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"No, Jane I can’t live like this You can’t live like this We are either together, or we’re not That’s all there is to it"

"Please Do not do this"

"No, that’s it You either love iving me an ultimatum That’s e’ve co He didn’t think it was an ulti this whole process easier for me If he "uilty about leaving my father or Rockabill or Nell and the others

He was so sure he knew me That he knew my desires, my ambitions, what made me content and whatinto his eyes There was a woin to recognize And I suddenly realized that he knew nothing

That said, I was as surprised as he hen I got up and left

Surprised, and heartbroken, and entirely certain I was doing the right thing

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

So you broke up with Ryu?" Iris asked, her beautiful blue eyes huge

"No, not really Kind of I don’t knoalked out"

"You walked out?"

"I did, indeed I believe I did what is known as ‘hotfooting’ it Or ‘scarpered,’ as they say in Britain I erator and ran… Rob Roys are delicious, did you know that?"

"Yes, you told o"

"Bullshit I’ve had only one This is my second"

"No, that’s your third You, Jane True, are schnockered"

"That is so not true, succubus I am merely… well lubricated"

"You knohat happens when you say that word around ood And tell hed, then took a very large gulp of my second Rob Roy Or was it my third? Sarah had taken one look at ht for the Sty’s secret stash She and Marcus were Scotch drinkers, and they kept a little collection of very good stuff hidden behind the bar for special friends She’d pulled out a bottle of Balvenie Signature, as she already knew I liked bourbon, and whipped me up a Rob Roy After one sip, I knew Rob was sMr Roy, even as ht be a good idea to start ot home, because it was pretty durn funny So I told Iris about how the pizza-delivery guy had just been getting out of his car when I walked out of Ryu’s front door He’d agreed, once I proive him an extra twenty, to drivean Enterprise Rent-A-Car That said, the delivery guy wasn’t quite so keen when Ryu caured out I hadn’t just carried my suitcase downstairs to pout

Unfortunately, the rental car company had been closed I’d called Julian for a ride to a hotel, but he’d shown up with Caleb, and they’d insisted on drivingto be soooo pissed at you when he finds out you drove me home’ But they didn’t care"

In fact, Caleb had responded tothe obscenity sound strangely dignified

"Yeah, fuck it!" Julian had chortled, like a little kid My fellow halfling had gotten an enor it to the man Or vampire Whatever

"And so they drove h I haven’t slept in, like, forty-eight hours, I still couldn’t fucking sleep So I called you, and you took ood friend" I sighed and leaned back in my seat In reality, the tiny part of me that was still curiously sober couldn’t believe I’d walked out on Ryu

"So is it, like, over over?" Iris asked

"Pshaw No I do really care for him But he had to know that I’m not a pushover Okay, fine, you can physically pushincubus de to Boston"

"Nor should you be, Jane," Iris said emphatically, and I raised lass to toast with her

"So what, exactly, did he do? Was it just the ultimatum that pissed you off?"

At Iris’s question, I stopped and really tried to break dohat it was about Ryu’s demands that had bothered me sothat ulti we’d just been through Everything I had been through You didn’t dees when they’d been beaten to a pulp the night before And why did I have tocole" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>