Page 52 of The Nowhere Witch

“It’s hard to say. She’s been down this road before. Maybe she’ll fake to the left and then scramble at the last minute,” Hear No Evil said.

“One thing to be said for sure, she’ll come out fighting. She’s a tough player,” See No Evil said.

I looked over. “Not the time for this. Learn to read your crowd.

“Duly noted,” Hear No Evil said. “We were trying a new possible avenue. You know, something we’ve been discussing behind the scenes for entertainment value, since we’re working on tips—”

“Shut. Up.”

“Got it.” Hear No Evil turned off the microphone before saying to the other two, “I don’t think this is playing well to the crowd.”

I focused back on Musso, ignoring the monkeys who seemed intent on narrating my life story.

“He couldn’t break the contract?” I asked.

“Contracts here aren’t like the ones in Rest. You swear to something and you’re going to hold up to that, whether you want to or not. You’ll have some control back, and that’s really the problem, isn’t it, kid? You want some ownership of your life?”

I bit my lip, thinking it over. Initially, it didn’t seem like that was the issue, but the idea of security did wipe away some feelings of anger about the situation. Maybe it was the issue.

“Well? What do you think? Would that work for you?” Zab asked.

You could nearly smell the excitement pouring off him. Even if I’d wanted to play hard to get, one look at the joy in his eyes and it was tough to say no. Bottom line was that I wanted this too. This place still felt like home to me, even if I didn’twantit to. Knowing I had a secure job on the day I went to immigration? That would save me in so many ways.

“Yeah, okay, if there’s a solid contract in place, it could work. If he agrees to that, I can too.”

I’d barely finished speaking before Zab ran into the other room.

“You’re being smart.” Musso gave me the nod, the one he reserved for these types of moments.

“He still has to agree.”

“He will.” Musso laughed as he walked back to his desk.

Bibbi was giving me nervous smiles from across the room, holding up crossed fingers.

“Thanks,” I said, feeling like I didn’t want to kill her quite as much as she sat at my table. I mean, if I had this desk, it would be greedy to not let her have the table.

Musso was back to working as if everything would work out as planned.

“Tippi,” Hawk called from the back room. He sounded like himself, so it was hard to judge the reception to the contract. Musso nodded as I walked in back, as if encouraging me not to be stupid.

The monkeys marked my steps with drumbeats before trying to fall into step behind me.

I put up a hand to stop them. “You’re not coming, and I don’t need a theme song for every act of my life. If you don’t cut it out, I’m going to step on your instruments, and you’ll have to go find another kid to make cry.”

They made faces and whispered horrible things. But I walked away in silence.

Zab was glancing back and forth between Hawk and me as I walked in the back.

He rubbed his palms on his hips as he said, “Hawk’s got a couple questions, but he’s not averse to a contract.”

“I can take it from here, Zab,” Hawk said, nodding and tilting his head toward the door.

Zab glanced my way, and I nodded as well. If things went badly, I’d rather have no witnesses if I went ballistic. Plus, I didn’t need any help. I’d been around the block a few times with Hawk. I could hold my own, mostly.

“If you two think you’ve got this…” Zab took a very slow step toward the door, waiting for a cry of help before taking another.

“Thanks, Zab. We can handle it,” I said.