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I looked at the Joe and sighed I needed a shower and a pot of tea and my bed Not this

"You want to tell ht?" he demanded

"No I don’t Get away froled my keys "You’re not my daddy, my lover, or my boss Where I was is none of your business I’m not in the mood for this I’m tired and I need a shower and I’ll bust your chops if I have to Move"

"I got questions" He eased to the side and I opened the front door He stepped in after h that I couldn’t have shut the door on hiain as he followed me to the kitchen where I turned on the kettle "Fine But I’ a shower first You can wait"

I closedinto the hot shower for a personal groo session I didn’t have much body hair, courtesy of my Cherokee blood, but what I had came back in every tiht made it a pain

When I was pretty sure the kettle had been whistling for a long time, I turned off the water, pulled on a ratty T-shirt and shorts and went back to the kitchen, h the thin cloth down my back He was at my kitchen table, sprawled out like he owned the place, his sunglasses near his left hand and his eyes on s as I walked to the kettle

"I took it off the fire and poured it over the leaves," he said

Surprised, I lifted the plastic lid of the tea strainer and sniffed I had left a strong Madagascar Vanilla Sunday Blend in the strainer, sitting in the teapot, waiting And noas ready "Thanks," I said, and poured it into a twelve-ounce ar, and stirred "Want so than on the stoop, and after a good wash I was feeling a littlethis conversation was about to get either very physical or very full of lies I wasn’t in theMcMuffins and downed three Cokes, so I wasn’t hungry thisWhen hu-eyed at the quantity Rinaldo had assu use I hadn’t told him any different

I sat across fro I wanted to say I owed him no explanations, but he was a local, with contacts I didn’t have I could humor him A little "Okay You’re here I’ve had "

"Where were you last night?" When I shookyou?" I shooka smile start, and he narrowed his eyes atinto Katie’s backyard?"

Oh, yeah The ca to do Katie’s security and he missed a camera that I found, that could only make him look bad "That, I’ll tell you" I let ood" I sipped

He huffed, a belligerent laugh, and let the silence grow, his eyes oncontests and which predator will blink first, he broke His hostility melted in a plosive puff of breath and a faint stench of frustration "Fine You got ways of doing things I don’t You got the job; I didn’t But a girl was killed last night By the rogue"

"I know I saw hi hia T-shirt again thisand, as his biceps bunched, the bottoms of the tats were more visible than yesterday Definitely claws on the left arht arured if I asked hi idea I was so tired, I grinned without thinking

"It isn’t funny," he said, his voice low and dangerous "I knew her"

I held up a hand, palers splayed to show I htly and I picked up ain "I’m sorry for your loss If it irl"

"You saw hi him" Which was the truth, except Rick would naturally think I was following by sight, not by smell Here here our conversation would devolve into lies, partial lies, and total lies, and where I would get tripped up if I , thinking he ot her before I could react He’s fast He went up the hen he spotted ht up I’d always thought that thing about va able to fly or climb walls was myth"

Rick shook his head "Only the old ones can climb like that The real old ones"