CHAPTER TEN
Sam’s first surprise was
that Ezra was awake when she knocked at his door. It was barely
five, and even for an early riser like her ex, it was too early.
Her second surprise was that Ezra wasn’t alone.
“You can’t stand
having a woman sleep over,” she said, too tired to mince words, no
matter how much she needed Ezra’s help. “You always kicked me out
at midnight.”
Sam could hear Ezra’s
confusion in the strained silence. “Sam. How did you—”
“My fingerprint is
still in the system, so I let myself in the front door. But I
figured I should knock before I came in the apartment. Good thing,
huh?”
“I don’t know what
you’re talking about.”
“Come on, Ezra. I can
smell her. Unless you started wearing vanilla body lotion and
changed your shampoo,” Sam said, slipping inside the door even
though Ezra hadn’t invited her in. “Guess it’s pretty
serious?”
Ezra cleared his
throat in that staccato way that had always reminded her of a
constipated machine gun. It was one of the many irritating habits
she hadn’t missed when they’d broken up a few months
ago.
His penchant for
lying was another.
“Listen, Sam, I’m
glad you stopped by, but I really don’t have time to chat right
now. I’ve got an early class. But I’d love to have coffee later.”
His arm slipped around her shoulders as he tried to turn her back
toward the door. She couldn’t help but notice how slight and weak
Ezra’s arm felt when compared to Jace’s.
Jace. She hoped he
was okay. She was going to have to find a way to contact him as
soon as possible. Which meant she had to cut to the chase
here.
“This is important,
Ezra.” Sam slipped out from beneath his arm, tapping her way over
to the kitchen. “I have to talk to you. Now.”
“I think we should
talk, too. I’ve missed you and—”
“Not about anything
personal. I know you’ve got someone else here and I don’t care,”
she said, shocked to realize the words were true. Her and Ezra’s
breakup had been her decision, but there was a time when finding
out he’d moved on so quickly would have upset her. “I’m here for
some professional advice.”
“Sam, there’s
no—”
“Ezra? Who is it?”
The high, lilting voice from the bedroom sounded like it belonged
to a twelve-year-old, but Sam knew better. Ezra would have made
sure his latest conquest was at least eighteen. He was a bit of a
lech, but he wasn’t stupid.
“A student? Isn’t
that against school policy?” she asked, not bothering to hide her
smile. She couldn’t see him, obviously, but she could practically
feel Ezra squirming.
Finally he sighed,
then called out in what Sam had always thought of as his teacher
voice, “It’s just my friend Sam, Sunshine. Go back to sleep; I’ll
be there in a minute.”
“Sunshine?” She
laughed, just a little bit. She couldn’t help herself. Ezra had
finally taken his hippie fetish too far.
Ezra ignored her. “So
you’re here for professional advice? Still take sugar and cream?”
She heard ceramics clang together as he pulled two cups down from
the cabinet. He didn’t sound terribly happy about it, but at least
he was offering her coffee. Maybe he hadn’t been lying when he’d
said he hoped they could stay friends.
“Yeah. It’s about my
dreams; they’re not just dreams anymore,” she said, gratefully
accepting the mug he set down in front of her with enough of a thud
to let her know exactly where to reach for it. She needed caffeine
in a major way. She was going on twenty-four hours without sleep,
if she didn’t count however long she’d been unconscious. “Yesterday
I had a vision. While I was awake. No shadow fingers, no metaphors,
just … bad stuff.”
“Really?” He sounded
intrigued. Ezra was one of the few people she’d ever told about her
dreams who hadn’t thought she was crazy. She shouldn’t have been
surprised that he seemed willing to go with her on this, but she
was. And relieved. It was nice to know not everyone was a
skeptic.
“Yeah. There wasn’t
any symbolism this time. It was just …” She swallowed the bile that
rose in her throat, then chased it back with a big gulp of coffee,
welcoming the burn as the hot liquid raced down her throat. There
was something comforting about a little bit of pain right
now.
A little bit of pain.
It reminded her of Jace’s fingers digging into the soft flesh at
her hips. Damn. She wouldn’t have
thought arousal possible after the day and night she’d had, let
alone while hanging out in her ex-boyfriend’s kitchen with his new
lover in the next room. Just went to show she shouldn’t
underestimate the new man in her life.
Jace was the new man in her life. It seemed
impossible, but there was little doubt he was interested in playing
the role. At least for the moment.
“That bad, huh?” Ezra
asked, a note of compassion in his voice.
“I saw two people I
know murdered.”
“Wow. Did
you—”
“I called them and
warned them to be careful,” Sam said. Her sensual excitementwas
thoroughly banished as Chang-su’s bloodied face flashed on her
mental screen.
“Good, you should
have,” Ezra said, taking a loud sip of his coffee. “More people
should take their dreams seriously. The collective
unconscious—”
“It didn’t help,” Sam
said, interrupting Ezra before he could get started on one of his
speeches about the power of the collective unconscious. “They were
killed a few hours later.”
“God … you’re
kidding.”
“I’m not. I heard it
on the news while I was in the hospital.”
“What?” The concern
was clear in his voice, making her wonder again if she hadn’t been
too hasty in assuming Ezra was lying about wanting a friendship. “I
noticed the bruises, but I didn’t think it—”
“I’m fine. For now.”
She gave him the bare bones of what had happened in the past
twenty-four hours—the vivid dream, the scream and the strange demon
smell that had lured her into the ruins, the vision, and the attack
on the stairs, then paused to let all of that sink in.
“So was it a neighbor
who called nine-one-one? Or one of the people you
heard?”
“I don’t know. It
might have been the man. The woman sounded like she was
hurt.”
“Really?”
“I’m not sure. She
told me to run, but when she tried to talk again, something cut her
off. I tried to call the police, but I couldn’t get through, and by
the time I woke up in the hospital …” Sam let her words trail off,
knowing Ezra would understand the futility of her calling to report
a suspicious situation when she couldn’t describe either of the
people involved or recognize their voices.
“And you’re positive
it was an aura demon on the stairs?”
“Positive.”
“Then why would the
woman tell you to run? If she couldn’t see what was attacking
you?”
“I … don’t know.” Sam
pondered the question for a moment. “Maybe the man with her was
dangerous and she was trying to warn me? Maybe she could see
something, a shadow maybe? I can’t say for certain, but I know it
was one of the aura demons. I’m sure of it.” She knew Ezra believed
in invisible demons—he insisted they were fairly common in many
parts of the world, in regions where demon cults had summoned them
and then been unable to complete the ritual to make them flesh. “I
think it was one of the demons my parents and their cult summoned
when I was a kid. And I think they’re responsible for my
dreams.”
“Really?”
Uh-oh, here came the
skepticism. Still, she might as well finish what she’d started.
“Really. I think I’ve been seeing the people they plan to hurt, and
I think they killed the Choes.”
“How? Aura demons
can’t interact within our world without inhabiting a
human—”
“I’m thinking that
maybe that’s not true. I swear I saw the Choes being beaten, and
there’s a chance it was a man who did it, but I could feel the demons there in the room with them. And
they were inside Ellen’s head, hurting her. I just know it was aura
demons. I think that maybe there’s some kind of connection between
me and them.”
“Like a psychic
connection.”
“Yes! Exactly,” she
said, not bothering to hide her excitement.
“But why would
something like that stay dormant for so many years? If you
had—”
“I don’t think it
was dormant. I told you, I think the
connection manifested in my dreams, with the shadow fingers. This
is just a … mutation of that. And I don’t know why it’s happening
now; I was hoping that was something you could help me with,” Sam
said, cutting Ezra off before he could ask the question. “Has there
been an increase in cult activity lately?”
“Not that I know of.
At least, not on the East Coast.”
“Some of the members
of my parents’ cult got out of prison last year,” Sam said,
wondering why she hadn’t thought of the phone call she’d gotten
from the prison officials sooner. They’d had to notify all
surviving children of the cult that six of the lesser offenders
were being released. “You don’t think they could have decided to
finish what they started when Stephen and I were kids, do
you?”
Ezra grunted, then
sniffed. “I doubt it. According to cult beliefs, they’d need the
same artifact your father used, and that would be impossible. It
was added to a museum collection a long time ago,
right?”
“As far as I know. I
guess I could try to check again with the police who took it into
evidence, but—”
“I can do a search
for you of museums that exhibit demon relics. I have the
connections to find out where most of the artifacts
originated.”
“Thanks,” Sam said
with a sigh of relief. She was feeling overwhelmed enough as it
was.
“Tell me more about
this psychic connection.”
Sam took a deep
breath. “I think I’m seeing what the demons plan to do, and I swear
I heard one of them in my head before it pushed me down the
stairs.”
“You did? What did it
say?”
“I … can’t remember.”
Shit, she couldn’t remember. It had
been pleased with itself, and it had wanted something. From her? Or
from the Choes? “Damn it! I can’t remember exactly. I think it had
something to do with wanting a body to inhabit, but—”
“But you said you
didn’t think they needed bodies to hurt people.”
Sam squeezed her eyes
closed as her head threatened to explode. “I don’t know, Ezra.
Maybe hurting people isn’t the final goal. I’m doing my best to
figure this out, but I was knocked unconscious, so—”
“God, Sam. What the
hell are you doing walking around? You should be in the
hospital.”
“I couldn’t stay in
the hospital. What if the Choes aren’t the end of this? What if
more people are going to get hurt or killed and it’s my fault?” she
asked, wishing for the zillionth time that she could see the face
of the person she was talking to. “Please, you are the only person
I know who can help me understand what’s happening. Do you think
this kind of connection is even possible?”
Ezra sniffed and took
another sip of his coffee. “I’m not sure. There are stories of
partnerships between humans and aura demons, but they usually
require ritual sacrifice.”
“Wouldn’t my eyes be
considered a ritual sacrifice?”
“Maybe,” he said, but
he didn’t sound convinced. “But the sacrifice was made without your
consent and took place a long time ago. If it was enough to create
a psychic bond between you and this demon, wouldn’t you have
realized it before now?”
“But I’ve always had
the dreams, ever since the night my brother and I were taken away
from our parents. I thought that what I’d gone through had created
a kind of sixth sense, but maybe I was seeing what these demons
were planning to do?” Sam asked, trying to keep her voice calm and
failing miserably. “What if the demons my parents summoned have
been out there all along, doing horrible things, and I was seeing
them in my dreams? Maybe I could have stopped them, if I could
have—”
“You can’t think like
that. And we don’t know anything for certain.” Ezra sniffed some
more. His allergies seemed to grow even worse when he was thinking.
Another annoying habit, but one that didn’t bother her now. She was
so grateful to have someone take her seriously that she could have
leaped over the island between them and kissed him … if he didn’t
have a girl in the other room and she wasn’t falling for Jace with
a swiftness that wasn’t wise.
“Okay, so let’s say
you’ve always had this connection,” Ezra continued. “That you’ve
been privy to all the nasty business the aura demons have been up
to in the years since the ritual, but didn’t know it. You
still need to figure out why the
connection is growing stronger. Why now? Why are you suddenly
having waking visions?”
“And actually seeing
people with my own eyes,” she said, dropping the final bomb. “Just
a few hours ago, I saw a man watching me from across the street. I
couldn’t see anything else, but his face was crystal
clear.”
“You’re kidding me,”
Ezra said, sounding justifiably shocked. “But you’ve been examined
by doctors. Isn’t regaining your sight impossible?”
“I always believed
so. But I did see him. I had a friend with me and he saw him,
too.”
“A friend, huh?” Ezra
sniffed again, a longer, more agitated sniff. “Guess I’m not the
only one moving on. I should have known you wouldn’t be wearing
that dress for a night out with your brother.”
“Speaking of clothes,
do you have any of my stuff still here? I’m dying to
change.”
“Yes, your drawer is
still full. I haven’t gotten around to cleaning it out yet,” he
said, pausing for a thoughtful slurp of coffee. When he spoke
again, his voice was much softer. “You know, I may have kicked you
out at midnight, but you had a drawer. Did you ever stop to
consider that might have been a big step for me? Letting a woman
have a drawer?”
Now it was her turn
to squirm. She really hadn’t thought much about the significance of
“her” drawer. She’d assumed it was just more convenient for both of
them if she occasionally showered and changed at his place after
work instead of going home first.
“Um, I—”
“Don’t worry about
it,” Ezra said, saving her from what would have no doubt been a
very awkward response. “I’ll go tell Sunny you’re coming in to
shower and change.”
“Bet she’ll love
that.”
“I’ve told her about
you. She’s open-minded.”
Open-minded? What the
hell did that mean? If she weren’t dying to get clean and back into
a pair of underpants, Sam would have told him not to bother. She
couldn’t imagine being open-minded about another woman coming into
her lover’s bedroom to shower while she was still in the
bed.
“Tell her it will be
the fastest shower ever. I’ve got to meet someone uptown.” She
might as well head up to the Waldon and hope Jace had left her a
message at the desk. It was the only way she could think of
connecting with him without going through Stephen. Jace definitely
wasn’t the type to have his number listed in the public
database.
“So you’re not going
to stay for breakfast, I take it?” Ezra asked, amusement in his
tone. “Probably for the best. I stopped buying real bacon after we
broke up. I’m back on the veggie stuff.”
“Gross.” Sam wrinkled
her nose.
“So I’ll look through
a few of my books this morning and get back to you as soon as I
find anything interesting about aura demons and psychic
connections,” he said, dropping his mug off in the sink on his way
by her. “I’ll see if there’s any astrological reason this could be
happening and do a check on cult activity and make sure no
artifacts have gone missing. In the meantime, you should do some
thinking about anything unusual that’s happened in the past day or
so. Try to think whether you’ve done anything differently that
might have triggered this new ability.”
“Right,” Sam said
with a sigh. “I’ll try, but I can’t really think of anything off
the top of my head.”
“Probably because
you’ve got a concussion. You should consider going somewhere safe
and getting some sleep.” He paused at the door to the bedroom.
“You’re welcome to stay here. I know Sunny wouldn’t
mind.”
“No, I don’t mind at
all!” Sunny yelled from the other room, sounding positively eager
to have another woman join her in Ezra’s bed. What was with this
girl? And Ezra? It seemed like he’d finally taken his “free love”
philosophy too far.
Too far for her
tastes, at least.
“Thanks!” Sam called
out. “But I really have to go. I just need to grab a quick
shower.”
“Sure! Whatever you
need,” Sunny said. “I’ll come have breakfast with Ez and give you
some privacy. Unless you don’t mind if we stay in bed a little
longer?”
“Um … privacy would
be good. Thanks.”
“The look on your
face is absolutely priceless,” Ezra said with a smug
laugh.
Sam bit her lip. Let
him keep thinking she was a prude. That was fine. She knew she was
anything but repressed. She’d nearly had sex with a man on a public
street. Twice. In the past twenty-four hours. She was practically …
Wait … twice … in the past twenty-four
hours …
“You know what? I’ll
take a rain check on the shower,” she said, setting down her
coffee. “I’ll just grab clothes and run.”
“Wait. We were just
kidding, Sam,” Ezra said, hovering as she tapped her way over to
the chest of drawers and dug around in the bottom drawer for clean
underwear, jeans, and a light sweater. “You don’t have
to—”
“No, really, I just
don’t have time.” Sam shuffled to the bathroom near the front door,
nearly tripping twice in her excitement. She had to hurry. She
finally had an idea what might have caused her surge in paranormal
power, but there was no way she was going to mention it to Ezra.
Not until she knew for sure.
Hopefully she would
still be able to catch up with Jace at the Waldon and put her
theory to the test. The thought made her shiver as she pulled her
sweater over her head, and her hands were actually trembling as she
pitched her ruined dress into Ezra’s trash.
“You don’t have to
go, you know,” Ezra said when she emerged from the
bathroom.
“I know,” Sam said,
pausing at the front door. “Thank you so much for your help. It
really means a lot.”
“You’re welcome. Hope
I find something that will help. I’ll call you.”
“Thanks.” Sam hurried
out the door to the elevator at the end of the hall. If all went
well, she would be naked with Jace Lu in less than half an hour.
Even after the nightmarish day and a half she’d had, the prospect
was still enough to send a shiver of excitement skittering across
her skin.
Jace wiped the blood
off his cheek as best he could, wincing as the rough fabric of his
shirt made contact with the swollen skin and bruised bone. He felt
like he’d run into a brick wall. Repeatedly.
And apparently he
looked as great as he felt.
“You look like shit.”
His cousin Andre waved at him from one of the bright yellow couches
littering the lobby of the Waldon. He looked completely at home in
the upscale surroundings, his custom-fitted suit,
ten-thousand-dollar watch, and blindingly white teeth screaming
wealth as surely as the weapons Jace had checked with the bellman
screamed bounty hunter.
But it was Andre’s
job to look respectable. He’d quit the family bounty business in
his late teens to help manage the Contis’ legal issues. Not that
the breed of lawyering he practiced was much more respectable than
bounty hunting, but the clothes, at least, had to look the
part.
“Thanks.” Jace nodded
in his cousin’s direction, ignoring the stares of the other people
milling through the lobby. You didn’t get many of his kind north of
the barricade. There was no reason for him to leave Southie. The
ruins were where he earned his money, and the company was much
better on the other side of the tracks. “You should see the other
guy.”
“Pretty roughed up,
huh?”
“Pretty dead.” Just
thinking about the body he’d all but tripped over on his way back
to the main street made the hairs on Jace’s arms prickle and stand
on end. The man Sam had seen wouldn’t be hurting Sam or anyone else
ever again.
Andre’s voice dropped
to a whisper, but his smile didn’t waver for a second. “I got your
message about the girl, but is this the real reason you contacted
me? If so, I need to give Uncle Francis a call. I don’t do criminal
work anymore. I’m real estate and tax—”
“I didn’t kill him,”
Jace said, sinking onto a couch a good distance from the nearest
tourists. “He was dead when I found him.”
“Did you report
it?”
“No one else saw the
body. Or me. I figured it was best to leave him for someone else to
find,” Jace said, not bothering to tell Andre that at least one
other person knew he’d been tracking the dead man. He trusted Sam,
probably more than he trusted anyone, as scary as that was.
Besides, no one was going to believe a woman who’d been blind for
nearly twenty years had suddenly “seen” Jace tracking a murder
victim minutes before he was killed.
“Good thinking,”
Andre said, relief clear in the way he relaxed onto the couch
beside Jace. “We can put in an anonymous tip from the central
computer. No one will be able to track where it came
from.”
“There won’t be
anything to find by the time the police get down there. I was
attacked by someone else not long before I found the body, someone
who scared the shit out of the dead guy.”
Andre nodded. “Some
Death Ministry type who will be sending in his own cleanup
crew?”
“I’m
guessing.”
“You couldn’t tell
from looking at him?”
Jace sighed. “He got
me from behind and ran off before I could get a good look at
him.”
“Really?” Andre
laughed. “You’re going to catch some shit for that. Of course,
could be worse. You could be dead.”
“I thought of that.
Kind of makes me wonder why I’m not. Whoever killed the man I found
was sicker than your average Southie. The guy’s eyes had been
ripped out.”
“Gruesome. But sounds
personal. Probably why you’re still among the living. The other guy
must not have had anything against you.”
“Maybe,” Jace said,
still unable to shake the image of the man’s body from his head. “I
put in a couple of calls to Uncle Francis. He’s going to see what
he can find out about the dead guy and the local
murders.”
“The Korean couple
your girlfriend knew?”
“Friend,” Jace
corrected. Seemed Uncle Francis had made a few phone calls
himself.
“Right. I’ve got some
people running background checks on the entire family and your
girlfriend’s brother,” Andre said, ignoring Jace’s scowl. “But I’m
thinking she’ll be fine. No matter what she heard, it would be
pretty difficult getting a conviction on a blind girl’s
testimony.”
It was along the
lines of what he’d been thinking, and he knew the Death Ministry
thug wouldn’t be getting anywhere near Sam, but for some reason
Jace was sure she was still in danger. There had to be some
rational explanation for these demons she assumed were after her,
and he was guessing it had something to do with her brother pissing
off the very human men who’d jumped him. He felt that truth in his
gut.
Unfortunately, his
gut needed some rest before it was going to get much further. He
was starting to feel his long night and every blow the two guys
he’d fought had landed. He’d go up to Sam’s room and check to make
sure she had everything she needed, then snag a room for himself
and grab a few hours of sleep.
Or you could shack up in her room. She probably wouldn’t
mind.
Even after the night
he’d had, the thought of sliding into bed with Sam was still enough
to make his filthy jeans feel a little too tight. She’d gotten
under his skin and into his head, and there wasn’t much chance he’d
get her out. At least, not until he made sure she was
safe.
And then you could spend a few days in bed with her,
fucking her until neither of you cares who’s sane and who’s
crazy.
“So you got Sam
checked in, right? There wasn’t any problem comping the room?” Jace
asked. The Contis were major stock-holders in the Waldon, and the
staff knew to make nice when a Conti called in a favor. Even if
that Conti was technically a Lu.
“No problem with the
room. I went ahead and got you two the honeymoon suite in honor of
this girl being the love of your life and all that.” Andre smirked.
He was only getting warmed up.
The teasing would no
doubt continue for months, long after Jace and Sam had gone their
separate ways. But he’d known this was going to happen. You
couldn’t go your whole life without introducing a single girl to
your family and expect them not to make a big deal out of the first
woman to have the dubious honor.
“Right. Cute, but
we’ll be staying in separate rooms,” Jace said, his tone making it
clear there would be no further discussion of the matter. He and
Sam both needed rest and some time to think before they took
whatever it was between them any further.
If they took things
any further.
Even a few hours ago
he would have said there wasn’t any question that he and Sam would
keep things purely friendly, but now … he wasn’t sure. No matter
how crazy her stories or how explosive the chemistry between them,
touching Sam didn’t rouse his inner demons. She actually made him
smile and laugh. There hadn’t been a whisper of those dark memories
in his mind when he’d held her in his arms. In fact, feeling her
lips against his, imagining her soft skin bare beneath his fingers,
seemed to banish some of his darkness, to bring out a softer side
of himself he hadn’t been sure he possessed.
“Cool. Then go ahead
and get a room.” Andre settled deeper into the couch with a sigh.
“I don’t have any meetings until ten. I’ll get the girl settled
when she gets here.”
“What?” Jace asked,
the hint of a smile on his face transforming to a
scowl.
“She’s blind, with
long dark hair, and wearing a black, kind of see-through dress,”
Andre said, parroting the information Jace had given him in his
message. “She shouldn’t be hard to spot.”
“What do you mean,
hard to spot?” Jace asked, a sinkhole developing in his stomach.
Sam wasn’t here. She wasn’t safe. The knowledge made his heart race
and every last bit of darkness he possessed surge to the surface.
This was why Samantha should be avoided
at all costs. She might bring out his softer side when he held her,
but realizing she was in danger made him crazy. And the girl
attracted danger like it was going out of style. “She should have
been here over an hour ago.”
“I got here fifteen
minutes after your call, man, and I kept my eyes open.” Andre
shrugged. “No one matching your description came into the
hotel.”
“Shit.” Jace surged
to his feet, ready to head back toward the barricade on foot and
comb every last inch of Southie until he found Sam, when the woman
herself suddenly appeared at his elbow, making him
jump.
Great, he’d had two
people sneak up on him in less than a few hours, and one of them
was a girl who couldn’t even see him. Clearly, he needed some rest.
Now.
“I thought I heard
your voice,” she said, smiling like she hadn’t just scared the shit
out of him.
Jace’s eyes did a
quick sweep up and down her body, noticing the change of clothing.
What the hell … ?
“I’m so glad you’re
okay. I was worried.” Her smile faded when he didn’t respond. When
she spoke again she didn’t sound nearly as sure of herself. “So
what happened? Did you find out who that man was or—”
“Not yet, but I’m
working on it.”
“So he got away? You
didn’t get a chance to question him?”
“I wouldn’t say
that.” He wasn’t going to tell her about the murder. Not yet, at
least. Especially not when he was this pissed off.
“What do you
mean?”
“Nice jeans,” he
said, the words slipping out before he could stop himself. He
sounded passive-aggressive and about ten years old, but he didn’t
care. He was too furious to keep acting like what she’d done was
okay.
She’d gone home to
change her clothes. She’d disobeyed his order, put herself in
danger, and all for a change of
clothes.
Jace’s plans for
separate rooms evaporated in the heat of anger.
“You said the
honeymoon suite?” Jace asked, holding out one hand toward
Andre.
“Yep.” Andre chuckled
as he handed over the envelope. “Two keys, take the elevator to the
thirty-ninth floor. Are you going to introduce me to
your—”
“No,” Jace said, with
more volume than he’d intended, drawing the attention of a clutch
of older women seated nearby. They turned to stare. They were
probably in New York City to take in the theater, but damned if he
was going to provide them with a free show. “Come with me.
Now.”
Sam sighed. “Jace, I
can tell you’re—”
Jace took Sam by the
hand and pulled her away from his smirking cousin and the curious
eyes of the blue-haired crowd. “The elevators are this
way.”
“Okay, but I promise
I—”
“We’ll talk when we
get to the room.” Or not. Suddenly Jace wasn’t much in the mood to
talk. He was in the mood to show Samantha Quinn who was calling the
shots in their relationship.
You don’t have a relationship. She doesn’t have to listen
to you—
Jace shut the voice
in his head off with a growl. She didn’t have to listen to him, but
then, neither did he have to listen to common sense.