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"Soon," Nick proot to his feet "Any day now Hold off on your plans to go into the institute until I get back to you, okay? If you move now, you may alert the folks who are behind this and they'll probablyMaybe ship it to California We'll never find it if they take it out of town"

Arizona ar a couple of tiive you a few days to finish your deep background But if you don't get anything useful out of Sullivan and Mitch, we're gonna have to go in It's our only option"

"Right I'll be in touch" Nick took Octavia's arot work to do, honey"

The honey be that he wasn't even conscious of having used the endearht about that while she allowed herself to be dragged fro The woods surrounding the fortified cabin were cloaked in a gray mist Nick hustled her into his car, and then went around the front and got in beside her

She looked at hi the thin, rutted path that served as Arizona's driveway

"Deep background?" she said dryly

"I thought it sounded good Had a nice "

"It did seeht us a little time What do you expect to accomplish?"

"Beats me But I didn't havefast I definitely do not want to get tangled up in one of Arizona's little clandestine recon projects at the institute"

"From what Mitch told me, it's sort of a family tradition Hannah and Rafe carried out a mission for Arizona and so did Lillian and Gabe"

"And it was just daal trespass" Nick turned the wheel and drove out onto thein their illustrious and heroic footsteps, thank you very much Especially when there's no reason in hell to think that the painting has been hidden up there at the institute"

Her small flash of amusement faded "But you do believe that it's still somewhere in town, don't you?"

"Yes" He did not take his attention off the road "I think whoever took it did it for personal reasons, not for profit That means it's probably still somewhere in town We need to find the source of those rumors"

A few minutes later Nick drove into town, turned onto Bay Street, and parked in the lot at the end of the row of shops He got out and walked with Octavia to the door of the gallery

The flicker of unease she had experienced a short tio when Arizona had recounted the scene at Fulton's returned Inside the gallery, Gail stood at the counter She was engaged in an intense conversation with Marjorie Dunne

"That's a ridiculous ruine who started it, but it has absolutely no basis in fact"

Marjorie was clearly not about to be reassured or placated Clad in tailored slacks and a fashionable creaold jewelry, she was, as usual, overdressed for Eclipse Bay Her blond hair was cut in a short, sophisticated bob that Octavia was pretty sure had not come from Carla's Custom Cut & Curl The local beauty shop specialized in two distinctive looks: Very Big Hair and the Senior Citizen Hel particularly reardless of whether or not the ruhter's picture I can't allow Katy to participate in the art show so long as there's a cloud hanging over Octavia Brightwell and this gallery I have to think of o very still beside her Alarh him, she stepped forward quickly to defuse the situation

"I assu me," she said calmly