“I already explained about that,” she said fiercely, stepping forward to lay a hand on my arm.
I stared at it pointedly until she removed it.
“Well,” she said in a small voice. “I can see that there’s nothing more I can say. But, Skeeve? Promise me that you won’t follow me when I leave? You or your friends? I took a big risk finding you. Please don’t make me regret it.”
I stared at her for a long moment, then looked away and nodded.
“I know you’re disappointed in me, Skeeve,” came her voice, “but I can’t go against my partners. Haven’t you ever had to do something you didn’t want to do to support your partner?”
That hit home … painfully.
“Yes, I have,” I said, drawing a ragged breath. “I’m sorry, Luanna. I’m just Worried about Aahz, that’s all. Tell you what. Just to show there’re no hard feelings, can I have a token or something? Something to remember you by until I see you again?”
She hesitated, then pulled a gossamer-thin scarf from somewhere inside her outfit. Stepping close, she tucked it into my tunic, then rose on her tiptoes and kissed me softly.
“It’s nice of you to ask,” she said. “Even if I don’t mean anything to you at all, it’s nice of you to ask.”
With that, she turned and sprinted off down the road into the darkness.
I stared after her.
“You’re letting her go!?”
Suddenly Massha was at my side, flanked by Guido.
“C’mon, Boss. We gotta catch her. She’s your partner’s ticket off death row. Where’s she goin’?”
“To meet up with her partners in crime,” I said. “Including a surprisingly lively guy named Vic … surprising since he’s the one that Aahz is supposed to have killed.”