Chapter 16: Say It Once

The guard had not called the police, because Jude told him not to.

We found Studio A with its lights on and the door propped open with a case of cables.

Kiera sat on the floor in the middle of the live room in her white dress from the show.

The master reels were stacked around her in a ring, a dozen flat boxes with my handwriting on the labels.

She had a lighter in one hand.

She had not lit it.

"You came fast," she said.

"Put that down," Jude said.

"I'm not going to burn them. I just wanted you to think I might."

She flicked the lighter on and off, and the little flame jumped in her green eyes.

I stood in the doorway with my coat over my pajamas.

"Where did you get his key card?"

"He leaves it on the nightstand. He leaves everything on the nightstand." She shrugged. "Dax is very easy to rob."

"You stole from the man you were sleeping with."

"I stole from the man who stole from you. Doesn't that make me your friend?"

"It makes you a thief."

"Oh, Jo." She smiled. "Don't start with me. I've watched you your whole life. I know all your faces."

Jude took one step into the room.

"Stay there," she said, and held up the lighter.

He stayed.

"I want one thing," Kiera said. "And then you can have every reel back, and I'll walk out and you'll never see me again."

"What?"

"Say it."

"Say what?"

"Sister."

The word sat in the air.

I looked at the girl on the floor, with my father's eyes and my father's chin.

"No," I said.

Her smile held.

"Say it to my face, one time, and it's over."

"You put a felony on me."

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