I moved sideways, toward Catalina, keeping the phone up.

“Don’t come closer.”

He came closer anyway.

He had always closed distance when he wanted to win a disagreement, had always used the simple fact of his size and his certainty to make a room feel like his.

Catalina got to her feet behind me, unsteady, and put herself at my back, and I felt the small weight of her hand grip the strap of my bag like a child holding a railing.

“You’re being emotional,” Dalton said, and held out his hand, palm up, patient.