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Silas reached inside to find the lock, and Peri impatiently pulled hi a crowbar in place Her hands fisted, and then she smacked it with a side kick that expended all her frustration Shock reverberated up her leg and she stu inward Her entire leg had gone nuained her balance "Feel better?" he said drily

"We don’t have time for you to pick another lock," shechain, she lilow from the Juke’sBox and lotto console e was a pit of darkness that so odd being here when no one else was around The auto as it tried to reset Peri’s gaze lingered on the mirror behind the bar, but she didn’t knohy Her chest hurt as the need to remember became an ache

"Cold in here," Silas said, his nose wrinkled as he set down Taf’s rifle

"And dark," she added, frowning when she realized her hands were in her pockets so she wouldn’t leave prints With a resolute frown, she went to the Juke’sBox screen and planted a big kiss on it, lass

Silas was staring when she turned around "I assume there’s a reason for that?"

"I want Allen to knoas here" She kept looking at the front door No … not the front door--the solitary chair sitting beside it Frustration made her antsy She knehat she had to do, but not how to start It was like the first tiency of needing to get on with it before so as that, too--as in not at all

Silas swung a chair from a table and set it before the black hole of the fireplace in invitation Peri’s heart ha that spoke to her other than the padlock and the chair beside the front door The scratched floor before the stage pulled her It was a trigger She’d seen it in her dream

The i a red scarf to his gut, surfaced Peri stared at the parquet It would be hard if she lay down on it, like a gym floor There’d be a layer of wax that she could rub aside to find the smooth finish below Her stomach knotted, and she turned away Did she want to re to render aill

Feet scuffing, he crossed the room to her "I’m sorry If you don’t want to--"

"That’s why I’ that he’d baby her She was an Opti agent, darown heavy She had to find the root of the corruption to clear her name The ansas here--somewhere between the scratched floor and dark tiht as she closed her eyes She needed the srip, the sticky sensation of blood on her hands Stiffening, she rubbed her fingers together She’d been cold that night Her coat had been on the bar

Her eyes opened, and she looked at the blood in her cuticles as the disorientation of a fragh her

"Don’t force it," Silas said, looking helpless and glum "Take your tiasped, dropping to a kneel and fu for her Glock when Allen walked in the locked front door There was snow in the parking lot behind hi to her, he sat down in the chair beside the door and brushed the snow frolasses back up his nose

Hallucination, she thought as she started to shake, unable to drop her gun or look away

"Peri?" Silas hadn’tPeri it was her iination, even as Sandy set a cup of coffee on the bar and tossed a rag over her shoulder

"We’re going to have to get that furry orangeback into your apartment We could have lost you on your ‘evaluationher aim to her Frank was there, too, and her face twisted in pained confusion

"Here you go, sweet pea," the hugeto war, Peri closed her eyes They are not here I a

Her eyes flashed open when Silas put a hand atop hers, holding the Glock "You okay?"

The bar was empty, the apparitions chased away by his touch Scared, Peri turned the weapon upside down and extended it to hiot to try" She looked at Silas "Unless Allen really is sitting by the door and Frank and Sandy are tending bar"

"No" Silas set the pistol on the low stage "Sweet Jesus You should have--"

"What?" Peri said flatly as she pushed her fingers into her forehead "Coet a clean defragment from this? Arms around her middle, she paced to the chair he’d pulled out and sat down in a huff "Do your thing," she said belligerently