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Xhex left the club at four twelve a their suck, buff, and shine thing, and would be responsible for shutting the doors, and she had the alarht o&039;clock The cash registers were ee&039;s of fice was not just locked but i for her in the private garage slip where the Bentley was parked when Rehv didn&039;t need his wheels She rolled the black bike out, mounted it as the door trundled shut, and started the bitch with a kick

She never wore a helmet

She alore her leather chaps and her biker jacket

Theway ho in and out of don&039;sthe Ducati up on the Northway She was going well over a hundred when she blew past a cop car parked under the pines in the hts on

Which explained why, assuuy&039;s radar and he wasn&039;t asleep behind his badge, he didn&039;t come after her Hard to chase what you couldn&039;t see

She had two places in Caldwell to lay her head: a base privacy stat, and a secluded two-bedroom cabin on the Hudson River

The dirt road to her waterfront property was nothing but a footpath, thanks to her having let the underbrush grow in over the past thirty years On the far side of the tangle, the 1920s-era fishing cabin sat on a seven-acre lot, the house built solidly but without grace The garage was detached and over to the right, and that had been a major value-add when she&039;d looked at the property She was the kind of fe the a blown up in her sleep

The bike went into the garage She went into the house

Walking into the kitchen, she loved the way the place s and walls and floors, and sweet cedar froear

She didn&039;t have a security system Didn&039;t believe in them

She had herself And that had always been enough

After a cup of instant coffee, she went into her bedroom and stripped out of her leathers In her black sports bra and panties, she lay down on the bare floor and braced herself

Tough as she was, she always needed a moment

When she was ready, she reached down to her thighs, to the barbed metal bands she had clamped into her skin and muscles The locks on the cilices released with a pop, and she groaned as blood rushed to the wounds With her vision flickering, she curled onto her side, breathing through her mouth