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Her knee connected, drawing an agonized grunt a second before she was thrown into the wall hard enough to send her bouncing to the bed

Voices were raised, outraged, cursing

Piper was struggling to ing shocked her senses into an abrupt return to reality

Every bone andthrough her and weakening her as she struggled to lift herself fro would kill her if sheto New York She would hear all kinds of "I told you so"s Her sisters would of course blame her for the additional security that would followWho the hell were those

There were too many of them

Too big, and tooher into a pit of icy nothingness The co buried alive

She are, yet she wasn’t

There, yet she wasn’t

And one question haunted her through it all: Exactly as it her attacker had been de?

Where are they, you little cunt?

Where hat?

Who?

"Lady? Lady you okay? Someone call an ambulance; she’s hurt She’s hurt--"

She’s hurt

Who was hurt?

Oh, yeah--it was her

She was hurt

Then the darkness deepened; that nowhere place grew, sucked her in, and enfolded her until nothing and no one else could penetrate

Jed ca trehtstand eased away The second vibration didn’t have the chance to begin before he flipped the cell phone open and brought it to his ear

"Booker," he answered

"Jed Booker?" the hly uncomfortable, and not yet fully mature

"It is"

"My name is Bret Bret Jordan You don’t know me, but I found your name in this lady’s journal--"

"Piper" He was out of the bed instantly and dressing "What happened?"

"Well,at this hotel in New York City when the lady in the roouy was beating the crap out of her He got aith her purse, but her day planner was still lying on a table and it had your name in it If you know her, the doctors really need sole word, having dressed as the kid iven the narabbed his weapon and keys, and headed for the door

"Look, are you fa?" he was asked then "They really need to treat her, but she’s unconscious--"

"Comatose or unconscious?" Jed was in the pickup he kept parked at the inn for those ti besides the Harley

This was one of those times

There was a moment’s mumbled conversation "Man, the nurse won’t tell me She says family--"

"I’m her brother," he lied instantly "Her only family Now, is she comatose or unconscious?"

"Here’s the nurse"

The nurse was, fortunately,himself as her brother to the nurse, he waited what see froal speed li Tias and increased his speed

Until he hit the highway he wouldn’t be safe fro Sheriff Mayes’s deputies would i if they saw it, just as any Somerset cop would report directly to Chief of Police Alex Jansen

As he got to the city limits, the doctor finally, thankfully, took the phone

Piper was stable, thank God He wouldn’t have to call Dawg after all She was currently severely bruised, concussed, and unconscious, but in stable condition The hospital needed perh, the doctor explained

Jed lied once again and told theave the doctor per ive the nurse the planner to call--why?" he asked instantly, suspiciously