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The following day, late in the afternoon, Assail&039;s visitor came back

As the sun set and the last of the dusky pink rays pierced through the forest, he watched on histhe trees, poles balanced against hips, binoculars up at the face

Or her hips, and her face, as it were

The good neas that his security caht line were easily manipulated by the cohter

As the woman dropped the binoculars, heeyes, and the red tinge to her fine-pored cheeks, and the steady rhyth up to her jawline

The warning he&039;d given to Benloise had been received And yet here she was again

It was clear she was connected in soht before she had apparently been angered by Benloise, given the way she hadlike someone had insulted her

And yet Assail had not seen her before, and that was odd In the past year or so, he had familiarized himself with the each-and-everys of Benloise&039;s operation, froallery staff, to the canny importers, to the man&039;s flesh-and-blood brother who oversaw the finances

So he could only assume she was an independent contractor, hired for a specific purpose

Except as she still on his own property?

He checked the digital readout on the lower right-hand corner of the screen Four thirty-seven Ordinarily, hardly a tiht saving time had kicked in, and that human invention to manipulate the sun actually worked in his favor sixto be a little hot out there, but he would deal with it

Assail dressed quickly, pulling on a Gucci suit along with a white silk shirt, and grabbing his double-breasted camel-hair overcoat His pair of Smith & Wesson forties were the perfect accessories, of course

Gun his iPhone, he frowned as he touched the screen A call had coe

Striding out of his room, he summoned the leahdyre of the Council&039;s voice mail and listened to it on the way downstairs

The male&039;s voice was all about the no-bullshit, and one had to respect that: "Assail, you knoho this is I&039;, and I want not just a quoru to be there, and so will the Brotherhood As the eldest surviving male of your bloodline, you&039;ve been on the Council roster, but recorded as inactive because you stayed in the Old Country Now that you&039;re back, it&039;s tiethers Call me with your schedule, so I can work out a ti to a halt before the steel door that blocked off the bottom of the stairs, he put the phone in one of his inside pockets, unlatched the lock, and slid the way open

The first floor was dark because of the filtering shades that blocked out all light, and the huge open space of the living rooe perched on the shores of a river

Fro and s in the opposite direction, he went into the burled walnut - paneled office he&039;d given his cousins to use and entered his twenty-square-foot walk-in humidor Inside, the terees, and a humidity of exactly sixty-nine percent, was perfuars After due consideration of his lineup, he took three Cubans

The Cubans were the best, after all

And were another thing Benloise provided hi up his precious collection, he ree had stopped, the subtle sounds of silver on china replacing the hiss

As he ca on bar stools at the granite counter, the pair of the in precisely the same rhythulated their movements

They both looked up at hile to their heads

"I&039; You kno to reach me," he said

Ehric wiped hisdealers - they&039;re back in action, ready to ht"

"Good, good" Assail quickly ran a check of his guns "Try to find out where they were, will you?"

"As you wish"

The pair of them bowed their heads in a joint bob, and then went back to their breakfasts

No food for him Over by the coffeepot, he picked up an amber-colored vial and unscrewed the top The lid had a little silver spoon attached to it, and the thingnoise as he filled its belly with coke One hit per nostril

Wakey-wakey

He took the rest with hiars It had been a while since he&039;d fed and he was beginning to feel the effects, his body lagging, his mind prone to a fuzziness that was unfamiliar

The downside to the New World? Harder to find feood substitute, at least for the ti a pair of nearly opaque-lensed sunglasses on, he went through the mudroo the thing open -

Assail recoiled and groaned at the onslaught, his weight weaving in his loafers: In spite of the fact that ninety-nine percent of his skin was covered by lasses, the fading light in the sky was enough to ive in to biology

Forcing himself to dematerialize into the woods behind his house, he set about tracking the woh to locate her She was on the retreat,her way through the fluffy pine boughs and the skeletal oaks andthe saic she had de, he was soon out ahead of her, anticipating right where her

Ah, yes The black Audi froallery Parked at the side of the plowed road about two ainst the driver&039;s-side door and puffing on a Cuban as she came out of the line of trees

She stopped dead in the dual tracks she&039;d les

He s "Fine evening for exercise Enjoying the view - of my house?"

Her breath was quick from the exertion, but not from any fear that he could sense - which was a turn-on "I don&039;t knohat you&039;re talking about - "

He cut off the lie "Well, I can tell you that at themy view"

As his eyes went deliberately down her long, athletic legs in their forlared at hi with those glasses"

"My eyes are very sensitive to light"

She frowned and looked around "There&039;s hardly any left in the sky"

"There&039;s enough to see you" He took another puff "Would you like to knohat I told Benloise last night?"

"Who?"

Now she annoyed him, and he sharpened his voice "A piece of advice Don&039;t play gaet you killed faster than any trespassing"

Cold calculation narrowed her stare "I wasn&039;t aware that property offenses carried a capital punishment"

"With s that have mortal repercussions"

She kicked up her chin "Well Aren&039;t you dangerous"