And what was she supposed to do with that?She set her coffee down, crossed her legs.“I needed a new life because my old one was going to land me in jail.Or get me killed.”
He didn’t move.
She sighed.“I started stealing from my mom’s boyfriends when I was seven.At first, just coins, then a few dollars.By the time I was ten, I was figuring out how to use their credit cards online.Nimue learned fast—that’s probably how she learned her hacker skills.”She sighed.“We moved around a lot, and my mom got a little desperate for money.She started working for our landlord for rent...” She made a face.
Steinbeck drew in a breath, leaned back.“She ever bring any of her clients home?”
“No.But he held on to her money.And I figured he probably owed her more than what the rent was, so I decided to collect.I broke into his office one night, and it triggered a silent alarm.Nimue activated the fire alarm and helped me escape, but I realized that it wouldn’t be long before I did something that really got her in trouble.I left home a few days later.”
He’d fixed his gaze on her, unmoving, a sort of compassion in his expression.
“Nimue was removed from my mom’s custody and spent the next three years in foster care while I tried to figure out how I could rescue her.”
“And did you?”
“Yes.I lived in Rapid City and hooked up with a gang of bikers who weren’t as dangerous as you might think.I learned how to pickpocket tourists, and in exchange for the cash, they kept me away from the cops, gave me a place to sleep, and...well, I pocketed my share of the money, ran credit cards, and basically learned the ways of a thief.”
He didn’t even flinch.Huh.
“When I turned eighteen, I came back for Nim.I’d purchased a secondhand pickup with a camper bed—not anything fancy, but enough for us to leave Rapid City.We got as far as a rest area south of Nashville when the entire rig just sort of blew up.The radiator exploded, the head cooked, and there we were, broke and a couple of teenagers with nothing.I saw my life spooling out like my mother’s, and...I got desperate.”
She drew up her knees, wrapped her arms around them.“A family had stopped at the rest area to walk their dog—there was a whole horde of kids.And they were traveling in this conversion van, and I don’t know why but I thought, yeah, that was a good idea.So I dragged Nim over to the van, jumped in, and...”
“You stole the car.”
She nodded.
“That’s grand theft.”
“Yeah.”
She didn’t know why her eyes filled.Sheesh,she’d put this so far behind her.Maybe because, “I was caught.And then the man, the dad, Boz Davidson, whose van we stole...”She looked at Stein.“He lied.He said that he’d given permission for us to use it.That he’d made a mistake and didn’t realize we’d taken it.I don’t know why—but he made up this story.He even said that we were his foster children.”She shook her head.“He bought us dinner.Asked where we were going.”
“Where were you going?”
“Florida.The ocean.I read this book to Nim when we were kids.I stole it from the library?—”
He laughed.And it wasn’t harsh or brutal, just a chuckle.“We all have a library-book theft in our background.”
Oh.But his laughter burrowed into her, loosened the story’s terrible grip.“It was calledIsland of the Blue Dolphins.It’s about a girl who spent eighteen years alone on an island off California.It sort of made us—me—believe that I could survive on my own.”She sighed.“And maybe I could have, but I had Nim, so...”
“What happened?”
“Mr.and Mrs.Davidson took us in.See, he really was a foster parent—all those kids weren’t his.But they were, sort of, because he treated Nim and me like we were too.He was—is—a good man.Raised horses.Lived on a farm.It was perfect...”
Silence, and in it, too many memories, so she sighed.“I stayed for a while, but in the end I was too angry and scared and I...”She shook her head.“I left Nim there, and I ran.Boz caught up with me.And instead of bringing me back to the farm, he introduced me to a man named Pike Maguire.He founded the Black Swans.”
“How old were you?”
“Nineteen.And suddenly, I had a job and a future and a sisterhood, and I became a Swan.”
“And you never looked back.”
Never?But she nodded.“So, see.Emberly is...complicated, and broken and needy, and Phoenix is strong and capable and...”
“A survivor.”He had finished his coffee.He considered her.“But it’s Emberly who gave Phoenix the skills and courage to be the Swan she is today.”
She had nothing for that as he went to the kitchen area and refilled his mug.When he returned, he held a couple bags of Doritos.Tossed one to her.“Here you go, partner.”
