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a pillow into his arms. “Be a gentleman and leave her the bed.”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    When I came out of the bathroom, Luke had made up a bed for himself on the floor in the narrow space between the bed and the bookshelf. He lay on his side, propped up on one arm, reading the book he’d gotten that morning. His arm muscles bulged even though he was relaxed, and the hair on his forearms was blond in the lamplight.
    I crossed to the bed, suddenly conscious of how I wasn’t wearing anything under my loose pajama top.
    He had undone the leather tie that held back his hair, and now it fell alongside his cheeks, reminding me of when I first saw him and thought he looked like Thor, the god of thunder.
    I climbed into bed. “We should listen to your friend’s message,” Luke said quietly. “The one on your phone.”
    I flipped the quilt over my legs, pretending I hadn’t heard that.
    “I know you heard me.”
    “Not now.”
    “Vera’s busy and Harris is asleep. There’s no better time.”
    “Sparrow said that the message was for Maggie. She specifically told me not to listen to it.”
    “What would she have said if she knew Maggie would be murdered?”
    Listen to it. Get it to the right person. “I don’t know.”
    I eased the chain with the thumb drive over my head, and Luke watched as I let it coil on the nightstand.
    “What do you intend to do about that?” he said.
    My cheeks stung. What did I intend to do with the video of Maggie describing the Paternalists’ secret dealings, the one I promised to get to her friend in Washington? “I’ll take care of it.”
    “How?”
    “I don’t know. But you’ll be happy to hear that most of the border crossings are closed so I can’t easily escape to Canada.”
    “I’m not happy about the border closing,” he said.
    “I find that hard to believe. You seem set on us going all the way to D.C. to deliver this drive in person.”
    “If Maggie thought that bringing down Jouvert was as easy as sending that thing through the mail, she’d have told you to do it.”
    I flipped over and turned my back to him, but Luke kept on talking. “Jouvert needs to pay. He killed Maggie and Barnabas, turned his guns on the rest of my family, and right now he’s holding them hostage. If you aren’t willing to do what it takes, then I will.”
    I turned around just in time to see Luke snatch the drive off the table and pull the chain over his head. He jutted his chin like he dared me to try to take it off him.
    I felt a flash of relief, seeing it around his neck. You want it so much you can have it. Then relief dissolved, and I jerked at the sheets that had twisted around my legs. I couldn’t just hand off what I’d promised Maggie I’d do.
    “Maggie spent five years collecting this information. I will not let her life be wasted,” he said.
    She and the girls in her escort service had risked their lives, partying and spying on businessmen, bankers, and Paternalist leaders to collect what was on that drive.
    “Fine,” I snapped. “You want to go to Laramie? Let’s go.”
    “Good. I’m glad we’re in agreement.” Luke slapped his book shut and drew the blankets over him.
    I flipped off the lamp, heat pouring out of me. I’d go to Laramie, but after that—
    Out in the living room, the radio was on low. According to the Canadians reporting for Radio Free America, Congress’ Open Arms policy was a response to sixteen European nations banning their female citizens from traveling to the U.S. after too many went missing. Hundreds of thousands of Australians and east Asian women were expected to apply.
    I hugged my pillow, wishing I could stay right here, safe and warm, but knowing I couldn’t, not with a quarter-million-dollar bounty on my head. And Luke needed to get out, too. Those government agents back in Salvation were probably assembling dossiers on everyone the Council knew or was related to, and pretty soon they’d know Maggie and Barnabas had a son who got