Page 174 of Sweet Ruin

He glances at Spider Scalp, who looks up and starts intently studying the ceiling.

“They got lost,” Yuri growls angrily. “And some of us are lucky that our testicles didn’t get ‘lost’ along with them. Right, Igor?”

Igor keeps his gaze upward. Probably a good move on his part.

Laughing, I box the cookies. Yuri slides a hundred across the counter.

“The total is thirty-six,” I tell him. “This is way too much.”

“Keep it.”

“I couldn’t possibly⁠—”

“Keep it, Ms. Dorsey,” he insists, shoving the cash across the counter. “It’s the least you deserve.”

Behind him, the line curves out the door. Priya calls the next ticket. The ovens roar, warm and dependable at my back.

For the first time since Christmas, I look around my bakery and don’t see a ship leaking from too many holes to plug.

I see a business so busy the windows fog, with my name on the glass.

Mine, at least for now.

And for one busy morning, that is enough for me.

“Alright. Thanks, Yuri.”

He bows and starts to head out of the door.

Which is when a man barrels in hard enough to shoulder Yuri into the frame.

This is a tactical error from which there is no coming back. Yuri is approximately the width and density of a U-Haul, and he is unafraid of violence.

The newcomer doesn’t notice, though. He’s too busy thrusting his phone around at the inside of my bakery.

“There she is!” he announces to the screen. “The famous lying whale herself!”

All the noise is instantly sucked out of the room. Every conversation dies.

Yuri looks at me.

I see the question in his face.

You want me to kill him?

I shake my head once.

Not yet.

“Good morning, sir,” I say as brightly as I can. “What can I get you?”

The man swings his phone around to face me. “Look at her! Shameless!”

“Sir,” I say, “please don’t record me or my employees.”

“This is a public place, dumbass,” he snaps in response, frothing at the mouth.

“It’s private property,” I correct. “And I own it.”