Page 101 of Shatter

Something in his voice pulls me off the wall.

He listens.

His eyes come up and find me, and whatever he hears on the other end of the line drains the color out of his face.

"Who?" His voice drops. "Aziza. Who is he?"

The hair on my arms stands up.

"Stay in the back." Aesir's already moving toward the stairs. "Keep her with you. We're coming."

He hangs up and looks at me.

"There's a man at the bakery." He's shrugging into his cut as he talks. "Blond, dressed nice. He walked in and knew her on sight. Called her Anni."

Not Katie, Anni.

I'm on the stairs before he finishes.

The ride to Thomasville Road takes nine minutes.

None of it sticks, except in flashes.

I remember the throttle wide open under my hand and Gunnar's bike screaming past a minivan on the shoulder behind me.

I remember running a red light on Tharpe with a cop car sitting at the gas station on the corner, and not giving a flying fuck.

Nothing else.

I dump my bike at the curb in front of the pink awning and I'm through the door before the kickstand's down.

The bell jangles over my head.

The bakery is empty except for three people.

Aziza stands in the kitchen doorway with a wooden rolling pin in one fist, her face like thunder, and Anni's behind the glass case with both hands flat on the counter, white to the lips.

And at the little round table by the window, a man sits with a paper cup of coffee in front of him, turning it slowly between his fingers.

He looks up when I come in.

He's tall, even sitting down.

Lean and soft-handed, in a navy quarter-zip and loafers with no socks.

Blond hair cut expensive, and a watch on his wrist worth more than my bike.

And her eyes.

Not the color, his are paler, washed out.

The cut of them, the way they tilt at the corners.

I'd know those eyes in the dark.

My hand is on the Glock at the small of my back before I decide to put it there.

"Espen." Anni's voice is barely a breath. "Don't."