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"We’ve got to clean up the loose ends" His blood sier to his mate, but that wasn’t his top concern Anyone who dared threaten her would die, end of story He had seen her broken once Never again

Tally, eyes glazed, face splattered with blood, huddling in the corner Quiet So quiet Even then, even after he’d terrified her with his violence, even after he’d left her alone with strangers, she had protected hiot desperate when I still wouldn’t talk

His Tally had gone mute rather than betray hih he’d broken every daed the leopard that he couldn’t keep her safe now, re her and he hadn’t known She was his life He’d destroy the world for her Yet this disease left him helpless

"I had a call from Dev Santos earlier" He forced himself to think past the blood fury "He’s disposed of the ave hi in very sainst the wall of the house, Dorian frowned "You know, if these kidnappers have lost that source of infor to need a new one" He swore "They won’t kill Talin They’ll try to take her alive"

"No, they won’t" Clay felt the claws of the anih his flesh "It’s hard for deadLeBon sat in Ashaya’s office once iven the situation in the PsyNet

"Larsen see to do with the disappearance of the two re if she’d ’s active support? Her findings had led her to conclude that the other scientist had gone far beyond the li didn’t even blink at her confession "What did you do to them?"

"I terminated them"

"Where are the bodies?"

"Gone" She met his expressionless face with a blank look of her own "It would’ve been stupid to kill thee and then leave their remains to be found so Larsen could utilize the brain tissue"

"And my man?"

Ashaya had no need to lie "I’e I did this onone of , while I’m happy to take on Larsen," she said with absolute truthfulness, "I have no desire to make an enemy out of you We both knoould walk out alive If one of your men has disappeared, I would look elsewhere for the culprit"

A pause that lasted sixty seconds The chill of the lab worked its way into Ashaya’s bones but she re said, "A traitorous e-mail has been traced to this facility"

An inexcusable error She had acted on the assuerous - that the out monitored "I’m sure you’ve taken care of the culprit"

"I will - as soon as I break the encryption on the re e-mails"

She thanked Talin McKade for whatever it was she had done to hide their tracks "Would you like to scanprepared a duplicate for this very purpose It would passwatched her "Not at present If you were to prove the traitor, I would have to kill you That would be inconvenient"

Ashaya held his gaze, very aware her death would be nothing easy "Indeed"

"Tell e Larsen’s work?"

"Because this is my lab" Her tone was ice "You assureda parallel but different approach to the implant issue"

"Nonsense" She handed him a slim electronic data file "Look at the results"

"Where did these scans come from?"

"From the experimental subjects"

"These don’t correlate to the ones I’ve seen"

"Then I suggest you ask Larsen to explain" She kept her tone unflinching "He ain support for his unauthorized experio through her, and, when new lines of research were involved, through Ming

"According to these readings, the brain patterns of the Forgotten are nothing like ours"

"Yes" Not quite the complete truth If Larsen - now on his way to San Francisco - survived the next twenty-four hours, she would have to ensure she had enough "data" to refute his conclusions Ashaya didn’t think she’d need her backup plan, not if Talin McKade’s friends were as lethal as they appeared