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Laylah Aal Shalaan felt a shiver burn down her spine

It wasn’t the below-zero Chicago Dece That would have caused ice, not fire, to shudder through her veins

This sensation had scalded through her sothe past feeeks, it was as if she were having hot flashes Which would be soe twenty-seven But then she held other unwelco the only female born to her family in forty years Why not throw in preht abnormal hormones were at work here An outside influence was One she couldn’t detect when she’d tried to investigate it, though she’d been certain of its cause for so like having the security detail she’d once had breathing down her neck Those men had never tried to hide theh she shouldn’t have resented the their job Of course, with her safety no longer a anyone’s priorities for the past two years, there were no ht that she needed protection She observed noro did And since she’d exiled herself from Zohayd and coht

Usually she would go home with Mira, her business partner and roommate But Mira had left to see her father, who had been taken to the ER in another state So here she was, alone at night for the first ti from the back exit that opened onto an equally e to do hat she now felt

She’d entered the building acco enveloped in that watchful force field She’d stepped out only to be caught in its electrifying eest part was, she didn’t feel threatened by that unwavering intent Just burning with curiosity andexcitement?

She looked across the street at three parked cars The nearest had aaith the exhaust firing The next one, also nondescript, was pulling away from the curb, too The farthest one, a late-model Mercedes with dark s, looked empty

Before she could decide where the influence was radiating froine

Before she could draw another breath, the car screeched to a halt beside her and its doors burst open Foursteps when they swar bodies and coarse faces, distorted with vile intent, filled her vision Blood and ti her heartbeat and reactions as hands sank into her flesh, each dig creating a bolt of outrage and terror

Dread exploded in her chest, fury in her skull as she lashed out with everything she had, even as shards of dialogue lodged into her brain

“Iz only one, man”

“Tom said there’d be two You better not pay half now”

“Iz the one ant Ye’ll get yer dough”

“You said she’d fall at ’ur feet sniveling but she ain’t no pushover She alht’ve scratched m’eye out!”

“You quit snivelin’ an’ stuff ’er in the car”

Each word sank a talon of realization into Laylah’s brain This wasn’t a random attack They knew her routine

No They couldn’t be the presence she’d been sensing!