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The phone stopped beeping

Dev blinked, a slow, lazy thing at odds with the wild energy that she’d felt under her palms "That’s the problem, isn’t it?"

PETROKOV FAMILY ARCHIVES

Letter dated Nove and bloodied your knee rather spectacularly But you knohat? You never cried Instead, you stood there, your face all scrunched up and tears glittering in your eyes as I cleaned and bandaged the wound It wasn’t until I kissed it better that you threw your arms around me and told me it "hurt" Oh, my baby, you make my life a joy And soon, you’ll have soiving hihter, you a little brother or sister

I love hia child into this world The tide is changing, Matty Today, Mrs Ennis told ht, that ue with her, but what could I say in the face of her loss? She’s still grieving for her husband As soon as Enforcement catches one serial killer, another takes his place Mr Ennis was si many - and that horrifies me

And yet, I can’t accept a protocol that would steal your smiles, your tears, your very heart You’re more precious to me than all the peace in the world

Love,

Mo into sweatpants and a sleeveless tee, Dev continued to ignore his cell phone in favor of a hard workout in the gy his fists into the punching bag worked off some of his frustration, but left him with no neers

Katya drew him Simple as that And it was about time he admitted it

She was the ene to blow up in his face, but still, she drew him Part of him wanted to protect her, take care of her, while the other part, the hard-nosed prag so would just come back to bite him on the ass

He’d al with the raw excite with a woman who aroused a much et through the metal of his shields, shouldn’t have been able to affect him on such a visceral level, not without a conscious decision on his part

And yet she had She did Every fucking ti, he spun and caood"

He didn’t turn, focusing on his next round of punches "Been doing it since I was a teenager" Since the day he’d realized he carried within him the seeds of the very violence that had shattered his life as a child "Good stress relief"

Katya stayed in the doorway, and he was blindingly aware of her gaze as she watched him It took all his concentration tosothen those muscles"

"Are you sure I have any?"

It was a kick to the gut, that hint of hu damp hair off his face, conscious of the fact that his tee was sticking to his body, his ar with sweat "I’m sure there’re one or two hidden away in that scrawny body of yours"

Hazel eyes darkened "Do you always insult the wo "Depends on the woht here?"

None Dev didn’t share his personal spaces well "That’s foroff his face with a towel he’d thrown in the corner, he strode to the door "I’ll make you that smoothie after I shower"

She shifted away as he walked past It was a very Psy thing to do They hated any kind of physical contact But Katya had seee, he took the steps with angry confidence And when the shower came on ice-cold, he left it that way

Katya bent over, bracing her hands on her knees as all the breath simply rushed out of her Dear God, she’d known he was in shape, but

She sed, tried to relearn to breathe She’d once seen a tiger in a wildlife reserve in India Her job had been with a ion, but it was the irace, the beauty of it - even her Psyextraordinary

Dev’s muscles slick with sweat, his biceps defined as he punched the bag - he’d been as wildly beautiful as that tiger, as far from the man in the dark suit and formal shirt as she was from the Ekaterina who’d once worked for the Council It had taken every ounce of control she had not to reach out and stroke him

He’d probably have snapped off her hand if she’d dared

Drawing in another shaky breath, she walked across the exerciseIt was heavy And he’d been sending it back and forth like it weighed nothing Her ht be scattershot, but she knew that all her life, she’d valued psychic strength over physical But after seeing Devher opinion