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I didn&039;t even look at hi about, but I didn&039;t like how alert both lions were toto limit my chances
"Did your ton asked, looking at Jacob
"Silas will"
"I&039;reat deal of o for smart-ass; when in doubt, it&039;s always a possibility " Leon," I said, "that is so not your real last naave me an unfriendly look out of his pale eyes
I smiled at hies of violence It had eh to scout the room, and to think It&039;s not a technique that they teach you in business school, but it works for me
"It&039;swith Leon as his naton asked
"It&039;s based on the Latin word leo, which means &039;lion&039; Don&039;t you think that&039;s funny? Because I think it&039;s freaking hilarious"
"I think I liked it better when you weren&039;t talking," Jacob said
"They cohly recommended, Ms Blake"
"You&039;ve had the me and my boyfriends for a few days, before you came to er tried to flare back up, and I had to slowa little, concentrate on er wanted hi Kill it now, eat it noait? Aniratification
"I told you, Ms Blake, I&039;d researched you Everything I had learned about you said that you would turn ency in place"
"A contingency Is that what they&039;re calling kidnapping and murder for hire these days?"
He flinched a little around his eyes, as if it were all too blunt for his sensibilities "I&039; it doesn&039;t come to that, Ms Blake If you raise o back to your life and I go back to mine"
I looked at Jacob "Heto o back to our lives?"
"Why don&039;t we all sit down," he said
Bennington stammered, "Of course, of course, how rude of me, I mean" He trailed off as if he&039;d just heard himself, or didn&039;t kno to finish the sentence
"Always hard to kno polite to be to your victims, isn&039;t it, Tony?"
"Sit down, Anita," Jacob said, and his tone implied that if I didn&039;t sit down, he&039;d help ain She wants to fight We can&039;t afford to posture, Jacob," Nicky said
It was Jacob&039;s turn to count to ten
"Aton said
"Loads," I said, s sweetly
"Let&039;s all sit down and discuss hoe&039;re going to live through this," Jacob said in a voice that was reasonable, even pleasant I wondered what visual he used to gain control Had he pictured injuring reat roo rooms I don&039;t like them, they&039;re too open They are absolutely indefensible and seelar&039;s job easier This roo up one side with an open-railed hallway that cut across the entire length of the huge space With all the talk of snipers it made me particularly not happy with the floor plan I knew no one was up there, but it was just not a coet you Of course, the people out to getat me There was the mysterious Silas and his errand that he hadn&039;t finished, but right now there were enough enemies in front of me; I didn&039;t have to borrow
"We&039;re just going to wait here until Silas phones, and then we&039;ll pack up and head for the ceton added, "I had her reburied because I found that rave rather than a htful," I said, and didn&039;t try to keep the anger out ofreasonable, Ms Blake I could have had them kill your first boyfriend, Callahan, as an incentive for cooperation You, unlike me, have spares"
"They&039;re people, not extra tires in case of eer rose another notch, and I had to controlirass We could kill hiht, and if we killed hi idea
"You&039;ve thought of so, Anita I can see it in the set of your shoulders, the way you went still Whatever it is, don&039;t do it," Jacob said
The trouble ereaniuys was that it&039;s very hard to surprise them The only way to do it was to take action before you really think about it, the way you do inand you react, because you&039;ve already ht starts If I killed Bennington, would they be professional and just stop all this, or would they kill at least one of my lovers as an object lesson? Until I had an answer to that question, did I dare kill Bennington if the chance came?
Jacob sat down on the couch beside me, arm on the back of it, like ere a couple I leaned just out of touching of the ar unfriendly, but I didn&039;t want him to feel the knife hilt underoverly friendly I had one weapon left; I didn&039;t want to lose it
He leaned in and spoke low "Whatever you are thinking, it won&039;t work We have a sniper on all three of theoes outside for the first time today They&039;ll follow them and if we don&039;t call in periodically, they&039;ll kill them"
"I understand that," I said, but part of me filed away the fact that he&039;d said we Jacob didn&039;t have to be the one to make the phone calls to the shooters Nicky could do it I only needed one of theer and that edge of fear that wanted to screaer nor fear was er will help you in a fight so action you needed no emotions Be empty, be still, and think
"I am sorry, Ms Blake, to force you, but I want the woman I love back, you understand that"
"I&039;ll do my best, but it will still only be a zombie No matter how lifelike she looks when you first see her, it can&039;t last, Mr Bennington"
"I&039;ve been told that there is one set of circumstances where the recently dead can be raised as a zombie but stay intact"
"If so, it&039;s news tonot to let Jacob touch me For some reason that made him move closer to me so that our hips touched on the couch Great, it was like one of those dates where the guy doesn&039;t respect your personal space
"Mr Bennington," Jacob said, "I wouldn&039;t overshare with Anita She&039;s cooperating, and once Silas does his part we&039;ll head to the gravesite We don&039;t need to talk about the details"
Then Bennington gave me a look It was hostile "You knoasn&039;t certain I could go through with it I actually thought I ht lose the first half of the payment and not do this, but then I saw the pictures of your lunch with your lovers I watched your Mr Schuyler and your Mr Graison flirt My Ilsa liked to flirt; in fact, she loved it She loved attention and she had a fascination with shapeshifters"
So he knew she was a fur-fucker I just looked at hiave him a blank face and waited for him to talk He was in that villain speech mode that only the amateurs do
"I watched them comfort you, and then watched you flirt with the waiter You wouldn&039;t give me back my flirt, so I took yours, and if you take ain, I will take your men away from you forever"
I must have tensed forward, not on purpose, because Jacob put his arm across my shoulders just in case, but I&039;d been too intent on Bennington &039;s words I&039;d forgotten for a second that I didn&039;t want hirabbed et tome from behind, and this time he wasn&039;t distracted by lion hor that you gle in Nicky&039;s grip, but I couldn&039;t not tense up, or stop the lioness fro them to rowl trickled out from between my lipsticked lips Heat came with it in a rush over my skin like a sudden fever I was suddenly so hot, so hot, but I wasn&039;t sweating
"Her skin is hot to the touch," Nicky said, and his voice sounded strangled, as if he were fighting off his own growl
"I can feel the energy," Jacob said
Bennington stood up, got close to htened his arht enough that it was almost hard to breathe "You wanted to knohat our plan is for us to go back to our lives; well, you will use the energy of a huh energy to make her beautiful forever, mine forever And once you use murder to raise the dead, you can&039;t tell on us without risking the death penalty yourself"