Chapter 93

On Wednesday morning, I gathered enough strength to take the dirty clothes I had been wearing throughout that fateful Saturday and put them in the wash. Although Kaylee had offered to do my laundry for me, I didn’t want to burden her with a job I could do alone; so I went to the small laundry room and, out of mere automatic habit, I checked the pockets of the sweatshirt and the jeans, until…

From the back pocket of those dirty pants, I extracted Álvaro’s claw. I had a reflex of hatred and my hand trembled, but nothing comforted me more than knowing that that bastard was very dead. The relief was never more physical than the moment I convinced myself of that. I roughly put the clothes into the washing machine and returned to the kitchen, where my hosts were making breakfast.

I showed the claw to Luke, and he received it in his palm with an impressed gesture. Kaylee came over to us to see.

“It’s a great souvenir. I also have my memory of that battle,” he commented, a