Page 5 of Land of Shadow

“We can’t let him get close to you again.” Vince lightens his tone as best he can. He’s not a particularly soft man, especially not where his job’s concerned. “We don’t know what he’s capable of.”

“I told you to let this lie for now, Vince.” Juno glares up at him, her mouth tight.

“Georgia was out after dark,” Candice pipes up.

My mouth drops open as she points at me.Betrayed. Vince and Juno turn, finding a common enemy in their midst, stopping their disagreement.

“What were you thinking?” Juno and Vince yell at me in unison.

I give Candice what I hope is a withering look. “I was only half an hour late. Don’t let her change the subject. Who was that guy and what?—”

“Georgia!” Juno cuts me off. “When I said you could go to the university instead of working on your research here, youpromisedme you’d return before dark. Remember?”

She’s using the mom voice. God, I feel like a kid again with her standing over me, judgment written all over her face. Fifteen years my senior, she used to tell me our parents found me under a rock—and she wasn’t too far off.

“I ought to put in a standing order that you aren’t to leave the Governor’s Mansion.” Vince glowers, his eyes narrowed on me in his usual hawkish way. But that’s normal for him. We’ve never understood each other’s language, but we both orbit Juno, each of us warmed by the same sun of my sister.

“I won’t do it again, okay?” I lean back in the chair though it does nothing to hide me from their disapproval.

Juno, her face drawn, crosses her arms over her middle. “It’s more dangerous than you can imagine, Georgia. Okay? The plague is the least of the troubles outside the barricades. The military doesn’t have enough personnel to handle the militants, weekend warriors, wannabe cops—all those guys who peaked in high school and own more guns than sense. They’re all a real threat. Inside the barricades, this idea of security is all make-believe, but it’s the safest thing we’ve got. We have to keep some semblance of normalcy, of order. If we aren’t careful, we’ll end up like New Orleans.” She always knows how to punctuate a point. New Orleans burned to the ground six months ago, thousands upon thousands killed as the fire spread and the already-collapsed local government was in too much disarray to help.

“I know,” I say more forcefully.

“If you knew, you wouldn’t stay out past dark,” Vince intones.

“All right! You two can stop now. I’m a grown-ass woman, and I won’t do it again.” I try to keep the irritation from my tone as I stand. “Now that we’re done discussing Candice’s distraction.” I shoot her another glare. “Maybe we can talk about thepresidency?”

“Over supper. Come on.” Juno leads us out.

“I’ll close up here, meet you at the table,” Candice calls. She lives in the Governor’s Mansion now. With Earl gone and her son in California holed up in some sort of commune outside Stanford, it’s safer for her to stay here. I’m glad I’ll be able to stare daggers at her over dinner.

I look down the hall toward the front door, hoping to get another glimpse of the man who was in Juno’s office. There’s no one except the usual guard.

I pick up the pace and walk beside Juno. “Are you really going to run? I mean, the election’s in less than a year. Isn’t it too late?”

“Not too late,” Fatima chirps, her heels clicking behind us. “All the paperwork was handled a while ago.”

“Of course it was,” I mutter.

We enter the dining room as the last of the service staff disappears through the kitchen door. The meager remaining crew has set out a small buffet on the sideboard. They no longer stay for service. It’s safer that way. The fewer people you come into contact with, the better.

Juno opens the lid to what looks like hamburger steak in congealed gravy. Texas may run out of a lot of things, but cows isn’t one of them. “Yes. I’m running. It’s done.”

I almost drop my plate. “Jesus. Just like that? What about primaries or whatever? How do you?—”

“The two-party system is busted, so I don’t have to primary. It’s a tight timeframe, but the states will put me on the ballot. Like Fatima said, we already submitted the appropriate paperwork months ago. I only need a winning platform.” That’s Juno, decisive to a fault and already in action.

It still stings, though, not to be consulted about something this huge. “Do you think maybe we shouldtalkabout it first?” I serve myself then open the bread chafing dish with my breath held. It’s empty. As usual.

“The buttered rolls are a thing of the past,” Juno says almost sympathetically. “Time to let go.”

“Never.” I clang the lid back into place.

We sit down at the table with our plates as Vince grumbles about the ‘sad state of these potatoes’ behind us. The servings are small, and plenty of things aren’t available anymore, but I know we’re lucky to have what we do, lack of rolls notwithstanding.

Juno unbuttons her gray suit jacket and shrugs out of it. “We can talk about it, but I’ve already made the best decision for all of us.” Her words are measured with an iron ruler.

“It’s the right move.” Vince thumps into a chair a spot down from me. “Texas is holding it together better than a lot of states, thanks directly to your sister’s leadership. She can leverage that to Washington.”

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