward "There is a facility in California -"

She raised her hands "I don’t want to hear it"

"It’s beautiful It’s like a resort" He reached into his jacket "Look at the pictures These doctors, they’re the best All we have to do is pull off this one heist and we can get him in there I’d do it myself, but it’s a three-person job"

"No"

Seamus turned off the stove and shoved the pan aside onto a cold burner "He is your brother He loves you, Audrey We haven’t asked anything of you for three years"

"He is an addict, Dad An addict How hteen when I left, what’s the number now?"