exit down the building stairs. As he headed for the nearest rooftop, Luke realized that he’d slept through the night. And hadn’t been woken once. Hadn’t had one nightmare.
Harley was leaning against the brick wall of the alley when Selina and Ivy arrived the next night. No sign of the boy shorts and fishnets. Just two-tone leggings, boots, and a tiny ball-bomb in either hand.
“New outfit?” Selina asked, but Ivy had gone still at her side. Nervous.
“No more robberies,” Harley said, her face hard and cold.
“Well, I’m sure the Gotham Antiquities Museum will be sorry to hear that our appointment tonight is canceled,” Selina said, sizing up the space between Harley and Ivy.
When she’d called Ivy this afternoon with the time and location for their next rendezvous, she hadn’t hinted at anything between them being amiss, but—
Selina halted a healthy distance away.
Harley’s eyes remained on her, though. As if Ivy didn’t exist. “I want the Joker out of Arkham now.”
Selina kept her arms within casual distance of her weapons, not daring to let her claws slide free. Not yet. It’d signal a fight, and getting into it with Harley tonight would not be good for her plans.
She’d humiliated Gordon and the GCPD. Whether he’d figured out that Batwing had been dumped in his guest room by her didn’t matter. It was only a matter of time until they came for Catwoman. And only a matter of time before Nyssa and Talia’s army arrived, too. Bringing with it utter annihilation.
“Wait another day or two,” Selina said calmly, her voice the portrait of boredom.
“We do it now,” Harley snapped. “We proved twice now that we can break someone out. And I have it on good authority that my man’s aware of us—of our little shopping spree here in Gotham, and he’s pissed we’re taking so long.”
Ivy flinched at the two words—my man. But Ivy countered coolly, “Arkham is a different beast than the city prison, Harley.”
“You’re siding with her?” Harley demanded.
Perhaps it was pity for the pain on Ivy’s face, but Selina said, “We need to sell some of what we’ve stolen first. We need more cash to bribe the right people—”
“Get the damn cash. We do this now.”
Harley aimed both of her bombs toward Selina.
“Harley,” Ivy barked.
“Shut up,” Harley snarled, not taking her eyes off Selina as she advanced, thumb on the small trigger atop each bomb. “Just shut up, Ivy.”
Selina calculated the distance between them. Harley would not miss.
“Wherever you’ve been hiding all the stolen shit, we go there now. Now.”
Ivy’s face had gone pale. Use your gases, Selina silently willed her. Stop this—
Harley kept a safe distance away. Knowing that if she got close enough for Selina to reach her, those bombs would be out of her hands. “Lead the way, Cat.”
Selina looked to Ivy, who shook her head in warning. And in apology.
Love—as venomous as one of Ivy’s plants.
“Let’s go, then,” Selina said, and started into a walk.
* * *
—
This particular warehouse in the docks was so decrepit even the lowlifes didn’t bother with it. Didn’t sniff around, or look at the hidden lower level, the trunks inside.
Harley kept her bombs at the ready the entire time Selina unloaded whatever smaller stolen items the duffel bag could carry, Ivy’s hands shaking as she helped. And when they were done, Harley ordered, “Go find a buyer.”
So Selina did. With Harley breathing unevenly behind her, she led them through the maze of the slums, to the abandoned fish-processing plant at the river edge of the Bowery. She’d placed the call with a burner phone to the number of the man who used this place to sell things that couldn’t be traded in legal markets. And as they entered the cavernous, reeking space, Selina said, “Now we wait.”
“How long,” Harley demanded. Her eyeliner had smudged, some running down the side of her face in a mockery of tears.
“No more than an hour,” Selina said calmly.
Ivy stepped up to Selina’s side. “Harley—put the bombs down. We’re here now. It’s fine.”
Harley only turned one of those bombs on Ivy. “The hell it is.”
Selina let out a quiet laugh, temper straining. “What does that bastard have on you to get you to so easily turn on your friends?” On Ivy, who loves you for whatever reason I can’t see?
Harley’s own laugh was broken—jagged. “When we unleashed the Joker’s men, you know what they did? They went right to my mom’s house.”
Selina’s heart stalled a beat. “Batwing brought them in.”
Harley mimicked, “Batwing