“But—”
“We don’t need your help.” The words were spoken in broken English, but their meaning was inescapable. We were sticking our noses into their business, and they didn’t like it.
“Time to go, Lux,” Fae whispered. “There’s nothing more we can do here. We tried.”
“I’m sorry,” I called, backing away a step. “We didn’t mean to intrude on family matters.”
“Go,” the woman repeated, turning on her heel and walking away. Roza waved sadly at me before following her mother and the rest of the women into the building and out of sight.
“What the hell just happened?” Fae asked, turning a dumbfounded stare on me.
“I have no idea,” I told her, equally confused.
“What now?”
“I guess we go hom—” I began to answer her, but my words were interrupted by a tentative voice.
“Excuse me?”
Fae and I turned our heads to find the youngest from the group of Albanian women hovering unsurely several feet from us. She looked ready to bolt at any moment, her eyes restlessly scanning the neighborhood for an unknown threat.
“You speak English?” I asked her.
“A little,” she confirmed in a whisper. “You…you want to talk about Vera, yes?”
I nodded.
“I will tell you what I know, but…” Her fearful gaze met mine and held for one fleeting moment. “Not here. Meet me at this address. Tomorrow, three o’clock. Come alone.” With that, she shoved a small piece of paper into my hand and was gone, vanishing into the building before I could even process her words or formulate a response.
“Well, Alice, you’ve done it now,” Fae said, linking one arm through mine and guiding me back toward the subway entrance.
“Done what?” I asked distractedly, my mind reeling as I studied the address on the paper in my hand.
“Stumbled down the rabbit hole.”
“Did you just call me Alice?”
“Yes,Alice. As in, Wonderland.” Fae shook her head. “Bit of advice? Don’t drink the tea. And definitely don’t take directions from a cat.”