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"Good seeing you too," I said "I’ well" I really hoped he didn’t have anything to do with the death of Barry Landrieu Hopefully this case will be the nice, easy natural death it currently appears to be

He glanced down at my left hand "Notanyone?" he asked, eyes on me

Wo to answer that one? "Uular sex with a de to be in town for a couple of weeks," he said "Maybe we could have lunch or coffee"

"I’d like that," I replied before I could think about whether or not I really would like it "I, um, hate to chase you off, but I need to tie up the loose ends here and get started on the paperwork"

"No problem," he said He pulled the door open and politely stood back to letshock after the bal I had to force myself out into it and not sucklike that

"I’ll be in touch," Rooff to his car

I watched as he started the BMW and drove off, then yelped at a hard sod," she said, grinning wickedly "You are a total hunk net!"

I thwapped her arm back "Don’t you start! I a Zack Special Agent Zack Garner--who I’d recently discovered was a lot ent

Jill suddenly reached out and gavesqueeze "Still nothing from Ryan?"

I couldn’t quite suppress the wince as I shook et spam that’s friendlier" Jill heard from Zack several tirand total of three emails from Ryan--all oddly terse and alirl a coh already, thank you very uilt-induced Jill see more and more serious about Zack And I didn’t have the faintest idea how to tell her--or even if I should tell her--that Zack wasn’t exactly the perfect ht he was

And that he wasn’t a ency task force that supposedly dealt with financial crimes but actually handled situations that fell outside the definition of "ordinary" I’d ents Ryan Kristoff and Zack Garner--during the investigation of the Sy which I’d confided to Ryan that I was a suly, he’d knohat a summoner was, and I subsequently discovered that he also had a fair ah not as o our little group began work on a case involving death threats against a local singer, and during the final wrap-up of the case--which turned into an ugly battle against a horde of golems--I discovered that there was a shitload more to Zack and Ryan than met the eye Turned out that Zack was a deent who’d become one of my closest friends was very likely an exiled deh he had no ents had left for so up in Quantico about a week after the battle with the golerapple with infors I’d deduced Zack couldn’t coht out and confirm my suspicions about the two of them, but he had repeatedly stressed that Ryan’s safety could be jeopardized if he knew the truth I still didn’t know if Zack was Ryan’s guard or his guardian, but I had an odd gut feeling that the training was a convenient excuse for Zack to get Ryan away for a while

Jill’s face twisted into a sympathetic expression "Men are dicks," she announced, "and Ryan’s being an est "Ryan’s never really struck ave a snort "Please Zack says that he’s being Mr Moody-- out whatever frustrations he has on anyone silly enough to be willing to train with him" Then her eyes softened--which wasn’t an expression I was used to seeing on Jill "Look, it really htened again, and I had to work hard to keep a neutral expression on ave her a nod The only reason I hadn’t died was because of Ryan And what he’d sohtened, expression se He raised his hands before him, and in the next heartbeat the space between his hands filled hite-blue potency He lowered his head, lip curling as he unleashed the power at the goleed, wishing I could shrug off the tension and uncertainty as well Was that why Zack and Ryan left? Did they need to o all deain? "Whatever I’ve been through worse"