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When they arrived at her hotel, Jake escorted her to her room, his hand in hers, but he seemed to be in a real hurry As if he was afraid he’d stay and forget his business, he sainst the outer wall beside her door instead of entering the rooet awfully distracted and wait too late, and then they’ll be closed"

She s up his chest "Then you’d better run over there, because I think you ave her one of his searing kisses that pro her feel that if she hadn’t been leaning against the wall, she would have ht back Twenty ed at his buttons "By the tin the papers, and return, it’ll be e and lie down for a few minutes"

"If you fall asleep before I return, I’ll be happy to wake you" He kissed her again and strode off before she could tug hi else

The woood he could be And she liked him way too much already

But as soon as he disappeared down the hall, she shuddered, feeling the first real inkling of fear For as long as she could remember, she’d been the survivor of one disaster or another And her anger after her e--so she hadn’t really felt anything but a coe to take her mother’s murderers into custody On the darker side, she hadn’t cared whether sheas they paid for their crime

Now, for the first time since her mother’s death, she did care Because of ahe’d awakened in her Because for once in her life, she felt worthy

And that scared her

Chapter 6

Alicia entered her hotel room, and her heart skipped a beat when she saw an envelope on the blue-gray carpet where it must have been shoved underneath the door Before she picked up the note, she considered that it ain on thesuspended, she tore the envelope open and pulled out the folded note Alicia Greiston, Room 101 was repeated on the piece of paper, but in another man’s hard-bitten scrawl She sed hard and opened the piece of paper and read: You want et me But if lover boy is with you, consider hih its motion had been suspended in mid-beat

Jake would die

No ain, to enjoy life to the fullest, she’d known her ood to be true He’d leave her anyway She reminded herself of the way he’d reacted after they’d rave h she had pulled the trigger herself All she’d been thinking of was herself, damn it

No more She had a job to do And Jake had to stay out of the picture

As fast as she could, she changed into jeans and a T-shirt, tossed the rest of her clothes and coss, and hurried to the lobby There, with her heart racing, worried Jake would discover her leaving before she could disappear and guessing he wouldn’t allow it, she stood at the checkout counter, trying not to tap her fingers on the polished surface as she waited for the clerk to get off the phone

As soon as he did and she got her bill, he said, "Miss Alicia Greiston, you had a e" He passed an envelope to her, eerily like the first, with her nanized her inforh she couldn’t be certain because the scraas often disguised With a quick thanks, she stalked toward the back door where her car was parked outside As soon as she stowed her bags in the trunk, she drove away froe and opened the envelope

I want to take Mario down, too But if you get to him first, I’m all for it He’ll be in Denver at a condo in Cherry Creek North, listed under John S, cryptic note that she’d received before, telling her that Mario and Danny were now in Breckenridge Whoever her inforht She was still concerned that he ut instinct told her she could trust hi for Mario She also assuuys or he’d identify himself More than likely he was so the car around, she drove in the direction of Denver, two hours away, and hoped Jake wouldn’t hate her too much as a daer if she was going to take Mario and Danny down Reet her killed before she could accoet Jake killed if she had anything ned the paperwork at the art gallery, agreed on the pricing of the photographs, and after leaving all his contact infor he should be noble and take her to lunch first, although he already wanted to ain He’d never felt that way about a wo separated from her for even an hour wouldof a hike on a trail, although probably not the one where he’d found her earlier today, facing off against two s Maybe he could take her to a ht Or even better, find so on pay TV and order roo she wanted to do was fine with him

Before he’d even reached the lot where her car was parked in the back of the inn, though, he began to have a bad feeling He wasn’t sure why he was feeling so uneasy until he realized that Alicia’s red car was gone

He parked, and with his heart beating furiously, he headed for her room He didn’t have a key card and just pounded on the door When there was no answer, he wasn’t surprised She had to have run into town for soht and was just running an errand, he couldn’t help the foreboding that said soht about it and not been in such a rush to get to the gallery, he would have given her his cell nu the lock picks that he carried likeworry that so more had happened, he went to the front desk instead There, he broke in on a conversation the clerk was having on the phone