I had spent months learning to keep my alarm off my face.

For the first time, that terrible skill was worth something.

Chapter 5 — The Rose Garden

I said, brightly, that I’d love to finally see Blanca’s new rose garden before it got dark.

She was delighted; she loved being admired.

As she led me out the back and down the flagstone path, naming her cultivars, I texted Kai one word from inside my pocket. Ready.

I had noticed the keypad on the pedestrian gate at the edge of the property weeks ago — an old habit, noticing exits — and I had watched Dario punch in the code enough times to know it: 8-0-1-7.