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We stopped at a red light He looked at h I’d just told him I wanted to run the Boston Marathon route in ood idea"

"I’ your permission"

Amy permission And you won’t let me talk you out of it, either"

"Just drop reen, and we crossed the intersection

"I’ve got to try You say you can’t represent Juliet because she’s mixed up with the Old Ones That’s exactly why I need to talk to her She ument Kane knehat Pryce had tried to do to me, and it bothered him that my demi-demon "cousin" was still out there No one knehere Pryce was or why the Old Ones had taken hirowl than agreement And I didn’t really care whether or not he dropped ht, wherever I got out of the car Yet his willingness ment of ht about her

I needed to make sure Juliet was okay I needed to find out what she knew about Pryce and the Old Ones I needed to find out what had happened that night in Washington There were lots of reasons I needed to talk to Juliet And they couldn’t wait until my name showed up on some officially approved list

5

KANE PULLED THE BMW OVER JUST BEFORE THE CHECKPOINT out of human-controlled Boston "Mind if I let you off here? I want to stop by the office and pick up soh" He nodded toward the checkpoint, where a bored guard paged through a comic book Spider-Man I could see the cover from here With the code-red restrictions in place, there wasn’t much traffic between Deadtown and the rest of the city Kane’s office was on the norms’ side of the barrier, near Government Center But since it was past eleven, well outside norht insist he stay put

"Sure I’ll go through the walk-up booth" There was only one open tonight "We’re practically on the Goon Squad’s doorstep, anyway" The first building in the New Combat Zone, the block between the checkpoints into Deadtown and the rest of the city, was oal: a nondescript concrete structure that served as the Goon Squad’s headquarters and detention center

"Thanks for dropping ers toyed with the he"

"The night’s not over yet" I leaned over and kissed him "I’ll see you back at your place"

He put an arer, his fingers caressed ," he whispered

It was er a little on lanced attheir part of town half asit

I went into the Goon Squad building The main activity--headquarters and offices--was upstairs The holding facility was deep in the soundproofed basement I clacked down the stairs in lass door at the bottom

A human woman looked up from the reception desk She was about forty, had on no makeup, and wore her hair slicked back in a ponytail "Yeah?"

"I’m here to see Juliet Capulet"

Her eyes narrowed "You’re her attorney? I thought you said you couldn’t co"

Betsy Blythe had already called back That was a good sign Maybe Kane’s faith in her was justified

I decided to ignore the receptionist’s question--no point in lying to the police unless absolutely necessary--and responded to her state, there’d be no point, would there? Va the day" Juliet was old for a vae conferred She could stay up half the day if she wanted, but most vampires conked out as soon as the sun cleared the horizon

The receptionist considered, then shrugged "Sign in here," she said, turning an open book toward "

As she openedfrom Betsy Blythe to John Hancock