The Nameless Luna novel · Chapter 18 of 32

Chapter 18: Juneau in the Dark

"Where are you?" I said.

"A pay phone. At the ferry terminal." Her breath hitched. "He reads my phone. He reads everything."

"Then give the card to the ferry. Mail it. I'll pick it up in Fairbanks."

"No."

"Annalise."

"Not in the mail. Not to anyone but you. In person."

"Come up here, then."

"He'd know in an hour."

"Thursday," she said. "The café on the float dock. Two o'clock. Come alone."

I stood in the kitchen with a wet mug in one hand.

When I turned around, Warrick was in the hall doorway in his socks.

He'd heard all of it. His face said so.

"No," he said.

"You keep saying no."

"I mean it this time. Juneau is his town. He has enforcers on every dock."

"Enforcers have hands. They don't have my name."

"Hands are enough."

"Then come with me."

He opened his mouth, and shut it.

We both knew.

Elden knew his roll name. Juneau was a place where Elden could stand ten feet away and say it.

I'd be walking in with a man who could be turned into a weapon in one sentence.

"She said alone," I said. "She's right. I'm the only one of us he can't touch."

He came across the kitchen and put both hands on the counter on either side of me.

"Take the Cub," he said finally. "Leave the Otter for the schedule. Call me from every fuel stop."

"I will."

"Every one."

"Fairbanks, Gulkana, Yakutat. Three calls."

"Four. Call me from Juneau."

I left at six on Thursday morning in the black.

The Cub was cold and small and loud, and I loved her.

Fairbanks at first light. Gulkana at noon, in the last of it.

I called him from both, and he picked up on the first ring.

Yakutat in the dark. I called him from there too.

"How's the weather?" he said.

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