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regions. “Mr. Stickler-for-the-rules just broke the biggest one.”
    “Boss?” I ask, rubbing the back of my head where an egg is definitely beginning to form.
    “You know how pissed she gets if anyone looks at Sasha the wrong way,” Blondie says.
    “Drake, I don’t want to hear it,” Brett scolds.
    “Sasha?” I ask.
    “You can’t be her daughter,” Brett says with a tiny hint of doubt. He looks down at the palm of his left hand, which is beginning to blister where I burnt him. “Oh shit,” he says, his eyes widening in realisation. He lets both arms rest by his side, no longer pointing the gun at me. “You really are her.”
    “You know about me?”
    He nods.
    “Why didn’t you say who you were yesterday?” Blondie—Drake as Brett called him—asks as he holds out a hand to help me up.
    “I did,” I say, ignoring his helping hand and getting to my feet by myself.
    He shakes his head. “No you didn’t.”
    Didn’t I? I think back, my shoulders slouching when I realise it wasn’t him we told why we were looking for Cade, it was the neighbour.
    “So you followed me to the coffee shop?” I ask Brett. Our whole meet-cute was a set up?
    “Why do you have purple eyes?” he asks, ignoring my question and successfully pissing me off with his own.
    “Why do you have brown eyes? Who asks someone why their eyes are a certain colour?”
    “Cade told us you have blue eyes.”
    “Well, mother of the year strikes again. Before my eyes started turning purple, they were actually hazel if you must know. Blue on the outside with brown in the middle. But she’d know that had she not abandoned me.”
    “You think that’s what happened?” Drake asks. “If she did that, then why has she been looking for you?”
    “She what?”
    “We’ve been told to keep an eye out for you. We didn’t know you go by Nuka. I’m guessing Cade didn’t know that either,” Brett says.
    “You know what my real name is?” I ask, hope filling my voice.
    “Uh … maybe we should let Cade fill her in?” Drake asks Brett. “I don’t want to piss her off by telling the story wrong or something.”
    Brett nods. “Let’s go.”
    “Go where?” I ask.
    “To see your mother.”
    “Wait. How do I know I can trust you?”
    “You don’t, but if you want to find your mother, then you will,” Brett answers simply.
    Just how desperate am I to meet this woman?   “Yeah, I’m not getting into a car with the two guys who just tried to attack me. As much as I want to see my mother, I’m not a complete moron.” And yet, I’m in an alley in the middle of the night with two complete strangers. I have to admit, I’m at least part moron.
    “That’s really not the answer I was hoping for, Nuka.”
    “I’m sorry to disappoint you, Brett .”
    Drake looks at Brett, surprise etched on his face. “Told her your real name, hey?”
    “Shut up,” Brett replies, handing Drake the gun before lunging for me. He grabs me around my waist and throws me over his shoulder as easy as he would a rag doll. “I didn’t want it to come down to this ...”
    I barely hear him over my screams. Brett’s carrying me farther into the alley now, my butt up in the air.
    They’re going to take me, and I need to stop them. I scream louder and kick my legs, but it doesn’t seem to do anything.
    “Is there any way to shut her up?” Drake yells over my screeching.
    “Let’s just get her to the car,” Brett yells back.
    Realising it’s futile, I stop screaming and try another tactic. Lifting Brett’s shirt, I press my hands into his skin and start burning him. The muscles in his back stiffen at the pain, but he manages to push through it. I contemplate using my entire body to try to burn him, but it’ll take too long for all of me to heat up to the kind of temperature that will do any damage. I decide to focus on my hands and push all of my energy through them.
    “Friggin’ hell, Nuka. I’m helping you here,” he says, clearly starting to