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She was in the hot zone, cruising at a steady seventy-then a black BMW convertible edged into her lane as if it had a right to be there

Lori wouldn’t accept that

No brakes No horn

She flashed her lights, then saw her opening, a sliver of eht She jerked the wheel and careened into thethe Beemer’s left rear fender

Oh, , the look on the driver’s face

“It’s a race, don’tcha get it,” she screaree monitor on the dash She was lost in the ecstasy of the ray panel van filled her windshield

Where had that van come from? Where?

Lori stood on the brakes The tires screeched as the Infiniti skidded violently fro all it could to prevent the inevitable rear-end smashup

The brakes finally caught at the last moment—as the van pulled ahead

Lori gripped the wheel with sweating hands, hardly believing that there had been no crash of steel against steel, no lunge against the shoulder straps, no shocking blunt force of an airbag explosion She heard nothing but the wailing of the Electric Flag and the rasping sound of her own shaky breaths

Lori snapped off thearound her, she eased off the brakes, applied the gas Sweat rolled down the sides of her face and dripped from her nose

Yes, she called it the death race home, but she didn’t want to die She had three kids She loved her husband And although her job was boring, at least she had a job

What in God’s na with her?

“I don’t know,” she said to herself “I just don’t know”

Lori took a deep, sobering breath and stared straight ahead The Beemer slowed to her speed, and the driver, his face contorted in fury, yelled silently at her through his closed

To her surprise, Lori started to cry

Two

THE TWO MEN sat in the satin-lined jewel box of a roo light of the flat-screen

The olderfeatures, catlike amber eyes That was Gozan

The younger ht He was veryseriously His name was Khezir