Page 7 (1/2)

I remembered one time when I’d been written up for public intoxication after a football ga myself to recover my wits so I could talk the cop out of the expensive citation Stop chuckling, Nat, and answer the nice officer! Not OSSIFER, due, do not--DAMN IT, NAT!

I felt like that now: under the influence

Sevastyan affectedattraction to him, some inexplicable connection

And no --e

No, no, no--I needed to concentrate on getting information out of him "Do you keep your promises, Sevastyan?"

"To you and your father alone"

"You prohtened on the wheel, those sexy rings of his digging into the leather "Once we are on the plane"

"Why not now? I need to know n to respond, just monitored the rearview mirror with that wary alertness

I reh my bedroom blinds "What’s up with this paranoia? We’re in Lincoln, Nebraska; thethat’s ever happened here hen this Russian assle kidnapped an unwitting co-ed--in her robe"

The speedo followed?"

Another glance into the rearview "Not at present"

"Which indicates we ht have been in the past--or perhaps could be in the future?" This was too bizarre "Aer?" Questions about my parents and past faded as dread about my immediate future surfaced

With reluctance, he said, "Kidnapping for ransom is always a fear"

I narrowed my eyes "I don’t buy that What you just described sounds like a chronic problem, or a theoretical one Yet you broke into my house and demanded that we leave in five minutes, which sounds like an acute problem So what happened between the time I saw you in the bar and the tilance "I think you have your father’s cunning"

"Answer ave ood as done"

A sudden thought struck uard, Sevastyan?"

"Not long," he hedged