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I gave her an encouraging half smile, but I didn’t speak

"I knew Jake was a va each other It was part of the draw…just a little taste of danger, you know?"

I nodded like I knew, but I didn’t really Mason was the s for Maybe he was dangerous And in the right circuerous indeed But that didn’t draw me It was the very human man beneath the power, and the sense that a part of hi he sensed init needed in hiood person A siive hi that had attracted Mary to her husband was the saestion of danger in Jake hadn’t prepared Mary to deal with the real thing

"Did Nicolas kill your husband, Mary?" I asked gently, doing everything I could to keep the fear surging within er than my ability to deal with it on h with Mason at my side Why the hell was Claude out of town this week of all weeks?

Mary jumped as if a jolt of electricity shocked her "No! Iyou to do anything but telloff her was palpable, and her eyes practically vibrated "I don’t knoho killed hi where she was "I’o"

"But--"

"Go!" she screeched

Chapter Nine

"So," I said for at least the fifth time since we’d arrived at Mason’s house with our take-out Chinese food Mary Stone had been io, and I was pretty certain that the woman had been prepared to physically toss me out despite my sidearm if I hadn’t left when I did

Mason threw up his hands, sending a so back Press her for ht Go back in theabout her husband will loosen her tongue" I kneithout a doubt that the likelihood of Mary Stone confiding anything ht was almost nonexistent She was too emotional, too scared

"You know it’s possible that the affair and the ht?"

Myon one vamp with another, more powerful vampire, and he was killed by a vampire And you think they aren’t connected?"

"I said that didn’t mean they were necessarily connected, not that they weren’t for sure I’, Nicolas Chevalier has an ironclad alibi"

I frowned Much as I hated to adht "Too ironclad Like he planned it that way," I lazed walnut shrimp on his plate

"Does Nicolas Chevalier strike you as the kind of ht his own battles?" I asked

"Nic Chevalier strikes me as the kind of snake who hides in the shadows unless there’s a fight he’s certain to win Even then, I think he’d cheat, just to be sure"

My hand paused over olian beef I hadn’t expected quite such an honest assessuessed I shouldn’t have been surprised He wasn’t the type to pull punches or bullshit to keep people happy "You’re right And I think he’s the type to hire out a hit on someone like Jake to "

"I suspect you’re right"

I tapped ether and watched Mason finish off the shri Pao chicken Man, lycans could eat I laughed

"You’re like a teenage boy"

He flashed his teeth "Anored it "Yes My brother used to eat like that" A flash ofsince I’d seen him, touched my mind "Of course, I think he still eats like that But last I saw, he was developing quite the potbelly"

Mason’s brows shot up toa potbelly?" He leaned back and felt his stoe

I alulp of soda to clear ht of my awesome abs rob you of your breath,to clear hed half of it into my napkin Mason ran around the table and poundedon his face