The trip back to the city was made in silence, Sarah concentrating on driving and Zach seemingly asleep with his head leaned against the passenger side door. Sarah didn't think he was asleep, though; she thought he was just pretending.

She was very worried about Rosemary--what if Yurkemi had kidnapped her, tortured her, driven off with her somewhere they'd never find her? Of course, that probably wasn't the case--he didn't want Rosemary, he wanted Zach, and whatever he did to anyone else would only be to serve that end. But he could still hurt her. She was worried, too, about Cate, who lived alone out in the sticks next to an orange grove, and the Grahams--after the bars closed, the area where the shop was was almost completely deserted. No one would hear--

Oh, stop it! she said to herself. You're being ridiculous. And even if it's true, it doesn't do any good to worry about it. You'll find out soon enough if there's anyhing to worry about!

Right now she was also worried about Zach. He had been acting strangely subdued ever since they left the restaurant, and she wasn't sure what to do about it. She was going to need his help--she couldn't take care of Yurkemi herself--but in his present state she wasn't sure whether he would be any help at all.

The turnoff to the Key was coming up, but she drove on past it. "Zach?" she said, "are you asleep?"

He answered her without opening his eyes. "No, I'm awake."

"I'm going to drive out to Cate's and check on her and use her phone to try to find Rosemary. I don't want to go to my house or to the shop until I know everything's okay."

"That makes sense," he said, his eyes still closed.

"I'm going to need your help. Are you okay?"

He finally turned to face her. "I'm okay, Sarah. I'm just feeling really badly about everything that's happened. I seem to have messed things up, gotten people hurt . . . I didn't mean for this to happen. If I had known . . . I never would have come."

Sarah pulled the car over onto the shoulder and put it in Park. She wanted to be able to look at Zach while she talked to him and not risk an accident. "You had the best of intentions. The fact that Yurkemi showed up isn't your fault. Everybody's going to be okay, I'm sure of it. We just need to round everybody up and be sure, and then we can get some sleep. And you haven't messed up! Look at me! I feel so much better--I almost feel like the person I was before . . . well, before. I feel happy again. And that's your doing. So don't tell me that you've bungled it. You haven't. Now let's go and check on Cate, okay?"

She put the car back in gear and pulled back onto the highway, and Zach sat up straight and opened his eyes.

"Your're right," he said. "I'm sorry. This is all so new to me. I'm used to just doing my job and not getting involved in anything outside of my own little world. This is all just completely . . ." he paused. "Different, I guess. Just different. Is it always like this down here?"

Sarah laughed. "No, not in the least. Real life is seldom quite this exciting. We mostly just do our jobs and stay in our own little worlds, too. You're the most exciting thing that's happened to me in years." She looked over at him and saw that he was smiling.

"Don't worry about it, okay?" she said. "What we have to do now is figure out how to get Yurkemi off our backs.

"I'll just have to go back," Zach said. "There's really no other choice. Once I go back, he'll have no reason to stay, and you can go back to the way things were."

"But I don't want to go back to the way things were! I mean, well, I could do without the kidnapping threats and all that stuff, but Zach! I've been so happy since you came, so . . . free. I've hardly thought about the store--and that's wrong, I know--but I think I needed a break from my real life, and it's been almost like being on vacation. So don't tell me to go back to the way I was before. I don't want to."

"Okay, okay!" He made a short little snort of laughter. "Believe me, I'm not going to try to make you do anything! But I'm going to have to go back. I meant to eventually, of course, but I had hoped to spend a little longer with you."

"Well, let's not be too hasty about anything, okay? Let's just wait and see what happens." She pulled off the highway onto a gravel road and bumped along until they reached Cate's little rental house on the edge of the orange grove. The house was dark, and Sarah looked at the clock on the dashboard. 12:30. Cate would normally be up this late, but there didn't seem to be any lights on in the house at all. Maybe she wasn't home.

"You stay in the car, I'll go up and see if she's home." Sarah got out of the car and walked up the sidewalk, all her senses on high alert. She started when she heard the other car door open, but was reassured to feel Zach walk up behind her. She smiled over her shoulder at him.

She could hear the doorbell ring inside the house, and after a few minutes was about to turn to Zach and say that she must not be home, when the door opened. Cate had obviously just woken up. Her hair, normally tousled, was sticking up in a few new directions, and she was rubbing her eyes. She was wearing a t-shirt that advertised the Ringling Circus, and blues cotton underwear was visible under the hem.

She yawned. "Hi, guys, what's up?" She leaned against the doorframe and pushed a hand through her hair.

Sarah was embarrassed. "Cate, I'm sorry! You're usually up late, I thought you'd still be up . . ."

"It's the new me," Cate said, and laughed. "Not really, don't get worried! I have to get up early to go register at school. I'm going to take some night classes and I want to be sure to get the ones I want, so I have to be there practically at dawn. You want to come in?" She moved out of the doorway and ushered them in, sweeping her arm as if she was inviting them into her palace.

Not a palace, exactly, but more of a shrine. Sarah had always thought Cate's house looked like the inside of a Christmas ornament, or maybe a snow globe or one of those Easter eggs with the hole in the end that let you peer inside. Something magical.

The walls were covered with Cate's paintings and every flat surface was covered with either art supplies, works in progress, or completed items--small sculptures, painted vases, dolls. Cate was the most prolific artist Sarah knew, and she knew quite a few. Part of the reason for that was that Cate never seemed to sleep--except for now, of course, when they'd walked in on her.

Sarah apologized again. "Cate, I'm really sorry we woke you up."

"No problem," Cate said, as she yawned again. What's going on?"

* * *

Sarah briefly filled her in on what had happened at the restaurant and said that they had, first, wanted to be sure she was okay and second, see if they could use her phone to call Rosemary and be sure she was okay.

"Sure," she said, "just let me . . ." She pawed around on one small table after another, finally unearthing a cordless phone, which she handed over to Sarah.

"I don't suppose you have--" Sarah started.

"A phone book?" Cate squinted in thought. "No, I don't think so. Call Information."

Sarah called Information and got Rosemary's home number, but hesitated before dialing. "I don't want to wake her up, too."

Zach, who had been quietly walking around Cate's house looking at the artwork, said, "It's not like we have a choice."

"You're right," Sarah said, and dialed Rosemary's number. To her surprise, Rosemary picked up the phone on the second ring.

"Oh, hi, Sarah!" she said, obviously wide awake. "Is everything okay? You didn't wreck my car, did you?" She laughed, and Sarah wondered if she had been drinking.

"No, I didn't wreck your car. Thank you for lending it to me, that was so nice of you! Listen, I just wanted to be sure you were okay. There was a guy at the restaurant tonight who--"

"Oh yeah, he's right here!"

"What?!" Sarah cried, then put her hand over the mouthpiece and turned to Cate and Zach: "She says he's there!" They crowded around her, trying to hear what was happening on the other end of the phone. She shushed them with her hand.

"What do you mean, Rosemary? He's at your house?"

"Uh huh. You want to talk to him?"

Before Sarah could say anything, she heard Rosemary handing the phone to someone else.

"Hello, Sarah."

Shit.

"Yurkemi?"

"That's right. I'm here with your friend Rosemary having a nice talk. When are you bringing her car back? I thought I'd wait for you."

Damn it. What now?

"Have you hurt her?"

"Of course not!" he said, then added, slyly: "Not yet."

* * *

Sarah was speechless and so, wordlessly, she held out the phone to Zach. As he took it, she sank into one of Cate's kitchen chairs and put her face in her hands. "What is it?" Cate asked, sitting down beside her. "What's wrong?"

"He's there. He says he hasn't hurt her, but he stressed he hadn't yet hurt her. He says he's waiting for us to come over and bring her car back."

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know. Shh," she said, trying to hear what Zach was saying on the phone.

"Yurkemi," Zach said, "this is between you and me. It has nothing to do with these women, let's just leave them out of it."

"Oh, Zachriel," said the voice on the other end of the phone line. "You were always such a sucker for a pretty face."

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