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"I really need so "Julian is dead Not in a co back from that"

"I coer seat He was silent as they drove and she watched hi a clash of eht It was still hard to fathoht She’d discovered the body of her friend Then she’d dealt--for the first time in her life--with the police, and with cri to find out what she’d touched and what she hadn’t Later Adam Harrison and this man had shown up… And today she’d spent time with a heartbroken child She was mentally and physically exhausted, and diser And now, she was staring at that stranger, wondering how so jawline and intense eyes, such a tall, powerful build and cohost busters

Yesterday she’d been herself--a teacher who loved history and brought that love to costuood friends, a great faht ahead She wasn’t being selfish She needed to go home To speak with her coworkers and friends from the board and-- Good Lord! She had to call her parents and let theht

He drove to her house and stopped the car Turning to her, he said quietly, "I’m very sorry about your friend, and truly sorry that you were the one to find hiain

"Call et back into it"

"Of course"

He atching her so intently she wondered if she had food on her face

"You’ll need h "I do want to help the kids I do want to help you, even though it did look like a horrible accident" Allison took out her cell phone as she spoke

"The trashing of the attic wasn’t an accident" He removed his phone from his pocket "I’ll dial you," he said

He already had her nuent

She clicked on the call and added his number to her phone Then she realized she’d asked to be taken ho in his car

"I’m not sure what I can do for you," she told him "You’re here, Mr Harrison is here, the police have been through it all I don’t knohat I could contribute"

"I doubt that anyone is as faht herself studying the color of his eyes They were a reen, a kind of aqua she’d never seen before He was a very strikingand that she needed to reply

"There have been soic and terrible incidents at the house, but I don’t think so on what happened yesterday"

He shrugged, s wryly "That’s e’ll find out" He exited the car and walked around to open her door

She reet out

"Thanks," she ht alone?"

"Yes, thanks We’ll, um, be in touch"

"Thank you," he said with a nod

Aardly, she started up her front walk She kneatching her, and when she fit her key into the door, she turned around to wave He waved back, then got into his car and eased out onto the street

Inside the house, she closed the door and leaned against it for a moment She’d wanted to be alone

Now she didn’t

But she walked in and dug out her phone before tossing her purse on the sofa and sitting down next to it She had to start returning calls

But even as she decided that she had to call her mother first and then the board and her coworkers, the silence in the house seeot up and turned on the television A news station was playing, with a reporter standing in front of the hospital Mr Dixon’s strange fall into a coic news about ed the channel The speculation on the "evil" within the house on news stations struck her as overkill

With a co her conored while she ith Tyler Montague She called her parents, who’d gone to their ho calm and sad and completely in control As much as she adored herback here because they orried about her

They’d met Julian a few times and offered their condolences, but when they questioned her safety, shewild--which they were--and described what had happened as a tragic accident She assured her mother that as a Revolution-era woman or even as Lucy Tarleton, she didn’t carry a musket with a bayonet

Next she spoke to Nathan Pierson She told hi she needed with the police or the house He’d talk to the rest of the board, too She didn’t have to call anyone else, he said; she should just relax

Nathan was the easiesth to ask hi-lost love for who life At various functions, she’d seen hiant He was unfailingly polite and courteous to her So for her to notice hie discrepancy; he teased a lot of people, though, and he had a way ofhis words sound like a compliment rather than licentious