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“What’s that? Is it a toy for me to play with?”

He shot her in the head first, the weapon barely ain, between those young, firm breasts, and last, as the silencer eroded, into her smooth, bare pubis

Switching the ca blood-soaked pillows and soiled, s animals while she stared up at him in wide-eyed surprise

“It was no life for a young girl,” he told her gently, then went back to the camera to record the last scene

chapter five

All Eve wanted was a candy bar She’d spentin court, and her lunch break had been eaten up by a call froained her a sli case that had resulted in two hoainst for two months

All she wanted was a quick hit of sugar substitute before she headed ho with Roarke

She could have zipped through any nuh InstaStores, but she preferred the little deli on the corner of West Seventy-eighth—despite, or perhaps because of the fact that it ned and run by Francois, a rude, snake-eyed refugee who’d fled to America after the Social Reforovernment some forty years before

He hated America and Americans, and the SRA had been dispatched within sixand cohth Street deli where he enjoyed dispensing insults and political absurdities

Eve called him Frank to annoy him, and dropped in at least once a week to see what scheme he’d devised to try to short credit her

Her h the autoun to whisper shut behind her when instinct kicked in

Theat the counter had his back to her, his heavy, hooded jacketall but his size, and that was impressive

Six-five, she estimated, easily two-fifty She didn’t need to see Francois’s thin, terrified face to know there was trouble She could setable hash that was today’s special

In the seconds it took the door to clink shut, she’d considered and rejected the idea of drawing her weapon

“Over here, bitch Now”