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"Relax, sweetie This isn’t on you" Saave her shoulder an absent, aard touch before she looked at Lucan again "I don’t get it I’ve seen him behave like a jackass before, and he never talks trash like that When he’s angry, he’s an iceman Wordy, sarcastic, and vicious, but an ice secrets I don’t know about? Soh when there’s a full moon, or what?"

"The moon has no effect on us" His dark eyes went to Lucan, too "I have never seen hiht fast "Could he have hit his head on soet that he’s a decent guy that never acts like this"

"Decency" Lucan pushed hied "You know nothing of that" He regarded the three of them as he reached back and pulled the second dart out of his shoulder to examine it "Poison Pathetic" With a contemptuous flick of his wrist he tossed it to the sand in front of Sah spine to wield a blade"

"Oh, I was only trying to be nice" Sam drew the nine-millimeter from her shoulder holster and pointed it at his face "This one has copper rounds in the clip, lover Would you like to find out just how much spine I have now?"

"You’ll suffer for this, you farthing bitch" He abruptly turned on his heel and walked off

The three of them stood in shocked silence, broken only by the sound of Lucan starting the Ferrari’s powerful engine before it roared off down the highway

"Did he just threaten to make me suffer?" Sam’s voice sounded hollow

"Yeah" Chris couldn’t believe it, either "Could he be immune to Alex’s tranquilizer, and we just didn’t know it?"

"That or et a full dose" Sam tucked the nine back inside her jacket "Chris, until I say otherwise, don’t talk about what happened tonight to Burke or anyone else in the jardin"

"Should I call Rafael and ask hiht?" Chris knew that, as Lucan’s seneschal, Rafael was the only e if anything happened to the suzerain Lucan also respected his second more than any other warrior who served him

"Not yet First I need to have a serious chat with Alex Keller" Sam turned to Jamys "Jamie, under the circumstances I think you’d better head back to North Carolina Chris, will you give him a ride to the airport?"

"Sure, no proble else I can do?"

"Yeah" Sam bent and picked up the dart Lucan had thrown at her and held it up The streetlights illue, which was cracked and eer than this"

The sound of soh to open one eye He didn’t see Burke, Samantha, or any of his jardin warriors He saw a patrolhtstick in one hand and a citation book in the other

With no small amount of relief Lucan pressed the button to retract the"Howtonight, sir?" the cop asked

Lucan checked the roof of his s did not protrude "Not yet, I should think"

The patrolhtened "Please step out of the vehicle, sir"

Lucan complied, and discovered his Ferrari sat parked on an empty stretch of sand, in which it had also sunk halfway to its wheel wells He didn’t recognize his surroundings but, from the size and architectural style of the mansion sprawled to the left, surmised it was a private beach

Darkness has no need Lucan didn’t knohy that line from Byron’s poee, almost unbearable sense of doom

"Do you knohere you are, sir?" the cop asked

"A beach in South Florida" He hoped He regarded the shorter man, who shuffled back a step "Do you knohere I am?"

"I’ll ask the questions, sir Would you walk up here, please?" When Lucan had crossed the sand and stepped over the curb, the cop pointed to a faded strip of white painted on the road’s edge "Stand on the white line with your heels together"

Lucan frowned "Why would I do that?" He breathed in the air Froer in Fort Lauderdale "Where the devil ary about this, sir" The cop rested his hand on the holster clipped to his belt "You’re going to walk this line forto blow in a little balloon, and it’ll all be over" He inhaled, and his expression became uncertain "If that’s okay with you, sir"

Lucanhe was experiencing the full effects of l’attrait "Where am I, and how did you find me?"

"You’re in Palm Beach," the cop said, and rattled off an address Lucan didn’t recognize "The owner of the estate called 911 when you drove off the road onto his property Dispatch sent me to respond I love that car, man"

"So do I" Lucan reached for the patrolman’s arm, and stopped as he saw his hands were bare "Tell lanced at his watch "Quarter past ht"