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Allie didn&039;t have to ask rong, Michael told her as soon as she opened the door

"I caught Brian fucking one of the guys at the construction site"

He didn&039;t sound angry; he sounded weary, and that was a thousand tirabbed the strap of the duffel bag hanging froed him over the threshold, and wrapped as"I&039;ll call Auntie Jane"

She wasboyfriend was like calling in a nuclear strike on the asshat who&039;d parked diagonally across two spots at the mall This didn&039;t mean she wouldn&039;t call thehed a little, like she&039;d hoped he would, and if it sounded like he was laughing to keep fro, well, that was okay, too They&039;d take that next step when they weren&039;t standing in an open doorway Anger had probably got him packed and to the airport and onto the plane where he&039;d had nothing to do for a couple of hours but think about how his life had fallen apart "Let&039;s leave the aunties out of this; you kno they overreact"

"They salt the earth because they care Coed him a little farther into the store and locked the door behind hiic cake?" He sounded about twelve-or as much like a twelve year old as a man who&039;d topped out at six foot five and then put on the muscle bulk to match could sound

"Is there any other kind?"

Arh the store and past the mirror

"Is that?"

"Don&039;t even look, Michael, trust me"

and up the stairs and into the apart look at him He wore a shirt and blazer over jeans and work boots, the unifor the site, and he&039;d obviously been in the His hazel eyes were shadowed, there were flecks of dried blood in the corner of his lower lip where he&039;d chewed off a bit of dried skin, and dark stubble buried curves where his dimples were hidden Michael had always shown his heart on his face

"Fuck the aunties I&039; to kill hi slid to the floor and he dropped into one of the kitchen chairs like his strings had been cut "Just don&039;tYou knohat Brian&039;s like Hell, I knohat Brian&039;s like"

"I thought he&039;d changed"

"Yeah Me, too"

It had been Brian&039;s idea that Michael take the job with his father&039;s firether Brian&039;s idea that they live together in Vancouver Although he hadn&039;t stopped fucking around the first year after he and Michael had hooked up, Allie knew for a fact that the last year the three of theamy Not without temptation and not without a few alcohol-fueled rants about having been neutered, but he&039;d kept it in his pants

She should never have let that char away present One that caht you said there&039;d be cake?"

"Yeah, I did" Allie bent to kiss the top his head, although given his height she didn&039;t bend far, then pulled the cake out of the fridge and sliced off a hefty wedge Filling the largest glass in the cabinet with milk, she set them on the table in front of hi a bare foot up under her

"You&039;re not eating?" He frowned at her red boxers and over theh school football jerseys "You were in bed"

"One, not yet" Tugging at the frayed helad it wasn&039;t his; under the circumstances, just a bit creepy "Two, it wouldn&039;t haveto eat cake at two in the ht as well apply it directly to my ass Eat"

The left dimple made half an appearance "You sound like your , she watched hie forkful of cake into hisout, she shtly on the shoulder "Just answer the question"

"I had soht a sandwich on the plane Two actually"

"Good" If he could still eat, he wasn&039;t co in Michael&039;s life so terrible it had killed his appetite Except, if anything, this should

"Because I was expecting it"

Allie blinked Not at Michael knohat she was thinking before she got there herself, they&039;d been able to do that to each other since they were kids, but at the actual words After aon his answer

"It was too perfect, wasn&039;t it?"

With his stupid perfect life and his stupid perfect boyfriend

At least she&039;d got the stupid boyfriend right

"No It wasn&039;t too perfect It was exactly as perfect as you deserve"

His mouth twisted "Apparently"

"Oh, sweetie, that&039;s not what Idown Arms wrapped around him, head tucked into the curve of her throat, she rested her cheek on the top of his head and murmured, "Brian&039;s an ass, he doesn&039;t deserve you And you deserve better"

"But I still want hihed "I need a shower"

"I didn&039;t want to mention it"

Both sofas opened into queen-sized beds Allie didn&039;t bother setting up either of them Michael was one of the , he needed touch

E from the bathroohtly over his ears, he glanced over at the sofas and then at Allie standing in the bedroo bed," she said softly

A little of the tension went out of his shoulders and he almost smiled "Promise to keep your hands to yourself?"

"Nope"

They&039;d shared a bed, or certain variations of the word bed, off and on since they were five There&039;d been a few rocky months in their teens before Allie had been convinced he really wasn&039;t interested

"Can&039;t you just close your eyes and pretend I&039;irl?"

"Why would I want to do that?"

"Why would I?"

but in the end she settled for having as ht she was a little too fond of self-flagellation, but the cohed the unrequited bits Usually And

She wondered if it hurt uy If ht not be interested, but Brian was as fir caht after Brian had essentially one off and the three of them had shared a bed Allie and Brian had held a silent and speculative conversation, then placed Michael definitively between them

Head on Michael&039;s shoulder, his arainst her back, she inhaled the scent of clean skin and fabric softener from his worn T-shirt and murmured, "What did Brian say?"

"When? Oh" A disdainful snort in the darkness "He didn&039;t see me I saw him, went back to the apartive him a chance to explain?"

"Explain what? That he was just standing there between the trailer and the crane uy in a hard hat threw himself on his dick a few dozen tie? Weird? Unlikely? None of the above, given that he&039;d been caught in the act "What did you do with your phone?"

"Left it at the condo"

"I wonder why he hasn&039;t called me"

"He&039;s afraid of your reaction"

"Sers out over his heart, feeling it beat throughagainst each other

"Allie?" So to be happy about the question

"Yeah?"

"What drawer are Gran&039;s sex toys in?"

She couldn&039;t see hi in the dark, but she knew the died as he stripped out of his ca the movement to work the knots out of his shoulders

"That&039;s all of the in reed on" Heavy brows drew in "Perhaps I should have had you deal with the with the horrors drawn to his boss&039; power-creatures that crawled and walked and flew out of night in this world however Human they looked-and this was the first ti had hi for"

"You knohat you need toYou knohat you always have And you know I depend on you If this creature gets loose in the world, I will be in er" The dark eyes narrowed "You need to kill it They&039;re watching forfor me when it arrives, but they don&039;t know about you That&039;s why you couldn&039;t deal with theed If they find out about you" He spread blunt-fingered hands, rings glittering under the fluorescent light "Capture Torture Eventually, you&039;ll tell them where I am Best to keep a low profile"

"Best for both of us from the sounds of it"

"Of course"

"What about after it&039;s dead? What will they do then?"

"After?" The older man snorted "After, they&039;ll very likely try to kill you, but with no reason to hide, you can pick them out of the sky as they come in for the attack"

"Provided they attack one at a tiree on le shot to base their assesserous you are After, they&039;ll be furious and you can take advantage of that lack of finesse"

True Checking that his M24 rested secure against the padded lining of the case, he frowned It sounded reasonable-for those definitions of reasonable that referred to the -but there seemed to be more variables every ti time, he wondered if he did knohat he needed to

Brian called at 8:10 just as Allie eased the ancient Beetle onto Deerfoot Trail heading for the airport Eased because one of Gran&039;s char a speed less than 20K over the 100 KPH li traffic was sparse co down to see the call display, Allie picked up the phone

"Is he there?" Brian sounded wrecked

She&039;d left Michael co with the coffee up in at least three different directions He&039;d slept through the dragons&039; flyby-probably for the best-but had hopefully regained enough consciousness to understand her instructions for opening the store

"Allie, please Is Michael with you?"

He deserved to know thatup

"Hi, you must be Joe I&039;one to pick Charlie up at the airport, but she should be back by eleven unless Charlie convinces her to stop by a grocery store, which would not be a bad idea since there&039;s a significant lack of crap in that apartirls don&039;t trust anything they haven&039;t baked themselves Which reminds me, I ate the last of the rhubarb pie for breakfast, so you&039;re in the clear with Aunt Ruth&039;s charm, and in case no one&039;s warned you, pancakes are sneaky because they can pour the batter in pretty much any pattern they want Generally, they&039;re pretty hars if you pissed one of them off And butter the toast yourself Oh, and Allie says you&039;re in charge"

He had a place here The prickle of panic evoked by the stranger at the door stopped running up and down his back Joe looked down at the enor his and then up, way up into a friendly smile and shadowed fox eyes "How the fuck tall are you?" he de if this Michael had a touch of the blood

"Uh six five Ish"

"Ish?" Who actually said ish? "And could you o of ht; seeers just to be sure "So, when did you arrive?" Charlie and Roland he re about Michael

"Late last night"

Front door unlocked, Joe turned the sign, and decided to be a man had to shorten his stride to walk beside him to the counter

"So, uh you&039;re a leprechaun?"

"Oh, she told you that, did she?" She uy&039;s neck saying I trust hi stare, Joe sighed "Go ahead and say it"

"I don&039;t"

"YeahYou do Let&039;s get it over with and move on I&039;m a little tall for a leprechaun"

Broad shoulders rose and fell; the grin was da"

Joe spent a uy in the nuts, considered the consequences, and pulled a ten fro for coffee"

"I don&039;t"

"Next door"

"Okay, then"

He sold a yoyo to a kid on a skateboard while Michael was gone and was entering it in the ledger when he got back

"The old guy next door? Kenny Shoji? He can tell exactly what kind of coffee you like Pretty cool, eh?" The big red ained their size when he set them on the counter "He said itpaper, that we should bring the for any length of tiet so him pain"

Seemed that Michael was also a triple/triple ht Joe, however, still had trouble trusting anyone so tall At least a dozen members of the NBA and four MLB pitchers were half bloods, so it wasn&039;t like the Courts didn&039;t have a presence in the MidReal are you staying, then?"

Just like that, the shadows in Michael&039;s eyes won; darkening the hazel, banishing the grin "I don&039;t know"

In spite of his suspicion, Joe felt like he&039;d kicked a puppy A big, half-grown, annoying puppy that he&039;d best stay on the right side of, not only because of the size of his teeth but because Allie was clearly holding the end of his leash Sighing, he scraped at a sernail "So why&039;d you need sanctuary, then? And don&039;t even try to lie to me about it"

"Because you&039;re a leprechaun?"

"No, because any idiot can see you&039;d be crap at it"

See to answer, then he shrugged "I caught ht that it went both ways The big guy wasn&039;t stupid for all the air was probably right thin up near his head "I got un and loaded Blessed rounds"

Looking thoughtful, Michael took a long s of coffee Set theback on the counter and said, "True death, eh? Well, that puts infidelity in perspectiveYour life sucks worse than , then kicked the second stool over "You know you&039;re fucking covered in charht? And they&039;re not all hers"

"You can see the down "Sorry, stupid question Of course you can, given who you are" Glancing down at a tanned forear think about it to anyone with the sight, he twisted it so the muscle rolled beneath the skin "Some of them are Charlie&039;s, a couple are Aunt Mary&039;s-that&039;s Allie&039;s mother-at least one is her cousin Katie&039;s, and there&039;s one of David&039;s Her brother," he added when Joe raised a brow

"No aunties?"

"They try, but Allie always catches theed to keep one in place for almost a week once, but that was only because she drew it just before ed ot home and she found it"

"Little possessive is she, then?" Joethe charht

"A little" His s possessed "But she&039;s not controlling, and the aunties are Can be," he amended Frowned "Are"

"But you&039;ve fa s of coffee "Well, yeah But my parents are politicians-back roo that doesn&039;t iarten when the au pair was late, Allie took ot no sisters and that&039;s kind of an ano look "I think that&039;s why she collects strays"

"I&039; way froue with that

Charlie&039;s reflection earing a cowboy hat as she passed the mirror on her way into the store, but that, Allie noted, seemed to be the only embellishment Her reflection stood tied to a stake surrounded by bones split for their hed as she followed her cousin

"You aze from the blue hair to the lilac Docs and settle somewhere in between by the time Charlie stopped across the counter from him

"I&039;m Charlie Don&039;t let her" A toss of her head, toward Allie " boss you around"

Ginger brows drew in "But she&039;s my boss"

"Well, you&039;re screwed, then" She turned and charged between the first set of shelves "Michael!"

"Charles!"

Allie rounded the shelves in time to see Michael heave Charlie off her feet, secure her with one arm, and reach out to stop an ancient wire spinner stuffed with old Maclean&039;sup next to the counter, she leaned over and beckoned Joe closer "Charlie can uitar, watch where the roup," Joe snorted "You know that, right?"

"Yes" Allie sroup"

"Say the word," Charlie growled as Michael put her down, "and Brian&039;ll have the theme music to &039;Mr Dressup&039; on perht" She reached up and cupped his face in her hands "Revenge served cold Got itYou knohere I am when the time coht, you&039;d have been stuck with Allie, and it&039;s not like she&039;s all about corinned "When was the last time you slept in a bed?"

"I can&039;t reht his eye and nodded

"Okay, then" Bending, he scooped her up and tossed her over his shoulder "Bedtiht track tapes up here" She grabbed one off the shelf and tossed it into Allie&039;s hands as she passed "Hang onto that for ht Fever soundtrack"

"Or not" Falling forward, head pillowed on her arms, she stared down Michael&039;s back as they exited the store "Your ass looks aot lost in the sound of his boots on the stairs

"I sold a yoyo while you were gone," Joe said at last

"Well, what do you think?" Allie asked as Michael wandered around the half-co Likeconstruction for her Uncle Neil Unlike most of the Gale boys, he&039;d actually enjoyed it and the experience had ultimately shifted his interest in art into architecture Allie figured the renovation would keep hi dirt off his hands, he returned to her side "The plu and electrical&039;s all in If I finish the build, and you hire the retailer&039;s people to install fixtures and counters and carpet and shit-under my supervision-this place could be livable in about a week Maybe less"

"Carpet?"

"We run linoleuood, hard-wearing Berber in the re space" Are of his hair "It&039;s going to take a lot of yoyos, Allie"

She smiled, reached up, and brushed his hair back "You just make the calls and let me worry about the money"

"Allie!" Joe whirled around to face her as she ca yet more spiderwebs off her sweater "This person" He waved at the tiny wo by the counter " wants to buy this painting" It was the seascape Allie&039;d been looking at just before Sharin at the way the custo it out of Joe&039;s hands "That&039;s great"

"Yeah, but it&039;s" Leaning closer, he dropped his voice " got a price on the back that says ten thousand dollars"

"And?"

"Ten thousand dollars? That can&039;t be right" He waggled the painting so that Allie could see the charm sketched under the price

The wohtly, the scent of linseed oil wafting up from a stain on her sleeve "Please"

"Why don&039;t you let her hold it, Joe"

"But"

"It&039;s okay"

Still frowning, he turned back around toward the custoo in tirip "It&039;s just"

"A nice round number" Allie noted that half the woman&039;s left eyebrow appeared to be Cadmium Yellow, and asked her, "Do you have a probleain, an internal struggle clear on her face Finally, she shook her head, gray-streaked ponytail swaying in counterpoint behind her

"You handle the ested he table any further protests until after the deal had been completed Allie was pleased to see he&039;d realized it wasn&039;t actually a suggestion "I&039;ll wrap it"

"It&039;s a bank draft" The wo the physical, and she couldn&039;t aze

"Bank draft&039;s fine" Two layers of brown paper with a charm sandwiched between offered alleries and high-end auction houses Allie&039;d put her wrapping up against pretty estion, that was a case of you pay your ons in Calgary -or over Calgary, at least-that was not a rhetorical observation

"Ten thousand dollars?" The words spilled out of Joe&039;s ht "For that piece of shite? You char she wanted it!"

"First, it was Gran&039;s charm, not mine Second, the char the painting,certain specific criteria were met Third, it&039;s a Turner A study for Calais Pier I recognized it when I was going through the box earlier I think he orking out the motion of the waves between the packet and the pier" She twirled a finger in the air "The circular pattern was unique for its time"

"And that ht Turner&039;s Giudecca, La Donna della Salute and San Giorgio at a Christie&039;s auction in New York for 358 ed a choked, "Dollars?"

"Dollars"

"And the yellow-eyebroouess is she spotted the Turner a while ago and then went looking for a buyer willing to give her part of the price up front She&039;s probably been panicking ere going to sell it to someone else Or realize the actual price of e had Ten thousand was enough she didn&039;t feel too guilty about not telling us how much it orth"

"Millions It&039;s worth uarantee rinned " yellow-eyebrooh to be able to paint for the rest of her life without worrying about starving"

"But you could have made 358 million!"

"No, that needs auction hysteria But she probably was able to find a collector willing to pony up one or twoit, won&039;t she? Not you!"

"She needed it That was one of the charm&039;s criteria Gran&039;s letter said the store had beco couple walk by He pushed a sleeping toddler in a stroller She tried, olden retriever to heel "When I ht shewider"

"So what, it&039;s suddenly all, &039;hey, let&039;s be Robin Hood&039;?"

"Joe, we made a profit of ten thousand dollars Get over it We needed a bit of money A bit of money appeared"

"You needed a bit of money, and a bit of her than usual "That&039;s hoorks for you? For your fah, that&039;s darkside stuff Sorcery," she added when he looked confused "We don&039;t force it; we just let things happen"

He sank down onto the stool "Your life doesn&039;t suck, you know that, right?"

She glanced out the back of the store toward the garage and Michael and frowned at theof familiar pain Still, he was here, with her, h these days "There should be new pie in the fridge," she said "You interested?"

"Ten thousand dollars and pie" Joe shook his head "Total fucking absence of suck"

"So, the Gale wo up fro he uinated

Dark brows drew in as Stanley Kalynchuk glared down at him "Alysha?"

"That&039;s her name"

"I am aware that&039;s her name That&039;s all you&039;ve discovered in what? Forty-eight hours? Our time is not limitless!" Kalynchuk slapped a copy of the paper onto the desk "Or have you forgotten?"

Graham raised one hand off the keyboard to wave it at his publisher in a vaguely placatingon the story about the suspicious cattle deaths-we need to put our spin on the speculation"

"Our spin?" The snortboth dis it on?"

"Chupacabra" And didn&039;t the spellchecker love that

"Goat suckers?"

"They&039;re not necessarily goat specific," Graha "They suck the blood fro exsanguinated, they&039;re being eaten"

"Potato, potahto"

"And we&039;re too far north for chupacabra"

"Yeah, like our readers are going to care"

"And that right there is the problem in a nutshell No one cares about scholarship anymore" Kalynchuk paced away from the desk, turned by the white board, and, unfortunately, paced back Graha he&039;d stoine the hysteria if we printed the truth"

"We&039;ve printed the truth No one ever believes us No one is supposed to believe us; that&039;s the point of the exercise"

"Control Discredit Hide behind the expectations of the masses" A beefy hand smacked down over a blurry picture of as probably a raccoon in a dumpster "Most people wouldn&039;t know the truth if it bit the half expected a bad Nicholson impression, Graham reminded himself that his boss was not a fan of popular culture

"Now"

Even without looking up, Graha with his arood he could hear crossed arms in the other man&039;s voice

" about the Gale woht" In three hours, twenty-two ?"

He looked up at that, a little surprised by the challenge in the question "Dinner Unless you need ht"

"You wanted me to find out what she knows That&039;s all this is"

"Make sure that&039;s all it is" Challenge had becoh he didn&039;t think he&039;d let any of his conflicted feelings show in his voice "You do your jobYou find out what you need to know, and you get out"

"You make her sound like a war zone"

Kalynchuk&039;s lip curled "We don&039;t know that she isn&039;t"

"Tight jeans, low-cut white tank top, pink ballet-wrap sweater" Sprawled out on the bed, Charlie watched Allie finish dressing and frowned "Okay, you&039;re clearly going for iven the boob and ass coh" Allie slid her feet into a pair of pink plaid Chucks, the only flats she had with her

"How tall?" Charlie deot boots taller than that"

"Well, if I was short like you, it wouldn&039;t be a probleave you that extra inch, babe Felt sorry for the chubby thing you had going in junior high" She sat up and wrapped her arms around her bare knees "You really like hiave it soht as she twisted her hair up and clipped it "Yeah," she said, after ahiht"

"Why not? And please don&039;t tell me it&039;s because Michael&039;s here, because if you do, I&039;ll barf, I swear"

"It has nothing to do with Michael," Allie snorted, dusting bronzer over her cheeks, blending the freckles in a bit

Charlie&039;s turn to think for a ht&039;s still about Gran"

"Yeah, okay, allegedly dead grandame"

"Fortunately, tomorrow is another day" Allie leaned down and kissed the top of Charlie&039;s head "I think you need more sleep"

Graharilaht into an illegal U-turn across 9th, "but it&039;s paid for"

"It&039;s just like hoainst the movement "My fa metropolis of about four thousand people, so pickups are the defaultfor soone a bit wild," Allie allowed, grinning at hi than spri cat saucers and yoyos" He earing jeans and a leather jacket over a white shirt with a narrow blue stripe And on his feet

"What are you doing?"

"Checking for cowboy boots"

"You&039;reme"

"I am" She frowned as he turned north on 1st Street, suddenly realizing why things looked so fa the route the cabbie used to bring me in fro enough to shoot an incredulous look across the cab "He drove through don?"

Her grin broadened at the indignation in his voice "It&039;s okay I kneas getting hosed"