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I must have napped, because I ith a start when my doorknob squeaked I moved Beast-fast, and when the door opened I had risen in bed, back curled like a half sit-up, with a Walther, round charip, aimed at the door The Kid backed up fast into the hallway, hands up in the universal peace gesture Except on hiesture In one fast sequence, I pointed the weapon at the ceiling, released the azine, unchambered the round and tucked it into a pocket, and set the weapon on the bed
"You have lived with a soldier and with me for months now You want to explain how you can still be such an idiot?" I de to see if you were awake and I didn’t want to wake you if you were sleeping"
"And if I’d been standing here naked and screahed Idiot
I rolled to ood physically, but had done nothing for my crabbiness "I’d have shot you, and you’d have deserved it" That shut hiet to your talk with the reporter Eli said he needs to pick up a few things in town and he’ll drive you" The Kid shut the door without waiting for a reply
I wanted to yell, What if I want to ride Bitsa? But I kept it in Irritable, I freshened up in the sle piece of luggage I’d brought It rinkled, but I slid into it anyway Withacross the shoulders, but the fabric was stretchy
When I turned off the lights, I peeked into the adjoining roouys had claimed it The room looked untouched, but I locked the bathroom door on that side anyway Despite the years in the children’s hoood at sharing
On the way into town, I studied the intel sent to me by Reach, mostly Natchez’s Clan ho blocks of vamp society Eli was content to let me read I liked a man who didn’t chatter and who didn’t expectroads, locations of businesses, alleys, and e, and part of ood tea where we’d had a firefight not that long ago We’d killed a lot of vamps, like, fourteen vamps, which was a lot of va as he motored on past, and I stuck my nose back into the research
Natchez, which is perched high upon a bluff above the Mississippi River, is the first major port north of New Orleans and had once been a key hub of trade and steamboat travel Unlike most of the rest of the South, Union troops had decided not to burn it to the ground in the Civil War, using the port instead to ear and to secure the ay After the war, Natchez had been left with s, antebelluraveyards, and old live-oak trees swathed in moss--as well as its notorious past Its location had allowed it to maintain its infrastructure and rebuild faster when er
During the Reconstruction, carpetbaggers brought in trade opportunities, work opportunities, and an influx of cash for the newly impoverished whites and the newly freed slaves, many of ere trained as dockworkers or mule handlers or seamstresses or hat makers, as well as the freemen of color who had been educated doctors and poets and lawyers, many of them land owners who had owned slaves of their own The town survived and thrived
Eli dropped me off in front of the Natchez Grand Hotel, not coincidentally one of the hotels Reach had suggested I stay in The place was redbrick and--arguably--had the best location of any hotel in town, boasting views of the historic old don on one side and the Mississippi River and the river walk on the other I took the elevator up to the top floor, where Misha had a two-bedroom suite, and knocked I sensed a person on the other side of the door, and felt h the peephole, Beast’s instincts alerting me to surveillance The door opened to Bobby’s srabbedthat cracked my back
I was prepared for this one; Bobby had always been a hugger A silly s hi, the more love was in it
"I ly similar to the way Miss Esmee had--and his red hair tickledout, and he was taller than I remembered But his scent was familiar: baby shaathered in my eyes as I held him