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I knerong, but instead of calling hih the financial district towards his office It was late, well after nine by now, but I suspected heto hi Doht in me

I had to see hih the rest ofin

The Rain Industries Toas on Bank St in spite of the fact it had nothing to do with banking As I traversed the nearly e a few late workerstown cars, I started to think about what a terrible plan this was

I shouldn’t be here, but bad ideas see lately

I climbed between the metal paws of a lion statue in front of a bank on the opposite side of the street and sank into the shadowy cradle of its legs The Rain business center looked out of sorts with its surroundings, too glossy, metallic and modern next to the old skyscrapers it was nestled between The lobby hite, all the furniture and art--a Jackson Pollack series--were done in a variety of shades of the color

Shades of white were so I’d never understood Was there really a difference between linen and cotton flower? They’d tried to convincedresses, but I still had trouble accepting it

Instead I thought about what a bitch it would be to clean up blood in that lobby

Desmond was a stark contrast to the whiteness of the space as he walked through it He wore a charcoal-gray suit with the blazer slung over one arreen tie loosened With the sleeves rolled up and his top two buttons undone I could see the dark hair on his arms and chest Desire stirred in me

When he stopped to talk to the desk man, I was afforded a view of one of ht, firm butt, which well-tailored pants made the most of My leather jacket was suddenly hed at a joke, andinto the painful reerand jogged down the steps

Go to him, my brain commanded

I shifted but didn’t move from my perch

Desmond stopped abruptly at the bottohtly He sniffed the air Oh goddaetting about the natural abilities of olves in their human form? I hadn’t been this close to him, hadn’t seen him in the three weeks since he’d taken a bullet h

Daht before I’d stayed on the line and listened to him breathe after he’d fallen asleep in the middle of our conversation I had it bad

Now he seeht at ht if the wolf had tiht lobby, and there shouldn’t have been time for him to spot me in the shadows

I tried to pushmore of his attention

Go to him

My brain had a one-track , his tone uncertain like he wasn’t quite sure he could trust what he was s my name from his lips was so painful I wanted to run across the street and put h his short black hair and scratched the dark stubble on his jaw After a final sniff and a shed and walked off down the street When he vanished, I slipped out fro place and watched the space where I’d last seen him If I ran, I could catch him

Instead I turned and walked the opposite way

Chapter Six

The next night, shortly after h the front door of a brownstone with Keats & McQueen--Private Pest Control etched on the glass I’d lived with Keaty a mere three years, but that was all it had taken for this place to feel like hoh Keaty himself hadn’t quite felt like family

I loved him dearly, but in the way you love a pet snake He was important to me, and without him I’d have never learned to survive in this city, but Keaty didn’t love things If pressed, I ht admit Keaty was very likely a sociopath Only he didn’t try to fake emotion, he was just a blank slate

The blank slate in question called to hter has returned," he said, his tone unreadable

As I often did in the office, I kicked my shoes off at the door and made myself comfortable I padded barefoot into Keaty’s space and slid backwards over the arle off the side

"Oh, yes, do make yourself at ho wooden desk He was probably north of forty, but he didn’t look it His dark blond hair hadn’t begun to show signs of gray, but he had firm frown lines perh, he was in excellent physical condition for aelse sat on the desk in front of him, and be still my heart it was a laptop

"You own a computer?"

"In spite of your opinion of me, I am perfectly aware it is not 1943 and I arunted "I always preferred Chandler to Hammett, myself"

"You read books?" I asked withto poke a sleeping bear, it ht as well be a sociopath who killed monsters for fun

Monsters likeknown as spare tied vampire hunter, and what do you know? My tiht on his desk, a crystal rose, and turned it over gently inoff his desk it had supposedly contained the soul of a big bad sha Ever since then I’d been careful not to handle things, but I was feeling fidgety and it was shiny

"Unfortunately," he replied I set the flower down and stared at hiotten from Keaty that resembled an ad er were borderline torture--psychological and physical alike--I’d never thought I’d hear him say he was proud of me, let alone that he loved ure, and I thought the best I’d ever do was Well, you’re still alive