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"Nine?"

"It’s a square nuled

When he stood before her again, he asked, "What?"

The et until she was head up "Nothing You just didn’t strike me as a mathematician"

"Woman, what you don’t know about me could fit in a Kraken’s belly"

"I know That’s why I let you throw nine knives at ht?"

"That’s too broad Like wishing for a million wishes"

"You never said I couldn’t ask a perfectly reasonable question"

He said nothing, simply pulled the knives out around her She felt exposed and ridiculous and realized suddenly that she hadn’t given any thought to her question The first time she had asked him where the body was, and he had told her there was no body Whichquestion

"Where is Petra?"

"I have no idea"

The answer ca on the ain and, with it, herat her, so she closed her eyes and wracked her brain as the knives landed, one after the other, in the wood around her

Thwack

There was no body

Thwack

He didn’t knohere Petra was

Thwack

That meant his ex-assistant had to be alive

Thwack

But if she was alive, where had the blood come from? He said he’d never drawn blood

Thwack

And why had he run, if there had been no crime? Why would he tell no one the truth?

Thwack

She’d read every word of the newspaper, gone through her archives There was no mention of the name Marco Taresque, not even on the broadsheets

Thwack

And Letitia wouldn’t have let Marco stay if she’d seen anything unsafe in his past or his future And she wouldn’t have let Jacinda herself stay had she seen danger

Thwack

She was ht, and she opened her eyes and looked down The last knife quivered between her thighs, piercing the layers of her skirts and drawing the cloth tightly over her legs

"What--"

His ry, amused sether before the words escaped her and she stupidly wasted a question What on earth are you trying to do? was not the question she’d suffered near ile" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>