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I pushed out a breath of frustration and nodded at him "Okay, fine What do we do first?"

"Sleep," he said firet a few hours"

I blinked I was already exhausted, but it wasn’t like we had tiht Molly is the key to understanding this whole thing" He dug into his pocket for a moment and held up a small, shiny object The safety deposit box key "Maybe literally"

I groaned at the cheesy pun, but ht, and whatever was in that box could help us "I thought about that, but are we going to be able to get in?" I asked "I thought safety deposit boxes required like ID and a blood sa avocados"

"Your co system is impressive," Jesse said solee identities a lot?"

"Yeah"

"So they must have special rules for vampire clients Maybe you only need a na"

I tilted"I can text Dashiell and ask him If he doesn’t know personally, maybe he could sneak down and ask Molly"

Jesse nodded "Cool What tio back after stupid Frederic had left for the night "Uh, seven Well, six fifty-eight" In my line of business, it was important to know I checked my watch "But it’s almost three thirty already, Jesse By the time I drive home to Marina del Rey and back to Thousand Oaks"

"Good point" He tilted his head for a second, considering Then a slow smile spread over his face "Okay, new plan" He held up the teal credit card Dashiell had given hirab four hours of sleep, and leave here at seven thirty"

"We’ll hit rush hour," I protested, but I eakening My ar as hell

"We can take the carpool lanes," Jesse wheedled "Coood to Molly without at least a little sleep"

I allowed him to pull e Even though we both knew there were no carpool lanes on the 101

To the surprise of no one, the hotel still had rooht hiured we needed a little break froo to Jesse’s apartet my van, and take it back to my place Ordinarily Dashiell would have lackeys to do this kind of thing, but eren’t sure e could trust I thought he was also trying to prove to Jesse, especially, that he wanted to be cooperative I suspected the whole "boundary witch running a had freaked hi a little satisfaction froh hoops forback to the hotel and leave it at the front desk In addition to supplies for a variety of crie of clothes and some deodorant in one of the side pockets I felt vulnerable without the White Whale, but since it could be tracked by Dashiell’s security team, it would be better to use Jesse’s sedan

The rooh Shadow did her customary security check, and when she was satisfied, I pulled back the bedspread and collapsed on top of the sheets This was a mistake, because I bumpedto find a comfortable position Eventually I realized thatbrain I looked at Shadoas sitting neatly on the floor next to the bed, watchingoff, and then go sleep with her back against the door

"I should just call hiest She tilted her head at lanced at the bed, then back at me, as if to say you won’t be able to sleep until you do Sohed "Yeah, you’re right" Soht ahead of you

I dialed Eli’s cell phone "Scarlett?" he said inized the nu up Are you okay?"

"Yeah Well, I got a cut onhim earlier, then reht"