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My head was pounding when I woke and Roff was there, waiting for lass of ice water in his hands "Roff, I feel sick," I scooted up in the bed, raine, to be honest, and I wished that aspirin or soht then

"Raona, will a bath help?" Roff was trying to coax me off the bed

"Roff, my head feels like itwill do that," he pulled ainst his chest and stroked ed and cajoled until he hadin a bathtub full of hot water, a cool compress over my forehead and eyes That’s where Gavin found me when he came in I don’t knohere he’d been and at the htenedto happen that hadn’t happened in a long time Don was the only one who’d ever seen one of those--some sort of breakdown I’d had several in the first few years after Howard Graha in the past decade or so--until now, that is I suppose it was the injury, the stress and the exhaustion, all weighing in at once Roff left the bathroo the compress over my eyes I knew Gavin was there by his scent He knew I kneell

"I’ht off "That hasn’t happened for at least ten years Hopefully it won’t happen again"

"Cara, what hasn’t happened in ten years?" Gavin’s voice was gentle Where did that coht as it was possible to be

"Don called it crying jags It happened a lot in the first five years after Howard Graham, well," I didn’t finish "Only once in a while after that before it finally went away Until last night"

"Cara, I am not Howard Graham"

"I know"

"Cara, I will not touch you in anger"

"Gavin, you say that now What if I ain? Howard Grahaain Until he’d get drunk the very next day and break his proht in the bathroom made me squint and ramped up the headache

"Headache?"

"Migraine"

"Worse"

"Yes"

"He yelled and cursed, didn’t he?" The subject had changed again Gavin now knelt next to the bathtub, taking the coain "While he beat you and your et that" I slipped down farther into the water There was no bubble bath in this water, it was perfectly clear Gavin could see every bit of me I felt a little embarrassed, but then he’d seen every bit of e, dribbled body wash on it and proceeded to give an to talk First in Italian, then switching to French Telling ers Traced e, and then with his fingers Said he loved my ankles and kissed those when he lifted them out of the water And then he started to talk about Howard Grahaers down my ribs "Could he not see how fine and beautiful it was? Why would any man harm a child, even if it were not his?" Gavin leaned in and placed a kiss--the first of the evening--on my mouth "Cara, when you are away froain Eventually he pulled me out of the tub after the water had cooled quite a bit, wrapped me up in my robe and carried me out of the bathroom

"There is our little rose," René said when Gavin carriedof blood At least two-thirds of a bag, anyway Winkler, Roff and Tony watched as I had irl is fine except for the terrible headache," Gavin put the rest of h of relief

"We have records of deposits, as well as the aliases and the addresses of several holobe connected to those aliases," Bill thu with names of contacts Rahi out inforht and left about you Now, suppose you tell us what you know and which information you’ve handed to the enemy, or so help me, I’ll see you crucified"

Adation roos He’d been inside those roo He knew the drill He also knew exactly as going to happen to him His ex-wife and his son would be crucified with him and they hadn’t even suspected Alif hadn’t been the only one pulling his strings, he no The powerful vain with It was a ga He just hadn’t realized how far it would go or how deeply it would wound the country He suspected now that he’d been under sos wasn’t going to accept that as an excuse Admiral Hafer’s career--and his life--were over

I was huddled against Gavin’s side as atched the early news before dawn The news crews had gotten word that sohts before and were pressing the White House for information Eventually the White House Press Secretary held a press conference, explaining that caotten lost and wandered into the space normally off-limits to visitors He denied any altercation and said the situation was resolved ahed

"How is you headache, cara?" he leaned down to kiss oes ahen I sleep," I yawned