Chapter 201

The door closes behind me and Zeke is out of the car before I have fully registered the act.

I turn in my seat and watch him through the window. He walks to the curb where Eli is still standing, and I grip the door handle because I genuinely cannot tell from Zeke’s posture whether this is going to stay verbal, and I am prepared to get back out of this car if it doesn’t.

Zeke stops in front of Eli and they just look at each other for a moment, each man sizing the other up.

Zeke says something I cannot hear through the glass, and Eli’s face does not change. He just holds the look, steady and entirely still, and after a moment Zeke turns and comes back to the car, gets in and closes the door with a force that communicates everything he has decided not to say with his fists.

He doesn’t look at me in the mirror as he starts the engine.

I look back through the rear window as we pull away. Eli is still standing on the pavement with his hands in his jacket p