The motorcycle was a red blur as it hit 200 miles per hour, the black rubber tires spinning across the rough earth and the wind whipping against its driver. She let off the acceleration and waited three seconds, then pulled the brakes, stuck out a foot and jerked the bike to the left, the tires screeching with the sudden friction and the spectators at the finish line yelping in surprise. It took a little over five seconds to fully slow to a stop, and she kicked off the stand and hooked her helmet on a handlebar as she patiently waited for her competition to catch up.

Seven seconds later, her rival finally caught up, black smoke billowing from the exhaust of the tiger's tacky neon purple bike. Winston let his bike fall to the ground as he dismounted, jerked off his helmet and stalked over to Carol.

Winston was wearing a leather jacket with a sweater and ripped jeans. He was a head taller and two years older than Carol, but the general look was so stereotypical that she couldn't take him seriously. Carol whistled tunelessly as he came to a stop, his hands balled into fists.

"Well, I guess we know who's the better driver, Winnie." She stuck out her hand expectantly. "Pay up."

Winston shook his head once and spat out the words in drawling, broken Avalician. "You cheat. No honor."

"I don't knooow, Winnie. When we started this bet, you didn't tell me you were rolling with a brand new NOS engine, when you said nitro was off limits. Or that your lackeys would try to knock me off the track. I know you're mad 'cus you're bad, but I won fair and square, and it's only three thousand crystals. You can spare that much, dude."

Winston looked everywhere except at Carol's smug grin. He let out a long sigh as he reached for his wallet, painstakingly picking out grey crystal cards worth 100 and 500 until he had exactly three thousand. Then he stabbed them at Carol, who moved to pick them up, and threw the cards on the ground at the last second. Carol looked at them and raised her eyebrows.

"I remember this, yěshēng māo. Won't lose again. Also. Name not 'Winnie'. It's Winston."

Winston snorted. Then he yelled an order in a gutter dialect as he walked towards his bike. The spectators mounted their bikes and rode off with Winston, staring daggers at Carol.

Carol rolled her eyes as she bent to pick up the cards. Okay, she might have rubbed it into his face a bit too much, but he didn't have to be a jerk about it. She mounted her motorcycle and took off towards the entrance of Dragon Valley, the red-orange light of the setting sun shining behind her.

It was early morning the next day when the girls were being briefed in the Magister's palace. Lilac was the most alert and awake, while Milla was occasionally blinking her eyes as if she had suddenly forgotten her surroundings. Carol was so tired that she had to make a conscious effort to keep her eyes open and not pass out on the aquamarine floor. She was only barely succeeding on the latter front.

"...show of appreciation...defeating the alien invader...dinner at the palace next week…nine in the evening, sharp...dress properly...arol...Carol."

"Ehh what huh?"

Neera was staring intently at Carol, a disapproving look on her face. Lilac was looking at the floor, a blush spreading across her face, and Milla was worriedly looking at Carol.

"May I assume that you weren't paying attention to the briefing, then, Carol Tea?"

Carol was finally awake now, and on the defensive.

"Uhhhhh something about a show of appreciation?"

"Mmhmm. And?"

Carol felt a nervous smile spreading as her eyes pointed to Lilac and Milla, a silent plea for help. A full minute later, she put out her hands and shrugged sheepishly.

Neera rubbed her temples. "Of course. To repeat myself, there will be dinner at the palace next week, at nine in the evening sharp. The leaders of Shang Mu and Shuigang will be attending, so it is strongly recommended to the point of mandate that you wear something elegant and befitting of your status as a growing woman. Or, to put a finer point on it, anything more elegant than that black shirt you appear to have outgrown and these shorts."

"H-hey, I like it this way!"

Neera cleared her throat. "If there are no further questions, you are dismissed, Lilac and Milla. Carol, I wish to speak with you in private."

Carol's mood sank, and she groaned out loud. The girls finally worked up the courage to speak on Carol's behalf.

"Miss Li, please take it easy on Carol. She's trying her best, and it's not fair to her to single her out like that."

"Yeah, she's a really good friend and everything."

Neera allowed herself a small smile.

"I appreciate the concern you show for your friend, but all we are going to do is talk. You need not worry."

This did not reassure the concerned parties. Lilac moved over to Carol and put a hand on her shoulder.

"We'll meet you at the treehouse, then."

Carol nodded grimly, and Lilac, not sure what else to say, beckoned for Milla to follow her. They left the room, and Neera patiently waited until they were out of earshot before she started talking.

"So, Carol, have you thought about what you can contribute to society."

It sounded like a question, but it felt more like a loaded statement. Carol scratched her head as she felt that nervous smile creeping up once again.

"Uh…I guess I've never thought about it? Racing is pretty fun, so that's what I do."

Neera pursed her lips, clearly expecting an answer along these lines.

"I see. I ask because it appears your friends have already found their own answers. Two years after saving the world, Lilac is already a honorary ambassador of Shang Tu, and Milla is running her very own alchemy shop. In comparison, you…continue to cavort with the criminal element and participate in illegal street races."

Carol's eyes narrowed.

"Okay, Neera, I-"

"Miss Li. We are not at the point where we can refer to each other as equals."

"Miss Li," Carol continued, the formality tasting like a venom in her mouth, "I know how this sounds, but I'm not doing anything that would put my friends in danger. Whatever happens to me isn't going to hurt anyone else."

In response, Neera walked over to a nearby table, picked up a folder, and gave it to Carol. Confused, Carol opened it and looked through the pictures. Gang members and street races and…

"Hey, wait! That's me in all of these! Are you spying on me?!"

Neera shook her head.

"Not by design, no. We've been conducting clandestine operations on the organized crime element here, and one particular agent took all of these pictures over a four month period. I had to politely explain that your associations with these gangs were not indicative of larger designs and that this was merely a hobby for you, but I imagine he was not convinced.

"This is why I wished to talk. Shang Tu can only turn a blind eye to your criminal activities for so long before they become too pressing to ignore. Inevitably, it can only end one of two ways; either you are arrested, or your criminal associations attempt to target your friends for leverage. Either situation is not favorable for all of us."

"I have things under control, okay? I'm not gonna get arrested or let my friends get hurt!"

"And what happens if you do not have the situation under control?"

"Well, I…I…uh…"

Neera took a deep breath and nodded to herself as if that said everything she needed to know.

"You are dismissed, Carol Tea. I implore you to think very hard about what you can contribute to society. I would personally suggest that you consider being a police officer, but ultimately, that answer has to come from you. What I can tell you, however, is that you cannot continue to flirt with the law so flagrantly."

"I guess…"

Carol jammed her hands into her pockets and walked very slowly towards the doors. She had taken up street racing because Lilac just didn't have the time for races these days, but it had never occurred to her that she might be putting Lilac and Milla in danger just by racing street punks for fun.

Three days later, Carol was still in a funk. Racing and working on her bike had lost its appeal in record time. She had taken to lying in bed at night thinking really hard about what she should do with her life for hours while her friends slept soundly, and realizing she didn't like the answers.

Being a cop was the closest thing that made sense, but it just felt wrong in a lot of ways that she couldn't voice to herself. And the other stuff just didn't interest her. Being an honorary ambassador like Lilac sounded boring, tending to Milla's shop was too much effort to make a habit of daily, working in an office sounded like the most boring thing in the world, she wasn't interested in anything else…

The emptiness of the treehouse was so lonely and suffocating that she found herself sitting on a particular bench in the Shang Tu city square for the past three days, just soaking in the noise and the people coming and going.

The square was a twelve-block perimeter that functioned like an outdoors mall, with various stores for mainstream and niche interests alike and a fair amount of good-looking architecture. Carol was camped out in the middle of the square, where a nine foot high statue of the five dragons rested. She was drawn to that one in particular, probably because of the water dragon.

It didn't quite register for a few seconds when a new person sat next to her on the bench, but when she looked over to see that the person was Spade, she couldn't honestly say that she was surprised.

"Hello, Carol."

He looked way different from when Carol had last seen Spade roughly two years ago, after he had chased down Prince Dail without a word to the party. His hair was in a ponytail, black shirt, white pants, tacky and pretentious red-tinted designer sunglasses and a red scarf. He looked like a hipster, and he still radiated that jerk aura in more ways than one.

Naturally, Carol looked at him in exasperated silence. Spade went on unfazed.

"You haven't been making yourself very hard to find these days. You've been coming to the same place for the past few days, almost at the same time every morning and leaving at the same time every evening. You even eat at the same places. You've never really struck me as the kind of person to have a routine. And you appear to have outgrown that shirt of yours. You need a new shirt."

"Don't you have other people to creep on, or is there a point to all this, Spade?"

"Too busy. But yes, there is a point. I've come by to send a message."

"Cool, if this means I get rid of you faster, I'm all for that."

Spade cleared his throat and took out a folded business letter from his pocket.

"I've accepted an assassination contract. You probably know already, but they're having dinner at the Magister's palace four days from now. One hundred million crystals for the political leaders each, and forty million for the honorary guests each."

Carol's eyes snapped to Spade in shock. He looked so thoroughly unconcerned about the implications.

"Dude, you took out a contract on me, my friends and your own brother?! What on Avalice is wrong with you?"

Spade shrugged.

"Keep your voice down. The Scarves could certainly use the money, it would be quite the substantial windfall. Not to mention the gains in reputation. If it helps, people at the top accepted that contract and passed it on to me. If I had denied it, they would have gave it to someone far less merciful, and we wouldn't be talking now."

Carol instinctively slid back from Spade.

"You…I can't believe…this is so wrong on so many levels. Can't you call off the contract?"

Spade regarded her with a gimlet stare, his green eyes partially hidden by his designer sunglasses.

"Not personally. The contract can only be canceled if the buyer makes a call to the Scarves, at which point I have no obligation to continue and must report back for further orders. They'll be at this location on the night of the dinner. Make sure no one else knows or comes with you, or they'll get spooked. And if that happens, I won't be able to warn you when the next contract comes along."

Spade passed her the letter, and Carol scanned through it, wondering if this was just all a bad dream.

"Now you know. I'll call you an hour and a half from when the dinner starts. Meet me at this spot the morning after it's done. How is Lilac, by the way."

Carol stared incredulously at Spade once more.

"She's fine. She's way better now, no thanks to you, jerkface. Avalice above, when did you start looking at people like crystal shards to get rich from?"

"That's good. It was nice having this conversation, Carol. Best of luck."

Spade sat up from the bench and walked into the crowd. Carol was torn between giving him a piece of her mind and just letting him go. She let him go, too disgusted to continue talking to him and fairly sure that anything she said would fall on deaf ears.

Four days had passed, and Carol was still being uncharacteristically depressed. Lilac was used to her coming home late, but usually Carol would have a lot more to say to her. She had flat-out asked if something had happened at some point, and Carol had just brushed it off and went straight to bed.

The solution was to put her in a dress.

Lilac giggled alongside Milla as Carol came out in a cyan dress, her trademark red scarf and flat blue ballerina shoes, the fabric almost visibly breathing as it moved. The effect was compounded by Carol's embarrassed blush and her attempts to look angry.

"Dragons above, Lilac. Cannot believe I let you talk me into this. I look like some stupid circus show!"

"No, you look like a girl, Carol. That dress looks so cute on you," Milla chimed in.

Carol rolled her eyes, the effect undercut by the grin that you followed.

"Coming from the mascot, that doesn't mean anything! Everything is cute to you! Remember that time we went shopping for things for your shop and you just randomly hugged a cauldron and you were going on about how cute it was even though it looked the same as every other cauldron in that place?"

"Why am I a mascot?"

"Everything you do is designed to make people go like 'aww that's so cute'! I mean, look at you, you're wearing ribbons and a pink skirt right now and, actually, you know, that's so cute and-"

Carol caught herself mid-sentence as she realized what she was saying and smacked her forehead as Milla started giggling.

"Look, the point is, you might not be aware of it, but everything from your presence to what say and do somehow makes everyone start saying 'wow Milla is so cute' and I have no idea why and that's weird and-"

"Hey, Carol. Milla's right, that dress does look good on you. You're going to be the talk of the dinner."

Carol's mouth started twitching, almost as if she were trying to suppress a smile. The smile won out for a second before she started talking.

"Yeah, nah, everyone's going to be talking about you, Lilac, and you don't even have to do anything. You're still wearing that white robe thing!"

Lilac shrugged amicably.

"It's just the same outfit I have to wear every time I go out in public. Everyone's seen it, and it's pretty old hat compared to yours."

"You are way too humble for your own good, Lilac. But wait, isn't it kind of early to start getting ready for that dinner? It's like five right now."

There was an evil gleam in Lilac's eye.

"Well….we'll just have to kill some time, then…"

Realizing the full implication of Lilac's words, Carol started panicking.

"Hey. Wait. No, I am not getting pushed into more of these stupid dresses!"

Two and a half hours passed as Lilac and Milla devised new and exciting ways to make Carol uncomfortable. For these three hours, it was like everything was back to normal, with Carol being too busy complaining about the outfits to mope around. In the end, though, Lilac decided that Carol looked best in the cyan dress, and that was that.

The phone rang in the living room. Lilac would have went for it, but Carol had bolted across the room to answer it. In retrospect, that should've been a tipoff, because Carol usually never answered the phone.

The conversation lasted all of two minutes before Carol hung up.

"So, who was that, Carol?"

"Oh, well, uh, um, that was General Gong. He wanted me to do something for him. Top secret and all. I'll meet you at the dinner later, okay?"

"Okay…?"

The word was barely out of Lilac's mouth before Carol snapped up her sneakers and rushed out the door.

That was the second tipoff in retrospect.

An hour later, Carol was at the address outlined in Spade's letter. It was a hotel that was ten stories high, every floor adorned with windows and the corners of the hotel an elaborate sawtooth blade design that she had never seen before. At the entrance and the top, the name of the hotel was burnished in neon red lettering that glowed faintly; the Mirror Garden Hotel.

Well, it lived up to the name.

Carol dismounted in a secluded spot several feet away from the hotel, hanging up her helmet and kicking off the flats in favor of her sneakers. There had been no time to change into her preferred attire of shirt and shorts, and the dress felt unfamiliar and alien against her fur. At least it wasn't one of these gaudy dresses you could barely move around in…

Carol bent over to pop out a disk from her sneaker and cracked her knuckles together, then walked into the hotel. The interior had a soft orange glow as the doors slid open, the entrance flanked by two waterfalls to her left and right respectively. The carpet felt soft and silky, even through her sneakers.

All in all, Carol was impressed with the hotel. If only it didn't look like one of these expensive rich person hotels that charged ridiculous prices for a single night, Carol wouldn't have mind staying in this hotel for a few days.

She walked up to the receptionist, a jackal in a suit and red-striped tie, the individual pieces looking like they cost more than her dress. He had a warm smile as she approached the counter.

"Good evening, madam. How can I help you today?"

Right, what did Spade say again? Room 8034?

"Could you tell me where the elevators are here?"

"Certainly." The jackal pointed. "They're just down the hall to your right. By chance, are you interested in a room tonight?"

"No thanks, I'm just meeting people."

"But of course. I hope your experience is pleasant, even if you are not planning to stay the night at this point in time."

"Thanks."

Carol marched off to the elevators, two rows of gold-plated doors, and pressed the up button. An elevator opened up instantly and she went up to the eighth floor.

Finding the room was the easy part. Carol smoothed out her dress nervously, catching herself mid-motion and feeling exasperated about it, and knocked on the door.

"Yeah, who's this?"

"I have a business proposal you might want to consider."

That was the phrase Spade had told her to say on the phone, to indicate that she was here on Red Scarf business. There was silence for a second, and then the door opened. There was a group of about five people, all looking rather threatening. But funnily enough, they didn't look very professional or imposing. In fact, they looked like just every other street punk that Carol had raced against.

There was a rabbit there, the most out of place person in the group of two lynxes, one panda and one lizard. A game of mahjong was underway, and he jolted to attention as the door closed. He walked over to the entrance and whistled as he looked over Carol, which felt icky because he was twice Carol's age at a guess and barely an inch taller than her. He had on a simple black t-shirt and khakis.

"Damn, the Scarves sure know how to pick their girls. If you were only a couple years older, I'd be asking you out right now. But alas, can't have everything. So, business. What are you here for?"

Carol raised an eyebrow and put a hand on her hip.

"You're the guy who posted that assassination contract, right?"

The rabbit spread his hands.

"That's me."

Carol nodded and grinned sharply.

"I'm the girl you're going to have nightmares about."

Carol popped the jump disk, the blades protruding as it expanded, and threw it at the rabbit standing several feet away. Realizing the threat, the rabbit ducked as it went flying, and the disk embedded itself into the arm of a panda.

As he screamed, Carol pounced, the momentum greatly enhanced by the magnets embedded into her shoes as she did a flying spin kick into his face. His face slammed into the wooden table, sending mahjong pieces flying. Carol yanked the disk out of his arm as the thugs realized what was happening.

The lynxes kicked away the chairs and moved at Carol, brandishing knives. Carol swung hard at the lynx on the left, knocking the knife out of his hands and leaving a nasty gash on his palm and staggering him backwards. Seeing the lynx on the right move in to attack, she carried the momentum from the strike, spun and parried the knife stab from the lynx with a practiced upwards deflect.

The knife arm went wide, and the thrust kick at his leg followed. An audible crack sounded through the air like an explosion as he fell bodily to the ground, clutching his leg. The left lynx lurched at Carol, so she did a palm strike at his face, causing him to fall unconscious. Then she kicked out at the lynx on the ground, and he howled and went still.

"What the hell are you doing?! Shoot her!"

The lizard at the entrance fumbled with a dinky-looking pistol as Carol threw the disk at him. The panicked shot went wide, and he yelped as the disk smashed into the wall, mere inches away from his body.

Carol dashed over to him near-instantly, popping out her claws and slashing at his chest. She then attacked with a flurry of kicks aimed at his chest, then did a half-spin and belted out a roundhouse kick. He crashed bodily against the door and sank to the ground. Carol kicked the gun to a corner of the room, well out of reach.

The rabbit was whimpering as Carol turned her attention to him. He was crawling away as Carol advanced on him, but certainly not fast enough; Carol had brought him up by the arms, her claws digging into the rabbit's skin.

"What the hell is your problem?! You Scarf guys were jumping at this Avalice-forsaken contract barely a week ago!"

"Ex-Scarf. Call off the hit, and I'll be out of here."

The rabbit's scared look turned defiant.

"Screw you. I don't know how you even found out about this or why you care, but I got money riding on this, and I'm not throwing it away just 'cause you say so!"

Carol froze a bit. Her plan had never made it past the part where the guy might say no. She licked her lips and tried again.

"Look, you saw how easy your dumb muscle went down, and I'm really not in the mood to deal with this. Call off the hit, or I'm gonna do what I did to them, only worse!"

The rabbit spit in her face and leered at her.

She fought the urge to shudder as she wiped it off her face with her left arm. Carol made a decision and popped out her claws on her right hand just a bit further before she had time to talk herself out of it. Then she slowly raked her claw along the rabbit's arm.

Previously defiant, the rabbit had a look of pure terror on his face. He screamed and whimpered as he saw the claw move down his arm, making deep gashes along its path as the shirt tore and blood spurted from the wound.

The combined sight was enough to turn Carol's stomach; even after all these near-death experiences trying to save the world, she wasn't used to the sort of raw brutality she was employing now. A sickly grimace emerged on her face as she tried not to retch, one that must have looked psychotic to the rabbit.

"Stop! I can see my bones, you psycho! Stop! Please, pleeease! I'll do it! I'll do it, I'll do it, I'll do it! Pleeease just stoooop!"

Carol yanked out her bloody claw just before it reached the halfway point of his arm, immensely grateful and disgusted at the same time. The rabbit hyperventilated as he looked at the claw tracks along his ruined shoulder, then shot a hateful look at Carol as he held his arm and trotted over to the phone on the dresser, stepping over the unconscious bodies. He picked up the phone in his left hand, winced as he punched in numbers with his right hand, and sat on the bed, shaking with barely repressed fear.

"Yo, I had a talk with my employer and she doesn't want the hit to happen anymore…I don't know why, I'm not a damn mind reader…yes yes, I'm aware of the strings that had to be pulled, I don't care, tell that to fish-face...okay, it's done? Glad we had this talk."

The rabbit slammed the phone back into its receiver. He waited a second, then kicked at the dresser and shouted wordlessly. Then he turned to Carol.

"Well?! It's done. I did it! This was supposed to be an easy fifty mil to negotiate a simple hit job for a fish woman with no connections, a weird revolutionary bent, and the crystals to make the hit happen, because that's what I'm good at. But then you came along! Not only did I waste my time for nothing, but I'm going to have to go into hiding because soon as word gets out, she's going to hunt me down and kill me! And my arm feels like it's going to fall off anytime soon, thanks to you! What the hell else do you want from me?!"

Carol rolled her eyes and walked out of the hotel room.

"I am disappointed in you three."

Neera was tapping her foot, her arms crossed as she regarded the girls with a critical eye. They were wide awake this time around in spite of the fact it was six in the morning, and unwilling to look her straight in the eye.

"By all accounts, the dinner was magnificent. The food was appetizing, our relations with the city-states are improved, and we can make decisions in the future as an united nation, not just three opposing city-states with their own interests. That is not the point. I specifically outlined that the dinner was a show of gratitude to you three, and yet only two of you saw fit to attend. Were the Magister a less kindly man, he would have taken that as an insult, and rightfully so. And given the circumstances, I find it exceptionally hard to believe that you, Lilac and Milla, had absolutely no knowledge of your friend's whereabouts."

Milla flinched as if she had been struck. Lilac just shifted uncomfortably.

"Well...just before we were about to leave, there was a call at our house. Carol answered it, and then said General Gong needed her for something and took off."

Neera raised a speculative eyebrow.

"How very interesting, Lilac. Were it not for the fact that Gong was away from the palace on business for most of the day, I would find that easier to believe. Would you care to shed some light on that revelation, Carol Tea?"

Carol shrugged in a devil-may-care gesture.

"I was out street racing."

Neera blinked, taken aback by the matter-of-fact confession.

"Is that so. I suppose you felt your...street racing was more important than returning the Magister's courtesy."

"Yeah, pretty much. I had a ton of bets running and I figured I might just knock them out in one go and make it back. I guess I lost track of the time at some point, and that probably sucks."

Lilac and Milla were confused. When they found Carol splayed out on the couch at midnight, they had demanded answers. Carol had told them that there was a contract on the dinner and she went to stop it from going down, and that seemed to be the end of that. Neera was nodding to herself as if that confirmed her suspicions.

"Hmph. Well, it appears you have your priorities straight. Lilac, Milla, you are dismissed. Do keep a better eye on your friend's whereabouts in the future. Carol, you will stay behind. I find your lack of concern and gratitude appalling."

The girls traded a look between themselves as they left the throne room. Once again, Neera waited until they were out of earshot before speaking.

"I refuse to believe that you have forgotten our talk from last week. Is there something that you are not telling me?"

Carol scratched her head absently.

"Well, um, actually, there was some stuff before that I couldn't say in front of Lilac. She'd get all weird and stuff and I'm not sure what would happen after that, but I don't really want to do that to her."

"I notice you have yet to explain the situation."

"Uh, right. So about five days ago, Spade went up to me and said that the Red Scarves had took a contract to kill everyone at the dinner, and he was the guy that was going to make it happen. I went to stop it from happening, and I had to miss the dinner."

"Avalice above. If what you say is true, this has very troubling implications for how we should deal with the Red Scarves in the future. But more to the point, you knew about this supposed assassination from the beginning, and instead of letting me know so we could deal with this, you recklessly took things into your own hands?"

"Well…."

"Let me be clear. While what you did was a noble act, it was also too risky. What if you were being led into a trap, or you were killed trying to be a hero?"

"Look, Neera, Spade said if I told anyone about it, they'd just try again, only I wouldn't be able to stop it from happening. And it turned out pretty well, all things considered."

"This time, everything worked out. But if there is a next time, I do not care what conditions were imposed on you, you come straight to me. Understood?"

Carol nodded once.

"You are dismissed. And please, remember what we talked about last week."

Not knowing what to say, Carol waved once and left the throne room. It was only after she left the palace proper that she remembered that Neera hadn't told her to call her Ms. Li this time around.

Half an hour later, Carol was in the city square and at the bench where Spade had creeped up on her. At this hour, it was empty and still, barely a trace of life. He was sitting cross-legged, and when he spotted Carol, he rose with a smug smile on his face. It irritated Carol so much that she had half a mind to punch him in the face.

"Well, you did it. You called off the contract. Good job. I take it-"

Carol threw a right hook at his face.

The blow took him aback, and his dumb designer sunglasses were knocked off his face.

"Shut up! Lilac goes on and on about how you're secretly a good guy and you just need time to come around. But after what just happened, I think she's wrong. If you ever force me into another one of these stupid situations, we're going to throw down, and I'm going to win. Got that?"

Spade laughed. To Carol's satisfaction, it came out weirdly strangled.

"It might not look like it now, but I am not the bad guy here. One day, you'll see that and understand where I am coming from."

Carol grimaced in disgust.

"I hope that never happens."

She turned her back on Spade and stalked away.

Several minutes later, she mounted her motorcycle and drove away as the sun rose overhead. The wind whipping at her face was like a heartfelt welcome.