Page 39 of Rune’s Solace

Something inside me went dead still.

“What?” Sawyer said.

I didn’t answer.

Blown-out lines. Gray-blue under the skin. Crude enough a college kid noticed from a distance. Could’ve been a shitty tattoo from a shitty kitchen somewhere. Could’ve been homemade.

Could’ve been prison work.

I’d seen enough jailhouse ink to know the difference when I had it in front of me, and I didn’t have this one in front of me yet, but Sawyer’s description was close enough to put the possibility where I couldn’t ignore it. Especially on the neck, out where there was no hiding it and maybe no interest in trying.

Then everything else lined up behind it.

A rock in a radiator. A face in a garage that put her on the concrete. And now a hard old convict standing outside a college building in a work jacket, watching my girl come out of class like she belonged to him. Watching her, following her through Charleston, and working my blind spots well enough that I’d never once caught him doing it.

“Hey.” Sawyer’s voice came from a long way off. “Hey, are you… is this bad? You’ve got a face happening. That’s a bad face.”

I looked at him.

His attempt at humor died immediately. “Oh,” he said. “Fantastic.”

“Look at me.”

“Unfortunately, I already am.”

“You did right. Coming to me. You hear? You saw something wrong, you paid attention, and you brought it where it needed to go instead of trying to handle it yourself.”

Sawyer nodded. “I just didn’t want to put it on her. Not until I knew what it was.”

“You were right.”

He looked at me at that, like maybe he hadn’t expected to hear it.

“We keep it that way for now,” I said. “She doesn’t know until we’ve got something worth telling her. Scaring her with half a picture gets us nowhere, and if she knows somebody’s watching, she’ll start changing how she moves. I don’t want that bastard knowing we’re onto him.”

Sawyer’s face changed. “You want him to think nothing’s changed.”

“Exactly.”

“Okay.” He nodded again, slower this time. “I can do normal.”

I looked at him.

“Fine. I can do something in the general neighborhood of normal.”

“That’s all I need.”

“Terrifyingly low standard, but I’ll take it.”

“Second thing.” I waited until the smartass stopped enough that I knew he was listening. “You don’t go looking for him. Don’t follow him, don’t try getting close enough for a picture, don’t get clever and decide you’re gonna figure out what he drives or where he goes when he leaves.”

Sawyer opened his mouth.

“Whatever you’re about to say, no.”

He closed it.

“You see him again, you get Amy somewhere public. Building, restaurant, classroom, don’t give a shit, long as there are people around. Then you call me. You don’t let him know you saw him and you sure as hell don’t get between him and anything.”