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asked.
    “You’re so careful,” White Jenny said. “No way did you.”
    “I’m out of practice,” Angel said.
    “You did great,” Macy said.
    “Even if…nobody’s cracking those juvie records,” White Jenny said.
    “This is Walter Borgola,” Angel said. “He has resources.”
    “You know how hard it is to crack into juvenile records?” White Jenny asked.
    “Come on.” Macy stood, and they ran the few blocks to another side street. There, like a welcome friend, was the car they’d stashed.
    They piled in and quietly shut the doors, White Jenny in the driver’s seat. “Phew!” she said.
    “And now we head back in,” Macy said.
    Angel groaned from the back seat and pulled her shoes and dress out of her pack. She pulled off her utility belt and fanny pack and started to change.
    “We should all change back,” Macy said. “They’ll be looking at cars by now. But first…” she reached over and grabbed Angel’s fanny pack, pulled one of the velvet bags out, and carefully tipped its contents into her palm, dragging it backwards to let the diamonds spill out. A dozen smaller stones and five very large ones glittered like stars on the smooth skin of her palm.
    Angel and White Jenny watched in silence.
    Macy moved her hand slightly, letting them catch the light. “I wanna eat you up,” she whispered.
    They were breathtaking. The color, the light, the shimmer. A few of the larger ones really were significant. So much ice. Macy pointed to the largest. “There are two others like this in there. Named ones. That’s what the Flesh Boys really wanted—the named rocks.”
    “Why can’t we keep the rest?” White Jenny complained.
    “I know,” Macy said. “Don’t worry, they’ll pay.”
    “My turn,” White Jenny said.
    Macy tipped them into White Jenny’s hand. Jenny swished them around with her fingertip, just as she always did. They all had different ways of enjoying the stones. When Angel used to hold the jewels, she’d lay her cheek on them to feel them from both sides. But the truth was, holding them never give her the charge she wanted. Jewels were so much better in concept. Still, she wanted to hold them badly, just to complete the ritual of the night.
    Macy caught Angel’s eyes.
    Angel shook her head. She shouldn’t. She’d done her duty. She was out of the life. She watched White Jenny swish them.
    White Jenny looked up. “You don’t want to hold them, Angel?”
    “I’m good,” Angel said.
    “For old time’s sake?”
    “I said I’m good.” Angel sat back in the darkness. “I wanna get my gun and have this be over.”
    The rocks went back in the bag. Soon they were driving through the quiet community and back in through the gate and back to the party.
    Earlier that night, Macy had proposed that Angel should meet Rhonda, their new safecracker, for lunch. She had this idea Angel would be interested to meet her, and she’d even put her number in Angel’s phone. Macy didn’t understand how painful meeting Rhonda would be for Angel. There was so much about her old life she missed, especially her friendship with Macy and White Jenny.
    She just couldn’t hurt people anymore—that’s why she’d quit. The last straw some five years back had been seeing one of their robbery victims on the news, weeping about the heirloom sapphire set they’d taken and fenced. It had put a face on their victims, but in truth, Angel had felt guilty about it for a long time.
    Beauty is skin deep, but ugly cuts clear to the bone, her father used to say to her. He’d say it when the mean, pretty girls teased her about being fat – lardo . But when she shamed the family by drinking and thieving and getting locked up with Macy and White Jenny, she’d taken it inside her, like the ugly was all through her. Even her name felt like mockery.
    Angel.
    And then there had been the allure of the jewels, the idea that their purity and beauty would change things somehow and splash over into her life. It