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Her office phone was ringing when she walked in She dropped everything on her desk and grabbed it before voice hton," she said
It was the lawyer next door "I heard you pull into the parking lot," he explained "And I wondered if maybe you had time to meet with a client ofhusband"
Cyn hoped the asn’t listening to the lawyer’s blithe dismissal of her broken heart She was teht joke with Linville, but it really got to her sohed On the other hand, she had no other cases on the horizon, and while she wouldn’t exactly starve without the incoency pay for itself She told the lawyer to send his client on over
Nearly an hour and a full box of Kleenex later, Cyn was regretting the i it was too bad the therapist wasn’t in today, because this woman really needed someone to talk to farto be that soet personally involved with her clients’ marital problems Some jilted spouses cried, some stared vacantly in a sort of bleak acceptance, and still others werespouse suffer asin co for someone to blame for their current predica evidence of the very infidelity she’d been hired to uncover in the first place
After ushering the distraught woman out the back door with assurances of sy husband, Cyn sank down into her chair with a relieved breath and thought about taking the rest of the night off On the one hand, with the inforet the evidence she needed and close the case byfor a reprieve
"Don’t break ht" It was a hter beneath the s hearts is your specialty, not mine, Nicky You in town?"
"I don’t break hearts, darlin’, I heal them with sweet love Meet me"
Cynthia laughed She couldn’t help it Nick was an unrepentant rogue, charht about the latest cheating husband and shrugged "When and where?"
Chapter Two
Buffalo, New York
Raphael let his gaze roam the sparsely populated conference rooarishly bright lights He and his fellow vae oval slab of h, and the va private conversation a in attendance behind theht their huainst the walls, hoping not to be noticed Of them all, only Raphael sat alone Only Raphael, it seeave his watch a careful glance, wondering how er courtesy would force his of their host for thisas an old human Despite the physical appearance of youth, his voice quavered and his lories of his past, cloistered in his fluorescent-lit tower Raphael’s gaze traveled to the powerful andat the old lord’s back They measured each other for the space of a few seconds, each exquisitely aware of the other’s regard behind their darkened lenses That one wouldn’t wait ht to hihts were nuh and stared out theThe real business of this athering was littleonly to delay his departure But courtesy was the hallled with others for hundreds of years, such niceties mattered
The door at the back of the room opened softly, and Raphael heard the bare whisper of footsteps on the deep carpeting His nostrils flared as he scented the air; it was one of his own, his lieutenant, Duncan Duncan had been with Raphael for over two hundred years, had been his foree, it would not be good if it could not wait until they were alone Duncan reached the space behind Raphael and leaned forward, his breath feather-light against Raphael’s skin as he spoke words for his master’s ears only
"Sire, Alexandra has been kidnapped"
A lazy blink of his eyes behind the dark glasses was Raphael’s only outward reaction He nodded slightly, gesturing with one finger for Duncan to remain There was a faint htened and stepped back the requisite two paces A thousand questions raced through Raphael’s head as the speaker droned on, babbling about bonds of honor that tied theiven by every host at every annual gathering for the past three hundred years on this continent, and probably long before that around the world
Raphael forced hireement and present a confident face Until he knew n of distress, show no vulnerability Weakness was unacceptable in this company, for between them, Raphael and his fellow vampire lords controlled a continent and beyond All of the United States, Canada, Mexico--no vampire existed within those bounds, but that they owed fealty to one of these eight lords
And yet as powerful as each of them was, none was so powerful as Raphael hi Soreater skill, but skill was no substitute for strength These things were never spoken of; they were simply understood Boundaries were observed, respect was paid Anything else would lead to war And none of the men in this rooht to use Alexandra against him And that soed fro directly to the elevators, his people for a cordon of security around hi with nerves, could hear their hearts beating rapidly, their blood pulsing with excitement Likely they already knew
The heavy door of the bulletproof limousine closed behind him with a muffled thud He waited until the vehicle and its escorts had pulled out into traffic, then glanced at Duncan
"Mo, e, to liuards were already on station for the day, the vaone to the barracks beneath the estate They knew nothing until they woke this evening"
"And our huuards?"