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"Disht be able to talk you into dinner"

"I ate dinner hours ago"

"Breakfast, then My place or yours, you can call it"

"Ben," she said, hedging as he came over and stroked her cheek His touch arh this already, ood idea "

He groaned, and it was an entirely too sexual sound, low and throaty There was a time when that sound turned her self-control into butter, but not tonight Not ever again, if she had any hope of o to bed with Ben, knowing he wanted soive hi off now "I don’t like the idea of you being here all by yourself This area of town isn’t exactly the safest"

"I’ll be fine I’ to finish my examination here, then do a bit of paperwork and close up shop No big deal"

Ben scowled, on the verge of arguing until Tess blew out a sigh and gave him the look She knew he read it clearly, since he’d seen it ht," he agreed finally "But don’t stay too , promise?"

"I pro Shiva by yourself?"

Tess glanced down at the haggard beast, which iain as soon as she put it near him "I think I’ll be safe with hiic touch Looks like he’s already in love with you too" Ben ran his fingers through his golden-blond hair, giving her a defeated look "I guess if I want to win your heart, I’ll need to grow sos, is that it?"

Tess smiled and rolled her eyes "Go home, Ben I’ll call you tomorrow"

Chapter Three

Tess ca? She was in her office, Shiva’s case file open beneath her cheek on the desk Last she recalled, she’d fed the er and put it back in its contains That was--she glanced at her watch--two and a half hours ago? It was now a few minutes before three AM She was due back in the clinic at seven o’clock

Tess groaned around a big yawn and a stretch of her cra she woke up before Nora reported back to work, or she’d never hear the end of--

A loud bump sounded from somewhere in the back of the clinic

What the hell?

Had she been jolted out of her sleep by a sio?

Oh, jeez Of course Ben hts on in the clinic It wouldn’t be the first tiht drive-by to check in on her She really didn’t feel like getting a lecture on her crazy hours or her stubborn streak of independence

The noise caain, another clu got knocked off a shelf

Which e room

Tess rose from her desk and took a few tentative steps toward her office door, ears tuned to any disturbance at all In the kennels off the reception area, the handful of post-op cats and dogs were restless Sorowls

"Hello?" Tess called into the empty space "Is someone here? Ben, is that you? Nora?"

Nobody answered And now the noises she’d heard before had gone still as well

Great She’d just announced her presence to an intruder Brilliant, Culver Absolutely frigging brilliant

She tried to console herself with so for shelter who’d found his or her way into the clinic froerous at all

Yeah? So ere the hairs on the back of her neck tingling with dread?

Tess shoved her hands into the pockets of her lab coat, feeling suddenly very vulnerable She felt her ballpoint pen knock against her fingers Soht The tranq syringe, full of enough anesthetic to knock a four-hundred-pound ani to keep her voice firm and steady She paused at the reception station and reached for the phone The daotten it cheap on closeout--and the receiver barely reached to her ear frolancing nervously over her shoulder as she started punching 911 on the keypad "You’ d better get out of here right now, because I’ the cops"

"No please don’t be afraid "

The deep voice was so quiet, it shouldn’t have reached her ears, but it did She heard it as surely as if the words had been whispered right up next to her head Inside her head, strange as that seeh, definitely coed to sounded like he was in a world of hurt Life and death kind of hurt

"Da up the phone before her call connected She walked slowly toward the back of the clinic, uncertain what she was going to find and really wishing she didn’t have to look at all

"Hello? What are you doing in here? Are you hurt?"

She spoke to the intruder as she pushed open the door and stepped inside She heard labored breathing, smelled smoke and the briny stench of the river She sht on

Harsh fluorescent tubes buzzed to life overhead, illu the incredible bulk of a drenched, badly injured man slumped on the floor near one of the supply shelves He was dressed all in black, like sohtues, and lace-up combat boots Even his hair was black, the wet strands plastered to his head, shielding his downturned face froe of blood and river water traveled from the back door, partially opened onto the alley, to where the ed himself inside, maybe unable to walk If she hadn’t been so accustos, and other bodily trauht of this ht have turned Tess’s stomach inside out

Instead, her htout in the reception area to that of the physician she was trained to be Clinical, calrunted, gave a vague shake of his dark head like he wasn’t going to tell her anything about it Perhaps he couldn’t

"You’re covered in burns and wounds My God, there must be hundreds of thelanced down to where one of his hands was resting on his abdoers fro too Jesus, have you been shot?"

"Need blood"

He was probably right about that The floor beneath him was slick, and dark from what he’d lost just since his arrival at the clinic He’d likely lost a good deal ot there Nearly every patch of his exposed skin bore multiple lacerations--his face and neck, his hands, everywhere Tess looked, she saw bleeding cuts and contusions His cheeks and hostly

"You need an a to upset hiuy was in bad shape "Just relax now I’o call 911 for you"