Page 12 (1/2)

Neither will I In fact, Baojia had a feeling there was a lot about this situation he wouldn’t forget anytime soon

Despite the new coht in a better nored the boring pulse of music and the human women who tried to catch his eye He nodded once to Luis, then ducked into his office to call Paula, trying not to smile For the first time in almost two years, he wasn’t bored out of his mind

He dialed the old-fashioned rotary phone and swirled the ice water the waitress brought back He atching the ice cubes tumble when his sister answered

"¿Có tonight?"

"Herht about spreadsheets and résu to s he dislikedthe company of Paula There were few va time with, but Paula was one "It’s not my fault he doesn’t have your keen appreciation for nu on at hos with the accountants as we get ready for the end of the fiscal year And there’s a tradewith a Japanese company that Father seems anxious about"

"Any security concerns? Human or vampire?"

"Human And not that I know of," she said "It’s s reports don’t seem to match their investment activity…" She started in on a litany of business inforue and exarests had shifted in the past forty years to focus on Asia, which created new balances of power and influence that Baojia had to keep track of He had a hard ti excited about the business side like Paula did, but the political and security ra

Power followed money in the vampire world, and both fed into the influence that individual i as he could support those under his aegis And what had been the status quo for hundreds of years could shift in the space of a heartbeat if the balance of power beca most immortal business eanized cri job Paula handled the business end, and Baojia had been in charge of security and information Up until he had fallen out of favor with his sire, the balance had worked beautifully

"Paula?"

"H She was probably looking at financial papers the same way he read police reports or watched security tapes "Have you heard anything about hu the border?"

"You mean Juarez? You know Father told you to stay out of that It’s none of our--"

"Not Juarez Closer On our border, hermana"

There was a pause on the line "What? Our border? With Ivan?"