“I’m not your father, Sasha. And it would be a very big mistake to think of me that way.” I feel the silence more than hear it, because neither of the girls were actually talking. But things go still.

When I look up Sasha is glaring at me. “Don’t worry,” she says through her clenched teeth. “I’d never want you for a father anyway. You’re an ass**le.”

People in the next table look over at her swearing. “Sorry,” I mouth to them and they look away quickly. “Sasha, watch your mouth. Especially in public. You are thirteen years old. Act like it.”

“I was acting like it,” she says on the other side of her menu. “And you are definitely an ass**le.”

“OK,” Harper says. “What’s everyone gonna get? I’m thinking one of everything.”

Sasha puts down her menu and looks at the dinosaurs through the window. “I’m not hungry.”

I let out a long grumble before I can stop myself. “I’ll order for you if you don’t choose. And you’re gonna eat it whether you want to or not.”

“Whatever,” she says back.

I take my case to Harper. “She needs to eat. We have no clue what will happen after we get back to the Beach. I need her to be ready.”

“Ready for what?” Harper looks around cautiously. “Do you think we’re in trouble?”

“Not yet, Harp. Calm down. I just feel like something’s coming, you know? And I’ve learned to listen to my gut intuition. If things feel off, then they probably are.”

“Things feel off with me too,” Harper finally admits. “I can’t put my finger on it, but it feels bad.”

“That feeling is James betraying you, Harper. And If I were you, I’d definitely listen to that one.”

My hand comes up, ready to smack the shit out of her, but Harper reaches for it before I can do something I regret. “James, stop. She’s trying to make you react.”

I take a deep breath. “It’s working, and believe me, she does not want to be on the receiving end of my reactions.”

“I’m right here, you know.”

“Sasha,” Harper says sternly. “Shut your mouth and choose some food. You’re making this more difficult than it needs to be.”

Sasha glares at Harper now. “I don’t get you. He’s here for you, ya know. And you’re practically handing yourself over.”

I put my hands on the table this time, ready to get up and drag her outside so we can have this out for real, but the waitress comes. “You all ready to order?”

I relax back in my seat and point to Harper.

“I’ll have the…” She looks down at her menu again. “Dino Supreme.” And when she looks back up she’s got that glowing smile on her face that makes people love her. Makes me love her, that’s for sure. “Scrambled, please.”

The waitress looks over at Sasha and waits. I expect something atrocious to come out of her filthy mouth, but she says in her best sweet-little-girl voice, “Dino Egg Pancake Plate and orange juice.”

“Oh, I want OJ too,” Harper says.

“Does that come with hash browns?” Sasha asks.

“No, those are extra, sweetie.”

“James,” she says, looking over at me. “Can I get hash browns too?”

I almost glare at her because she’s baiting me again, but if she wants to playact, I can go along. “Whatever you want, Princess Smurf.”

I order the T-Rex T-bone with a side of eggs and by the time the waitress leaves, I’m calm.

But this f**king kid. What the hell was that?

I watch her look out the window at the dinosaurs again, and then Harper takes my hands in hers, leans across the table, and kisses me on the cheek. “We’re OK, James.”

“I know,” I say back with a smile. For now, at least. But this trip will be over before we know it and then… I’m not sure what happens.

After that Harper keeps the conversation going. She asks Sasha all kinds of dinosaur questions and gets a well-articulated answer for each and every one of them. Sasha reports on shit I’ve never heard of before and it’s clear this is her passion. Not guns. Not hunters. Not revenge. Although I’m pretty sure she harbors a deep resentment for the Company and would get some revenge, if offered.

I’m counting on that, in fact.

But right now, she’s Sasha the dino nerd.

The food comes and the girls go quiet as they eat. Sasha finishes everything on her plate and she’s done long before we are so she excuses herself to use the bathroom. Harper slides out and then back in after Sasha takes off.

“So,” Harper starts. “What do you think all that was about?”

I should’ve expected that, but somehow I figured she’d moved past it. “Look,” I say with a little bit more exasperation than is necessary. “She’s a very troubled kid, OK? Her father was blown up last Christmas Eve on a job Merc was doing. Then she went to live with her grandparents and they were blown up too.”

“That’s what she was talking about when she said she killed four people?”

“Yeah, her father, from my understanding anyway”—Tread carefully here, Tet, my inner voice cautions. This is new info from the Admiral last night—“was a former assassin trainer and he left that position and became an arms supplier out of Cheyenne. And Sasha seems to be his only living legacy.”

“So she’s a trained hunter?” Harper looks away as she puts these things together. “Like me? Only she can shoot and I can’t.”

I smile at that. “I like the fact that you can’t shoot. Or drive,” I add. “It’s sorta sweet.”

She almost chokes on her orange juice. “Why sweet?”

“I dunno. Because you’re so deadly on your own terms, right? The hand-to-hand stuff. You kick some serious ass like that. And you can sail a megayacht, but you can’t drive a car.”

“Well, I can’t sail that thing alone. It’s crazy big. You have to have a crew. So it’s not that impressive when all you do is bark orders.”

“But if someone asked you to captain their megayacht and take them to… wherever, you could do it. Couldn’t you?”

She shrugs. “I suppose. If the crew was competent.”