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It was past ten o&039;clock when Grier parked her Audi out in Malden and cut the engine She&039;d manuevered the sedan around on the packed dirt so that it was facing out and ay froh it wasn&039;t as if the "parking lot" had any dedicated exit or entrance or spaces
As she&039;d driven by the address Louie had given her over the phone, she hadn&039;t been sure she was in the right place The office park had been e five-stories spiraling off from an unlit main drive like schoolchildren lined up for a head count Evidently, the developh-tech con that read, MALDEN TECHNOLOGICAL PARK Instead, it was a ghost town
Louie never steered her wrong, though, so she&039;d turned in and gone all the way to the backand found about twenty-five trucks and cars behind the building farthest fro to put on an illegal cage fight, she&039;d have made sure she was as hidden as possible, too
Getting out of her car, she went over to the fire door that was propped open by a cinder block, and walked in The deep, buzzing growl of a crowd ofa wall she practically had to push through As she headed toward the sound, she wasn&039;t worried about the h She had Mace in one pocket and a stun gun in the other: The foral in the state of Massachusetts if you had a valid firearm identification card and she did The latterwell, she&039;d pay the five-hundred-dollar fine, assu
If she could walk into a crack house in New Bedford at ed into an atriuh, chain-link walls of the fighting octagon, she ell aware she could have just called the cops on thehe showed up, would either be arrested again or take off And in either of those cases, she oal was to have hi aas never the solution, and if he went that route, he&039;d have a warrant out for his arrest, s of a record
Assu he didn&039;t already have one: That murder in Mississippi worried her--but it was, like all of his other stuff, so for the proper authorities to deal with As his defense attorney, she had to try to get hies It was the right thing for society--the right thing for hiet hin fro she knew about hiuns and the details of that security syste to becoht thing--
She froze as she saw her client, her hand co up to the base of her throat
Isaac Rothe was standing alone in the far corner, and though the chain links of the cage separated the the effect of him: He was athe other men into little boys And whereas she&039;d been struck by his politeness back at the jail, now she got a true picture of who he was
The man was a killer
Her heart beat fast, but she didn&039;t falter She was here to do a job of sorts, and da to talk with hiuy with gold teeth e "And nowwhat you&039;re waitin&039; for!"
Isaac took off his sweatshirt and his co, his chin down, his eyes glaring out frohtly across his pecs, and his ar loosely at his sides Heading into the fight, he was all muscle and bone and vein, his shoulders so wide he looked like he could bench-press the dae and landed on bare feet inside, the roar of the crowd rang her head like a bell and turned her spine into an adrenaline conductor In the glow of the eight ca off the support poles, her client was part gladiator, part anie ready to do what he&039;d clearly been trained for
Unfortunately, the opponent ung over the top and landed across froe of hiht, same deadly look--even dressed the sa plenty of the snake tattoo that wound its way around his shoulders and neck And while the audience hollered and closed in, the two circled each other, looking for an opportunity, arhs tensed
Isaac went in first, his body swinging around, his foot snapping out and catching the otherto bet his target&039;s ancestors felt it in their graves
It all happened so fast The two fell into a rhyth around the neck and down the back, the buttery yellow la of fire The contacts, when unshots, the hard, resonant i, restless crowd Blood flew--from the cut on Isaac&039;s head that was quickly reopened and then frohter seemed to care, but the kibitzers loved it sure as if they were vampires--
A hand on her ass whipped her head around
Moving back sharply, she glared at the guy with the wandering pal your pardon"
He see stare narrowed "Heywhat you doing here?"
The question was posed as if he&039;d recognized her
Then again, he could have been talking to Santa Claus and taking it seriously--his face was slick with sweat and half of it twitched like he had an electrical short in his cheek He was obviously tweaking--and God knew she was an expert in nosis
"Excuseaway
He followed Just her luck, the one idiot in the place as ht he&039;d co at her "I know you--"
"Get your hand off me--"
"What&039;s your name--"
Grier snapped herself free "None of your business"
He jumped at her in the space between one heartbeat and the next: The three feet between them abruptly became three inches "You&039;re wicked touchy You think you&039;re better than e her body, but took the stun gun out and slipped the safety pin into the grip Putting the weapon within striking distance of the front of his jeans, she bit out, "If you don&039;t get the hell away fro to shoot six hundred and twenty-five thousand volts through your jewels On three Onetwo"
Before she got to trigger time, he shuffled back and held quaky hands up "I didn&039;t ht I knew you"
As he wandered away, she kept the stun gun out and took a deep breath Maybe she hadher searches for Daniel--but he was clearly out of his h hot water already
Refocusing on the ring, she looked up--
Just in ti Matthias&039;s second in couy, and having a shot at the bastard had been an unspoken career goal
Ah, the irony Just as he was getting out, he got his chance--
Wha was a bulldozer, and it caught Isaac square in the jaw, kicking his skull back and causing all kinds of trouble: Given that the brain was nothing but a loose sponge in a snow globe, hisaround its hard bone ho his considered, he&039;d been more worried about a weapon of the metal variety, but knuckles worked Fuckin&039; hell, they worked--
That was the last thought he had as the floor of the octagon leaped up to greet him, its hi-how&039;re-ya just as much a rocket as his for he was the Energizer Bunny
He was up a second after he back-flatted--even though his legs were numb and loose and his vision was like a TV that needed its knobs adjusted Lunging, he was all instinct and will, proof that the mind could override the body&039;s pain receptors--at least for a little while He tackled his opponent around the waist and drove hiround; then flipped hi the thing like it was rope
On a crack, soave out and Isaac abruptly had to catch hi
The croent nuts, all kinds of fuckin&039; A ricocheting around the half-finished lobby until a shrill whistle cut through the roar At first, he assumed the sound was just an extension of the chaos in his head, but then he realized that so It was the promoter, and for once, the bastard&039;s face was a little pasty
"I&039;rabbed Isaac&039;s wrist and yanked it into the air "Winner!" Leaning in, he hissed, "Let go of hiuy&039;s problem was--