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Chapter 58

Between Marc and Sinclair, they pulled enough strings to get the wounded to the hospital without us having to fill out reams of paperwork or answer unanswerable questions Not for the first ti married to a rich ler as a roommate

Sinclair carried Laura to the roo in and laid her on the bed She was going to have an unattractive shiner, but Marc checked her over and pronounced her merely unconscious

We still had no idea where Tina was, so I stayed in the roo for her to wake up

After about half an hour, her eyes opened and she stared at the ceiling, then at me

"Welcome back"

"Is it true?" she asked hoarsely, and I realized with a stab of pity that she was afraid "Didto do with all this?"

"Yeah, Laura It&039;s true"

"I was so sure it was a good plan, the right plan Instead of running froht I was-oh, Betsy! How am I ever supposed to knohat&039;s my idea, and what&039;s part of her plan forlies "I don&039;t know"

"I&039;d rather be dead than be her puppet"

"Can&039;t we find a happy medium between those two?"

She suddenly seemed to notice my ruined suit, the blood, my mussed hair, the way I was covered with bits of soot, wallpaper, and plaster

Her face crumpled and she clapped her hands over her eyes I leaned forward, grasped her wrists, and gently pulled her hands away from her face

"Come on, Laura It&039;s not fatal This is why God invented dry cleaners Also, it&039;s going to be really, really aard between us for a while It ht even ruin Christmas"

My lame-ass joke fell flat-deservedly so-and Laura burst into tears "I&039;rip "I&039;m just so, so sorry"

She rested her forehead on my shoulder and I stroked her (blond) hair while she sobbed all over ht, Laura We&039;ll figure it out Coh with the orks"

"I could have killed you"

"But you didn&039;t" You just killed a bunch of my people But I&039;d have to address that later I wasn&039;t looking forward to it, that was for damned sure "You let me hurt you-punch you out like ere brawlers in a Western-rather than killing ood guys Your white hat is in the ain, and wept harder