And Tessa, at twenty-one, was a master forger. Wouldn’t her big brother love that.
Maybe these water lilies would be her last one. The challenge was losing its appeal, and she didn’t need to supplement the money Rafael could send anymore. Not with his final windfall resting in her mother’s stash in the floorboards under her bed.
Maybe she could take this money and do something for herself with it.
Shame at that bit of selfishness surged, and she welcomed the pounding on her cramped studio door. “Just a second!”
She draped her current work and put up her brushes before opening the door. Rosa stood on the other side, in the middle of a growth spurt that put her eyes almost level with Tessa’s. She’d have their father’s height, no doubt … but the wariness in her eyes was their mother’s. “There’s a stranger at the door, and Mama’s still down at the baker.”
Tessa’s heart thumped. Strangers rarely came to this boring little community, and they never came to the Morales’s front door. But Tessa held her calm expression and put a hand lightly on her baby sister’s shoulder. “Go out into your greenhouse. Stay until I come and get you or until Mama comes back.”
“But Tessa—”
“Now, Rosa.”
Rule number one in the Morales household was obedience. Rosa hurried down the hallway to the back door. Once Tessa heard it shut, she opened a drawer, pulled out her stun gun, and thumbed the biometrics. She walked to the front and canted her body so that her hand would be out of sight before cracking the door.
And immediately knew she was busted.
The stranger was from the Hill. She had to be. Her shiny, red hair was twisted up in an elegant knot that revealed diamonds sparkling at her ears and emeralds circling her throat. Her expensive suit was the height of fashion and tailored perfectly to her long legs and lanky frame. Tessa had seen the advertisement for the woman’s boots on the vid network—this year’s exclusive from the hottest designer on the Hill. There were only a hundred pairs in existence.
The idea that those boots would have found their way to her doorstep if she weren’t about to go down for felony forgery was unimaginable.
“Tessa Morales?” Perfectly outlined lips curved into a smile in her perfectly made-up face, but those eyes sparkled as hard as the diamonds she wore.
Tessa fought a shiver and tightened her grip on her stun gun. But there was a massive bodyguard lurking a few paces back and another next to the silent car with tinted windows idling in the street.
Fight? Or go quietly? Going quietly might be the only thing that saved the rest of her family. “I’m Tessa,” she said hoarsely.
“Wonderful.” That smile was utterly predatory. “My name is Cara Kennedy. I’m here to make all your dreams come true.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I imagine the acknowledgments for any book written during 2020 will either be incredibly long and detailed … or just broken laughter punctuated by emoji sobs. We don’t have to tell y’all why. You were there.
But for posterity: Hi. Welcome to our pandemic book.
This book was hard. We came into 2020 thinking we’d finally put a string of health and personal crises behind us. February was our month for writing this book. We were going to dig in, get it done, be amazing.
Yes, this is where you say, Oh, you sweet summer children.
We turned in this book Late. We were late before 2020 dawned, and surviving political horror and pandemic devastation as we struggled to keep ourselves and our families going did not help. On top of that, the release for Deal with the Devil had been pushed back, and we launched our first traditionally published book into a chaotic world where bookstores couldn’t open and everyone was having to learn how to Zoom.
Without our team at Tor, this would have all been unlivable. The Mercenary Librarians rode out into the world thanks to the tireless work of publicity bad-asses Caroline Perny and Laura Etzkorn, as well as marketing geniuses Renata Sweeney and Rachel Taylor. Our incredibly encouraging editor, Claire Eddy, held our hands the whole way, and her editorial assistant, Sanaa Ali-Virani, has never met a question she can’t find the answer to. And we ask a lot of questions!
Our agent, Sarah Younger, coaxed us through this book one paragraph, one page, one chapter at a time. It would not exist without her. We would have given up sometime shortly after The Age of Sourdough Starters. We love you, fierce mama shark.
For years, Lillie Applegarth has kept the ever-growing series bible of our world in tip-top shape. The fact that anyone has consistent eye color is a tribute to her. Sharon Muha has been the final proofreading pass on all of our books for just as long. Any mistakes that slip by them are our own (and very determined). Also big shout-out to our copy editor, NaNá Stoelzle, who was a dream to work with. We’re sorry that Bree can’t decide how she feels about typing out numbers.
Thank you to our readers, whose patience through our Rough Years has been unflagging and whose encouragement has been uplifting. Thank you to our families, who rode this rocky ride with us. Thank you to our friends, who hauled us through this pandemic one step at a time.
Thank you to every essential worker who faced peril to pull us through a terrifying year, and to the teachers and healthcare workers and librarians who went back into perilous situations to ease the burden on others—often, and regrettably, without due recognition.
Thank you especially to Alyssa Cole and Courtney Milan, who put their lives on pause in November to help us and an amazing group of volunteers accidentally raise $475,000 to save democracy. If the legacy of this book being late is knowing we had some small part in flipping those Senate seats in Georgia blue, then I cannot imagine anything more in keeping with the spirit of the Mercenary Librarians.
And if you take anything away from this book, the rocky and perilous path it took to the finish line, and our detour into political organizing via Romancing the Runoff, we hope it is this: even in the face of literal apocalyptic events and the imminent collapse of democracy, book nerds GET SHIT DONE.
We are forever grateful to be part of this glorious tradition.
TOR BOOKS BY KIT ROCHA
Deal with the Devil
The Devil You Know
Praise for Deal with the Devil
“Compelling characters, white-knuckle action, and deceptively smooth world-building make this first Mercenary Librarians book a satisfying and cinematic escape.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“Like something out of an Avengers flick, [Deal with the Devil] is a solid sci-fi debut with unforgettable characters.”
—BookPage (starred review)
“Enhanced supersoldiers, hot romance, and a dangerous rescue mission make this SF series opener a postapocalyptic roller-coaster ride.… The chemistry and tension between the romantic leads have never been better plotted or paced.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“This postapocalyptic tale of espionage and romance will have readers eager to know what happens next.”
—Publishers Weekly
“A high-action, high-stakes SF romance. Intriguing characters, tragic backgrounds, and a few twists comprise a strong launch to this new series.”
—Library Journal
ABOUT THE AUTHORS