Page 44 (1/2)

Staring in that direction, she caught so, just the shadow fading

She heard grunts then, and the sound of a well-delivered punch

Her sense of terror faded, to be replaced by one of fury She recognized the sounds co from the knot of her ruined draperies

"Da over to the ball of entangled humanity on her floor, she tore at the drapes, then yelled at Clay Barton and tugged at Grant’s hair

"What the hell are the two of you doing?" she denity despite the towel

Tousled, heaving, eyes lethal as they surveyed one another, both Clay and Grant rose, circling like boxers

Stephanie still held several strands of Grant’s hair in her hand He hadn’t even noticed losing the on?" she demanded

"He was headed here," Grant accused Clay "And God knohat he intended"

"Hell, no! I was after you!" Clay fired back

"Liar!" Grant shouted, ready to lunge again

"Wait!" Stephanie caught hold of his arm He shook her off without notice, eyes lethally narrowed on Clay, every round, surveying Grant in return with a cool conte between the two "This is insane This is my room You’ve ruined my drapes, you jerks What the hell is it between you two? Stop it, now!"

"I saw the shadow," Clay said, staring at Grant

"Yeah, I saw the damned shadow--you!" Grant accused him in return

So far, neither one of them had made a jab at the other with her between the testosterone seemed to diminish

"Grant, I really, desperately, want you to calht! I’ll talk Guess what?--I just searched the Internet There was a Clay Barton--a felloith thiswas different about hio!"

"Oh, you checked the Internet, did you?" Clay demanded in return

At thatthrough the glass sliding doors

Liz

She flew in, catching hold of the fra to assess the situation

"Lucien!" she cried out, racing toward hiuy was an impostor And a murderer, I think"

"No!" Liz protested She had slipped an arm around the man she had called Lucien and stared at the both of theot to tell them the truth!"

"Yeah, I’d sure as hell like the truth!" Grant said, crossing his arms over his chest

"Wait a minute! I’m the director of the show," Stephanie protested "If so toto do with the show, does it?" Grant de at the two of them "Does it--Liz? Or is that your name? It isn’t, is it?"

"Jade," she said

Stephanie, totally puzzled, stared blankly for a moht, your name is Lucien And you’re Jade And, of course, you know one another very well, I take it"

"We’reto pick up other women"

"You ass! The hell I did!" Lucien responded

"Will you two stop!" Liz exploded

"Let’s see, your real name is Lucien, you’re married to this other fraud who is really na ; so just what the hell is your story?"

"You ass!" Lucien repeated, standing with muscles as taut as Grant’s

"I’m not your ’woman,’ like a serf, or a piece of property!" Stephanie exclaiged hair away frouing semantics in the middle of chaos "It refers to the person I love!" he said; indignant and distracted "And is meant in no way possessive or… Sweet Jesus! This is not the point

What is going on?"

"You’ve got to tell them the truth!" Jade said to Lucien "You should have told the"

"Oh, indeed I should have just said, hey, I’ht