mix of hope and fear. They had bought this place for me, a quiet, upscale community meant to be a soft landing back int

my mom said, her voice a lit

itadel paints on a new workbench. The ne

for hidden threats. He was a good man, but he looked at me li

tudio in Europe. The kind of detailed figures that took weeks to paint properly. I got the del

ouse. An old man with a sour face and a postal worker's vest sat behind the count

Hughes," I said, ke

ight. You got a few." He gestured to a corner

ped. "

looking up. "Twenty dollars a

real fee. That

n his thin lips. "Community rules. I run t

a row of mailboxes, suddenly darted forward. He snatched

mimicry of the old man's. He ripped the ta

, my voice dropping into the co

ely detailed soldiers, their rifles thinner than toothpi

figure in half. The tiny crack of the re

My breathing hitched. My hand twitched, ready to close aroun

cel

my mom were standing in the doorway, their faces

shoulder. "Let's go, honey.

"This is outrageous. You can't just charge residents ma

ed. "Pay up or get

, cruel sound. "Yeah,

his hand. He wasn't just de-escalating a situation with a petty tyrant. He