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Except…
Except her hair, in the faint gleaets brought up fro dully and worth thousands It was the first time he’d seen it down and he itched to touch, caress…
He reached out a tre her skull, realizing with happy dis about, not even her last naht for a while She came awake like a cat in the dark: one minute dead to the world, the next utterly alert Her hand cahtly less breakable than handcuffs and pulled Hard He rocketed toward her and somehow--he didn’t think this was possible to do from a prone position--she flipped hio of his wrist and a split-second later he was on his butt in the dust and she was looking down at hi his wrist, which started to throb fro go "Don’t scare e "Don’t scare you ?" he croaked, cli slowly to his feet "You’re the one who broke in, dammit! Jesus Christ, I come into my apartment-- my apartment--and here you are, dead to the world, a--a breaker and enterer--"
"I didn’t break," she said reasonably "Just entered"
"--then you wake up and kickand was pleasantly surprised to find his legs were supporting hih--like about six hundred
"Souard!"
She snorted, then the snort turned into a laugh She choked off the sound alize for startling you So her hair had been what awakened her and unwilling to impart this infore e, incredibly handso overI didn’t break it on the way down," she added thoughtfully
"Yes, that is a good thing, I retract s You could have broken my arm, caved in my skull, reached intoheart and showed it to me"
She looked away "Err…I’m not quite that bad You have…" She eyed hi he hadn’t eaten in seven hours "…aduards say," he replied affably over his shoulder "How about some breakfast?"
"That would be lovely," she ad She placed it gently at the end of the couch and followed hi here
I didn’t hurt your lock--"
"I don’t mind," he assured her "You can come over anytime Do you want a key?"
"It’s not necessary," she said with a straight face
"I know that Butmy lock every…no?" he said as she shook her head "Ho, boy That’s soed the subject…but later, when he thought about the conversation, he realized she hadn’t changed it at all "How is the little boy?"
He looked up froerator "Little boy?"
She perched on a stool beside the counter "He came in the ER with multiple stab wounds Dark hair, about seven years old?"
"Ah He was stable when I left Aed to an and blood vessel His s in a stainless steel bowl "Carved the kid up when Maulation as the death penalty Kind of ood old days, huh?"
She nodded seriously, though he had--he thought he had--been joking Dark hus happened to little kids To anyone "Someone should kill the boyfriend," she said matter-of-factly "That kind never stops" She dru
"Noait athe boyfriend into your busy schedule--between bodyguardingevery safe on the block--and you’ve got to forget it If you killed everybody you thought deserved it, you’d never be done"
"Don’t you think someone who stabs a little boy five times deserves to be removed from the planet?"
"I think it’s not our call"
She snorted, such an incongruous sound with her delicate exterior that he nearly laughed out loud
"Spoken like a true sheep"
He grated cheese irritably "What, because I don’t go around like Vince the Vigilante, I’m a sheep?"
"No," she said patiently, "you’re a sheep because you don’t right wrongs"
He slammed the bowl on the counter and leaned across it, until his face o inches from hers "I had that child’s blood up to s" He leaned back, forcing his temper down "And how’d you know about the kid, anyway? I didn’t see you in the ER all night"