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Maybe he’s dyslexic, Chris thought as she wandered down the counter, pretending to check out the literature while getting in better position for a closer look Out of the corner of her eye she saw bothdown to untie and retie his shoe As he did, his jacket sleeve slid back to reveal part of his forearm and half of a black cameo tattoo, the center of which should have contained the profile of the man’s Kyn lord, but was instead covered in scar tissue
Chris, who had never seen a tresora with partially mutilated ink, had to force herself to read the front of the pauard the blood bank would have been stationed at the entry points to the building; watchers wouldn’t have allowed themselves to be seen at all Chris wandered back to check the nun-in sheet, which was seven; she’d counted nine people waiting in the lobby
More than anything, thelike it And ould a tresora hack out of his own flesh the face of his Kyn lord?
Chris waited until she saw the receptionist ee with the cooler froirl, whose eyes ide
"Side door?" When the girl gestured, Chris took the cooler and smiled "Thanks And the nine?"
"In the cooler"
She ran for the exit, bolting through it and sprinting for the rental car She had enough tiet in and drop the cooler on the seat before she saw the two tresori run around fro She ducked down and slipped the keys in the ignition as they trotted past her, both looking in every direction before they hurried to a big black cargo van
As soon as they’d climbed inside the van, Chris started the Lexus, reversed out of her space, and sped out of the lot They were good, she thought when she saw the van appear in her rearview She floored the accelerator as she scanned the road ahead for an intersection with soht, she coasted to a stop and turned on her eency flashers before she reached into the cooler
Chris left the engine running as she got out of the car, raised the hood, and waited in front of it, watching for the van It slowed as it approached, and then as she’d hoped, it stopped behind her rental
She stepped out from behind the hood and threw a unit of blood at the van’s windshield; it burst and covered the glass and part of the hood with blood With the nine-millimeter she’d taken out of the cooler, she shot out both front tires, and put another three rounds into the van’s engine before she dropped the hood on the rental, climbed in behind the wheel, and sped off
Where there were tresori, there were bound to be backup tresori, so Chris drove around Mia tailed Dunized their faces, which ht in from another territory She could describe them to Jamys and see if they matched anyone who served his father, but most American tresori wouldn’t have fallen for her stalled-car routine She’d betfor the council or even Tres, Chris knew she was less than nobody
The sun was setting by the time she returned to Biscayne Bay, and once she parked the rental, she walked down the dock to the boat None of the fisherman she passed see off, but once she and Jaht, it would probably be safer to move the boat to a different spot
She could hear the shower running belowdecks as soon as she cliht the cooler down and left it on the table She had tobags, but by the ti on deck for her
"Christian" He took her bags and set them aside before he lifted her from the dock to the boat "What is all this?"
"Clothes, shoes, girl stuff, that kind of thing" She hugged hi back only when he didn’t return the eht hand and brought it up to his face, but he didn’t kiss it "You sunpowder"
"I had to shoot a van I picked up some stores for you, did you see the cooler?" She carried the bags belohere she began to put everything away "I bought thedress You have to take me somewhere nice someday so I can wear it andat her "You shot a van?"
"Yeah, after I threw blood at it" She checked her watch "We should leave soon; Gifford’s lecture starts in an hour" She held up a jueeky, or just sad?"
He took the jumper from her and tossed it onto the bunk "Tell me about this van"