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I tucked the cooler with the ear under o hoed on the victi Vincent, freshly pissed off fro to inti Brian and killed hie Or they did try to sedate Brian, and he died Or he could’ve made a break for it, and they accidentally killed him The last possibility seemed remote By all indications, Brian wasn’t the type to run or take a dangerous decisive action He would likely co on other people to solve his problems, the way he relied on his older brother to handle the business issues and on his wife to shield hiles Brian led a charmed life He wouldn’t jeopardize it Not only that, but the people who grabbed him off the streets were professionals: they forced him to stop, nabbed him, and took off in seconds They left no traces of the still couldn’t find them Professionals would have kept him alive

If this was a punishment for our attack on House Harcourt, the ear would’ve been a lot bloodier

If it wasn’t Brian’s ear in the cooler, ere in entirely neaters Maybe cooler heads prevailed, and Alexander Sturm and Vincent Harcourt decided not to mutilate a Prime of another House Vincent would do it for fun, but, really, how much of an accomplishment would it be to cut off Brian’s ear? We snatched this helpless e off the street, beat him up, and chopped off his ear We are total badasses, fear us If they had gotten their hands on Rogan, that would be one thing But doing it to Brian would only generate derision from other Houses

If they really meant to terrify Rynda, they would’ve sent her Brian’s real ear

That left only one possibility, and I really didn’t like it

I punched the code into the door, stepped into the warehouse, closed the door, turned, and froze

Zeus stood six inches from me His arded me with mild curiosity He took up the entire width of the hallway An enorer-hound from another world with teeth the size of steak knives and a fringe of tentacles at his neck

It occurred to me that I was covered in dried blood

I held very still I could jump back and slam the door shut behind me, but it would cost h for Zeus

"He’s friendly," Cornelius called out from the conference room "He just wants to say hello"

"Cornelius"

"Just treat hiet to this place?

Slowly, I raised eders up Zeus’ wide nose and over the blue fur on his forehead He ht have been a sign that he was hungry His tentacles ht my hand, and released He stared at the cooler in any eyelashes

"No You can’t have it"

He opened his --and licked his lips

"Absolutely not"

I sidestepped hied into the conference rooue overlaid his face, tugging at the corners of his eyes As I entered, Cornelius turned away froht two cups of coffee over, and set one in front of Bern

"Thank you,"ly at the cooler

"Is there so edible in there?" Cornelius asked

I opened the cooler and showed the contents to them

"Oh," Cornelius said

Bern blinked

I closed the cooler and put it into the fridge, next to hed

I poured myself a cup of coffee and sat down opposite frorim

"I’ve been over the contents of Rynda’s coone over all of his correspondence, and I’ve analyzed the fungi database for hidden patterns It’s not a code for anything If the file exists, it’s not there"

"Thank you for looking," I said