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“I have an affection for them I could barely read my name when I was six Then I came across a battered copy of Yeats An Irish writer of some note,” he said when Eve looked blank “I badly wanted to figure it out, so I taught myself”

“Didn’t you go to school?”

“Not if I could help it You’ve got trouble in your eyes, Eve,” he murmured

She blew out a breath What was the use of stalling when he could see right through her? “I’ve got a probleh channels or use eitheron the chief of police, I’d be flagged”

“And you’re wondering if I have a secured, unregistered system Of course I do”

“Of course,” she istered system is in violation of Code four fifty-three-B, section thirty-five”

“I can’t tell you how aroused it makes me when you quote codes, lieutenant”

“It’s not funny And what I’al It’s a serious offense to electronically breach the privacy of a state official”

“You could arrest both of us afterward”

“This is serious, Roarke I go by the book, and now I’ you to help me break the law”

He rose, drew her to her feet “Darling Eve, you have no idea howit dangle froers of the hand he slipped around her waist “I ran an underground dice ga her froacy froh the gullet in a Dublin alley”

“I’m sorry”

“We weren’t close He was a bastard and no one loved him, least of all me Summerset, we’ll have dinner at seven-thirty,” Roarke added as he turned toward the stairs “But he taught me, by means of a fist to the face, to read the dice, the cards, the odds He was a thief, not a good one, as his end proved I was better I stole, I cheated, I spent so trade So you see, you’re hardly corrupting me with such a nominal request”

She didn’t look at him as he decoded a locked door on the second floor “Do you”

“Do I steal, cheat, and sle now?” He turned and touched a hand to her face “Oh, you’d hate that, wouldn’t you? I alive it all up for you I learned a long tiiti when you’ve dealt from the top of the deck”