You get a say in the plan.”

I thought of the three SUVs waiting outside my apartment a week earlier.

Vincent’s kind of protection had been enormous and impossible to ignore.

Malcolm’s was a paper schedule with names beside the closing shifts.

Both men were trying to help.

Only one had asked me what would make me comfortable.

At the end of my shift, Leila phoned.

“The Grand Bell responded to our letter,” she said.