I breathed out through my mouth, and walked toward Griffin. I sat beside him, but didn't look at him or talk to him. "You have a nice lunch with Dobson?" there was a little bite to his voice.

"I did."

"Did he give you the old 'tame your anger, then unleash it at the right time' lecture?" I looked at him, surprised.

"Yes, actually."

Griffin sighed as though he should be martyred for having a conversation with me. "It's none of my business, Lucy, but there is another philosophy to consider."

I cocked my head at him.

"You don't have to cage your anger, or whatever. You don't have to keep it at all. You can just let it go." I thought about that.

"But what if it just roams around in the wild, then comes back and eats me alive."

Griffin shrugged. "I think it'll only come back if you feed it."

We were quiet. The town was waking up, I wondered where Annie was, wondered if Griffin was looking for his brother.

Before I could think too long about it, I blurted, "Are you mad because I wouldn't kiss you?" He looked up at the sky. It sure did look like he was taming some anger right now. I shivered in the morning breeze. I watched Griffin try to formulate a response. His jaw tensed. Even his curls looked frustrated.

He swore under his breath. "Lucy, I don't care if you never kiss me." Okay then. At least I was clear where I stood. I swallowed and focused on breathing. In, out. In, out. I could still smell wood on Griffin even though he hadn't done any woodworking in days. How was that possible? Did the scent live in the crevices of his fingerprints?

"That's not true," he was saying. "I would definitely care. But Lucy?" I dared to look at him. "I love you whether you kiss me or not. I love you whether or not we hold hands, or hug, or share lunch. Lucy, I love you whether or not I even see you or talk to you. Just to know you are somewhere in this world makes me completely stupid with love. Stupid, stupid, stupid with love."

My breathing quickened. "Still?" I managed. You still love me? After getting to know me? Knowing how naïve and unsure and scared I am? I thought.

"Still. More than Dobson, even." He smiled, but I saw worry.

"Dobson?! He's just nice to me, Griffin. He feels bad for me." I moved closer to him.

"Uh-huh. Whatever you say."

I didn't even dignify that with a response. I put my head on Griffin's shoulder. "We okay?"

He kissed the top of my head. "Yeah. We're okay."

"I love you too, you know," I told him.

"Well, that makes me very, very happy." And I could sense his smile, smell his woodsy scent, and for a moment, things were almost perfect.

"Well!" Rocco's unmistakable voice boomed, "What's next?"

I rolled my face to the sky. It was time to deal with all the aftermath. I breathed in and forced a smile. Whatever we did next would require clear, calm thinking.

"Whadya mean 'what's next?'" one of Dobson's men demanded. "Nothing's next. We won. It's over. We can get back to our usual business." I saw him look pointedly at Dobson. No doubt they were used to a more lucrative operation. I stood and brushed off my pants.

"Thank you so much for your help," I addressed Dobson and his men. "You saved our lives. I know this isn't your usual... kind of work." Dobson smiled. "We appreciate it so much-"

"We really, really do!" Misty piped up.

"But we can take it from here. I can't ask you to hang around forever." Dobson's men were already grabbing their things as I spoke, but Dobson just stared.

"I'll worry about you," he said uncertainly. I stepped toward him and took his hands.

"I'll worry about you too."

He made a face. Looked at Griffin, then me, and back again. "Okay. Okay. These guys are getting restless. We've got to move on. Griff, if anything happens to our darling Lucy? I'm blaming you." He made a violent gesture that I hoped was a joke.

Griffin gave him a fierce hug and muttered something to him. Then Dobson pulled me into him and whispered a benediction, "You're tougher than you know." I nodded and sniffled into his shoulder. I was turning into a regular water fountain for all my tears lately. Dobson broke away from me, rounded up his guys and they disappeared around the bend without a backward glance.

"Okay, just us now." My voice was higher than usual, which made me angry. I felt little and vulnerable without Dobson's protection, but tried to shake it off. Tough, I repeated Dobson's blessing. I'm tough, I'm tough, I'm tough.

"I vote we just find a place to live and go about our lives," Rocco was saying. "Find new jobs, a new little house away from my parents, maybe have some babies," his arms were around Misty, his face inches from hers. Griffin and I rolled our eyes at each other.

Misty nuzzled his neck, but pulled away. "You know we can't though, Babe."

Rocco sighed. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what you keep telling me."

"Lucy's family is up there with those monsters. You heard Brother Augustus. He's going to hurt them."

"I mean- you guys don't have to help..." I said weakly. Please don't leave, please don't leave, my heart begged.

Misty ran to me and gave me a shake. "We are so not leaving. Everyone in that commune is in danger. What's going to happen when somebody else has a free-spirit, or can't make three conversions? Or whatever? We have to expose the council for all their evil. The commune has to know what they're dealing with!"

"You know she's right, man." Griffin said to Rocco.

The big man nodded, "Yeah, I know she's right." He sounded defeated.

"Don't worry," Misty whispered to me, "he'll get on board."

"What if we go back to Sandston Valley to come up with a plan?" Rocco asked. I was careful to bite down on the first words that came to my mind, Back to your parents, who just put us in this awful position? The words stayed in my head, but my expression must have looked as bewildered as Misty's and Griffin's. Rocco looked at all three of us, "I get it. They screwed up, but my parents aren't bad people!"

I believed him, but even good people can be dangerous.

"I don't think we have time to get all the way there and back. The council could attack Lucy's family any moment." I nodded emphatically at Griff's point.

"Well, we have no money, we have no place to stay. What else are we going to do?"

Griffin raised his hand. "I have a little money. I have a place for us to stay," he suggested. I cringed. Stay with his dad? The guy who punched his own kid in the face? Who probably wasn't very happy his source of income had just disappeared for several days?

I bit my lip, unsure of how to shoot down his idea without overstepping. "I don't want to inconvenience your dad..."

"It's no inconvenience," Griffin assured me. "Besides, he owes me." He gave me a little wink, but his smile was forced.

"It's perfect!" Misty announced, "Let's go!" She and Rocco started down the path into town. I pulled Griffin back. "Is this a good idea?" I whispered. "Your dad..."

"Of course it's not a good idea, but what else are we going to do?"

"What about Gordo? Could we stay with him?"

"Gordo isn't exactly stationary. Who even knows where he is? It'll be okay. My dad is actually pretty charming when he isn't knocking me around."

I looked Griffin up and down. He was tall, lean. His arms were muscled from woodworking. I thought about the giant brute standing guard over my prison cell that he'd leveled. There was no way he couldn't stick up for himself when his dad got rough with him. "Griff, why don't you just put a stop to it? You know? Stick up for yourself."

"I'm not going to hit my dad, if that's what you mean, Lucy."

"I'm sorry. It's none of my business. I'm sorry."

He smiled a real smile this time. "Look, my dad has a lot of demons. If he needs to take it out on me every now and then, whatever. It's fine."

It wasn't fine at all, but I dropped it. Fornow.