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"Yes," Kat said "You’re looking at her"

A shocked smile spread across Arturo Taccone’s face, and Kat felt a sense of pride that she had won one round of whatever gaaain when this is finished, Katarina

A man in my position has so many uses for a person with your talents"

"I’ll keep that into tell you when," she told him, "but you’ll knohen it happens"

"So, clandestine operations are not your forte, then?"

"Maybe Or uys you have stationed outside the Henley to tip you off when the time comes"

He sht of his incredibly decadent dinner

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a slip of paper "Twenty-four hours after it’s over I’ll s" She stood, and it felt as if a great weight had been lifted froh, Katarina I o back to the Colgan School--or someplace like it This, as they say, could be the start of a beautiful friendship"

Kat looked at her cousin "I already have all the friends I need"

The lights were off when they got back The house was still, peaceful Sleeping Or so she thought

"Hi, Hale"

She saw hi at an ancient-looking table Twenty high-backed chairs surrounded him, but Hale was alone at the table’s head He was there, Kat kneaiting for her

"Hot date?" she asked But this tietto see hi to tease, but the boy in the shadoasn’t sus and Hamish Take Simon" Kat raised her eyebrows "Okay, so don’t take Simon TakeNick, if that’s what you want" Hale seemed to stumble on the name "Just don’t trust Taccone, Kat"

"I took Gabrielle" Kat pointed at her cousin, alking through the front door

"I was the muscle," Gabrielle called She didn’t break her stride as she started up the stairs

And yet Hale didn’t smile In fact, it seemed to Kat as if he hadn’t even heard She wondered how o But somehow it had only been thirteen days since they’d stood in Hale’s upstate house, and he’d said the words she couldn’t forget

"You’re right Taccone is a whole different kind of bad"

Hale stood and stepped toward her "Yeah"

"Why are you doing this, Hale?"

"Why do think?"

Kat looked at the ornate roos, the polished table The empty chairs It was in every way the opposite of Uncle Eddie’s kitchen, and somehow Kat already knew the answer to her question

"Hale, this life" she started slowly, still practically speechless "Thise do--what lamorous when you choose it"

"So choose it" He handed her another envelope Smaller this time Thinner

"What’s this?" she asked

"That, darling, is ainst the antique table "I thought the crane rental receipt was a particularly nice touch" Kat looked at hian If you want it"

"Hale, I"

But Hale was stillthe distance between them He seemed impossibly close as he whispered, "And I didn’t choose it, Kat I chose you"

Kat stared at the envelope in her hands, maybe because of what it represented--her second chance--or maybe because she didn’t knohere else to look, what else to do

"The delivery is set?" Hale asked, and so--anything at all

"Yeah" She nodded and fell into step beside hiuts," he said

She looked at hilory"

"We’re in way over our heads"

One Day Until Deadline

Chapter 30

When Katarina Bishop e for sun She wasn’t dreading rain And yet, as she looked out the circularat the top of the stairs, there was so about the snow that filled her with dread Her breath fogged the ancient glass, while all around her she heard the sounds of a crew preparing for a hard day’s work, and she knew they’d come too far to turn back