Page 18 (1/2)

I&039;ve lost hieous cavern of a living roo cinnamon tea Isis stretched her lean, warm body over her lap like a cozy blanket

None of it lifted her &039;s lost that can be found again"

"I can&039;t fix this, Mia Everything he said to me is true I didn&039;t want to think about it, to see it, but it&039;s true I had no right to let things get as serious as they did"

"I don&039;t happen to have a hair shirt handy, but I i up" At Nell&039;s shocked stare, Mia lifted one shoulder elegantly "It&039;s not that I don&039;t sympathize with both of you, because I do But the fact is, Nell, you fell in love, both of you And both of you dealt with it the way you needed to deal with it You brought each other soret"

"I don&039;t regret loving his, but not that"

"All right, then You need to take the next step"

"There is no next step I can&039;t ally tied to someone else And even if Evan decides to divorce me in absentia or whatever, I still couldn&039;t marry Zack My identification is false"

"Details"

"Not to hiht" She tapped her pretty fingernails on the side of her cup as she considered "Sos Zack would see, because he&039;s Zack, as black and white I&039;m sorry I didn&039;t think this far ahead and warn you of that I know him," Mia continued as she rose to stretch "I didn&039;t anticipate that he&039;dso quickly I&039;m jaded when it comes to love"

She poured more tea, pondered while she roamed the room and sipped

There were two sofas, both in deep hunter green, that begged for a body to sink down and sink in They were scattered with jewel-toned pillows, all in soft fabrics Texture was essential to luxury, and when at leisure, Mia insisted on luxury

The room was populated with antiques, because she preferred the old to the new unless it was in business equips on the wide-planked chestnut floor were satisfactorily faded There were flowers everywhere, in priceless crystal or in cheerful colored bottles of no special value

Some of the candles she surrounded herself with in every room were lit The white ones, for peace

"You&039;ve hurt hi into his ar one brow "I told you I was jaded in this area, but nonetheless, when ato be pleased when she says &039;No, thank you&039;"

"I&039; I&039; tone, Mia stopped behind the sofa and stroked Nell&039;s hair "Of course you&039;re not And I should have said three levels, the second being his sense of honor He has just discovered hi on what he would consider another man&039;s territory"

"Oh, really I&039;m not a da a code The third level is that he would certainly have done so anyway, if he&039;d known If you&039;d told him the circumstances He could adjust his line there, because he loves you and wants you, and because he would be relieved that you&039;d escaped from a horrible situation But the fact that you didn&039;t tell hio into this, let hi to be hard for him to s"

"Why can&039;t he see that ton anymore"

"Do you want comfort or truth?" Mia asked flatly

"I can&039;t have both It may as well be truth"

"You lied to hi you put him in an untenable position More, you told hie"

"I can&039;t-"

"Wait You won&039;t end it, and without an end there can&039;t be a beginning This is purely your choice, Nell, and no one can or should take it fro able to stand for you To stand with you or, ine, to step in front of you and face your de Nell&039;s hands "Do you think he wears a badge for amusement, for the pathetic pay, for the power?"

"No But he doesn&039;t understand what Evan can do, what he&039;s capable of Mia, there&039;s a madness inside hiin to explain"

"People tend to think the word &039;evil&039; is overdramatic," Mia said, "when actually, it&039;s extreled She should have known by now that she didn&039;t have to explain to Mia "And he doesn&039;t understand that I can&039;t bear the idea of seeing Evan again, of hearing his voice I think I&039;d break this time I think it would shatter er than that"

Nell shook her head "He shrinks me I don&039;t know if you can understand what I mean"

"Yes, I do Do you want a spell, a charm, to bolster yourself? To shield yourself from one man so you can have the other?" Mia reached over, stroked Isis along her sleek back The cat raised her head, exchanged what see look with her s that can be done," Mia said, briskly now "To protect, to center yourself, to enhance your own energies But beneath it all, Nell, the power&039;s inside you For now"

She slipped the silver chain and its silver disk over her head "You gave Zack your talisrandmother&039;s"

"I can&039;t take it fro the chain over Nell&039;s head "She was a very canny witch,on the stock rateful I wouldn&039;t like being poor She acted as doctor on the island before we had one with ahere She treated warts, delivered babies, stitched up gashes, and nursed half the population through a dangerous run of influenza as"

"It&039;s lovely What does the carving e, sihae And now that you&039;re wearing ive you s while you exao to him-and as much as he loves you he won&039;t come back to you-be clear in yourto do for it"

"You&039;re being an asshole, Zack"

"Okay Noill you shut up?"

Ripley considered never shutting up a sister&039;s privilege "Listen, I know she screwed up But don&039;t you want to knohy?" She slapped her hands on his desk, leaning down so she could get in his face in a satisfactory , maneuver until she tells you why she&039;s still married?"

"She had plenty of time to tell me if she wanted to" Zack concentrated on his computer His business on the ; he had also testified in a court case Now that it was done, he could update his file

Ripley roan and a scream "You make me crazy I don&039;t kno you don&039;t make yourself crazy You&039;re in love with a lance "That fact is very clear in ht about now Go do your patrol"

"Look, it&039;s obvious she doesn&039;t want the other guy She ditched him Also obvious is that she&039;s moony about you and vice versa Nell&039;s been here, what, fivein for the duration Whatever caally married That doesn&039;t spell over for ht" The fact that she admired his code of honor didn&039;t mean it couldn&039;t exasperate her "So let it ride for a while Just let things go as they&039;ve been going Why the hell do you have toto But if you want my advice-"

"I don&039;t I really don&039;t"

"Fine Stew in your own juice, then" She grabbed her jacket, then iain "I&039;"

Because he knew that, he gave up on pretending to update files, rubbed his hands over his face "I can&039;t make a life with someone who has another life that she hasn&039;t finished I can&039;t take a woally married to another man And I can&039;t love soe, hos, Rip"

"No, you can&039;t" She ca her ar her chin on top of his head "Maybe I could" Though she couldn&039;t ih to make the choice "But I understand you can&039;t What I don&039;t understand is why if you love her, and you want her, you can&039;t sit her down and make her explain it You deserve to know"

"I&039;, not only because I don&039;t work that way but because I have a feeling theher"

"Zack" Ripley turned her head so that her cheek rested on his hair "Did it ever occur to you that she&039;s afraid to divorce him?"

"Yeah" His stomach did a quick, nasty pitch "I ca If it&039;s true, I&039;ve got plenty of feelings to punch into that bag But it doesn&039;t change what is She&039;s married, she didn&039;t tell h to be there for her, whatever it takes"

He reached up, closed his hand around hers

That&039;s how Nell saw the on to each other And she saw the beam of blame shoot out of Ripley&039;s eyes even as the shutters came down on Zack&039;s

"I need to speak with you Alone Please"

Instinctively Ripley tightened her grip, but Zack gave her hand a squeeze "Ripley was just heading out on patrol"

"Yeah, sure, tossinto her jacket, conte that this hat it felt like when people said you could cut the tension with a knife, when Betsy poked her head in the door

"Sheriff-Hi, Nell, Ripley Sheriff, Bill and Ed Sutter are starting to et messy"

"I&039;ll take care of it"

"No" Zack got up at Ripley&039;s statement "We&039;ll take care of it"

The Sutter brothers vacillated between staunch fa each other like poison Since they were both bullheaded and built like the saet into a two-on-one situation He gave Nell a brief glance as he walked outside "You&039;ll have to wait"

So cold, she thought, rubbing her arms It was hard to accept ice fro to h, even after the worst of it the evening before, she&039;d convinced herself that he would

He would let her talk He would sy alone in the station house, Nell watched that little fantasy crack in two and disappear

Here she was, sing her pride, risking her peace of le icy look

Well, then, , she pulled open the door Two steps out and she could not only see the co in place, she hugged herself and watched it play out

One bigAn interested croas gathering at a safe distance, and so out na in,the , but while it quieted the crowd, it didn&039;t appear to have much impact on the Sutter brothers

They were all but snapping at each other&039;s faces

Nell cringed, closed in when she saw the first fist strike There was a lot of shouting now, and she heard it like the pounding of the surf A lot of motion that seemed lost in a fast blur

Zack had one man&039;s arm, Ripley the other&039;s Both had their handcuffs out Bus

Then one brother swung viciously at the other, missed his mark and plowed his fist into Zack&039;s face

She watched Zack&039;s head snap back, heard the crowd gasp as one voice Everyone went so still, it seemed like a film stopped in a freeze-fra across the street as oddamn it, Ed, you&039;re under arrest" Zack snapped the cuffs in place as Ripley did the saoes for you, Bill

Couple of hotheaded peckerbrains You people go on about your business now," he ordered as he ht of Nell, standing on the sidewalk like a deer caught in the headlights, and cursed again

"Co at you"

"Doesn&039;tat" Not when he tasted blood in his mouth "You just assaulted an officer"

"He started it"

"Like hell," Bill shot back as Ripley walked hi to finish it when I get the chance"

"You and what army?"

"Just shut up," Ripley ordere&039;d "Couple of forty-year-old delinquents"

"Ed&039;s the one who punched hi me in for?"

"You&039;re a damn public nuisance If the two of you want to butt heads, do it in the privacy of one of your homes and keep it off the streets"

"You&039;re not going to put us in jail" Calmer now as he saw his fate, Ed turned his head to appeal "Come on now, Zack, you knoife&039;ll skin me if you lock me up It was just family business, after all"