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As theShadow threw out the demand, John saw Qhuinn and Blay both stiffen and knehere his boys were coerous by definition Shadows ran by their own code and no one else&039;s and they were capable of things that would

But when it ca of fire

Long as I have a pad and pen, we&039;re good to go, John signed When neither Blay nor Qhuinn translated, he frowned and elbowed them both

Qhuinn cleared his throat and stared across the bar at Trez "As his ahstrux nohtruo anywhere he does"

"Not in my house, you don&039;t Or in my brother&039;s"

Qhuinn rose to his feet, like he would throith the Shadow if he had to "That&039;s the way it works"

John slid out of the booth and planted his body in Qhuinn&039;s path before the ot all linebacker With a nod toward the back, where he was assuo, he waited for the Shadow to lead the way

Naturally, Qhuinn just had to open his pie hole "Fuck that, John"

John wheeled around and signed, Do I have to give you a godda out here Period End of

You suck, Qhuinn&039;s hands spelled out I&039;les--

The sound of a doorbell going off broke the argulanced at the securityis here"

As he strode around the counter and headed out for the front door, Trez focused on Qhuinn for a long moment, then said to John, "Tell your boy it&039;s hard to protect someone when you&039;re dead"

Qhuinn&039;s voice grew hard as a punch "I&039;d go to the death for him"

"You keep up the attitude and that will not be a hypothetical"

Qhuinn bared his fangs and hissed do in his throat, beco the deadly aniy around As he glared at Trez, it was pretty clear that in hisfor the Shadow&039;s throat

Trez suy, huh Or are you all show"

Hard to knohich fighter to back The Shadow had tricks up his sleeve, and yet Qhuinn was looking like a bulldozer prepared to take down a building But whatever, this was Caldwell, not Las Vegas, and John wasn&039;t a bookie to take odds

The right ansas to not let the unstoppable force meet the immovable object

John balled up his fist and slaht everyone&039;s head around, and Blay had to catch his Coke on the upswing as it bounced into the air

After John grabbed the undivided attention of the coered up two birds and flashed one in each of their directions: Beingthem to chill the fuck out

Qhuinn&039;sback to the Shadow "It&039;s just like you would do for Rehv Can&039;t blame me for that"

There was a pause and then the Shadow eased up a little "True enough" As the testosterone surge faded to a dull roar, Trez nodded "Yeah true enough And I&039;entleive you ned, before turning around and heading for the Shadow

Trez led the way into a hall that ide and stacked with cases of beer and liquor The kitchen was at the far end, separated by a pair of flap- doors that htly lit and with a red tile floor, the heart of the restaurant was neat as a pin and the size of a house, with a bank of stoves, a meat locker, and yards and yards of stainless-steel countertops Pans hung up above and down below and so on a front burner

Trez went over and lifted the lid After a deep inhale, he glanced over with a smile "My brother is a helluva cook"

Sure was, John thought Although with Shadows you always had to wonder what the protein was Ruuy replaced the top and reached up to a stack of pads Taking one of theed a pen from a cup

"That&039;s for you" Trez crossed his arainst the stove "When you called and asked to see us, I was surprised Like I said, Rehv lives under the same roof you do, so it&039;s not as if you aren&039;t aware of what he&039;s doing up north in the colony Therefore youthe northern- most corner of the labyrinth this week and you must also be aware that he&039;s found absolutely, positively nothing that leads him to believe Xhex was captured by a symphath"

John didn&039;t

"And I also find it curious that you want to askabout the trade here in Caldwell"

At this point, iAave it a stir as well, then braced hi the same pose John hadn&039;t heard they were twins, but da, John," Trezknohat you&039;re up to and why aren&039;t you talking to e?"

John faced off at the pair of them and then picked up the pen and wrote for a little bit When he flashed the paper forward, the Shadows leaned in

You are perfectly aware of what&039;s going on here Stop wasting our tihed and iAured you ht want to explain yourself" When John shook his head, Trez nodded "Okay, fair enough And I gotta respect your no-bullshit policy Who else knows that this is personal to you?"

John went back to the pad-and-pen routine Rehv, iven that he&039;s a symphathQhuinn and Blay But none of the Brothers

iAot it have to do with her?"

John was ured they could either smell the fresh ink or feel the reverberations of the faded pain

With a quiet scribble, he wrote, That is none of your business

"Cool, I can respect that," Trez said "Listen no offense, but why can&039;t you trust the Brothers with this shit? Is it because she&039;s a symphath and you&039;re worried about how they&039;ll take it? Because they&039;re doith Rehv"

Use your head I go all guns-blazing about her with the to expect aYou think she&039;d appreciate that? And if she&039;s dead? I don&039;t want to stare across the dinner table everyh "Well there you go And I can&039;t fault logic like that"

So I need your help Help me help her

The two Shadows looked at each other and there was a long stretch of quiet Which John took to ray lanced back to hi "Well, now since you&039;ve done us the courtesy of cutting the shit, we&039;ll do the sa to you like this puts us in a difficult position Our relationship with Rehv is tight, as you know, and he&039;s as personally invested in this as you are" Just as John was trying to figure out a way around all that, Trez mur up on her Anywhere"

John sed hard, thinking that was not good news

"No, it isn&039;t She&039;s either dead or she&039;s being held somewhere with a block" Trez cursed "I think Lash has her, too And I totally buy the idea that he&039;s working the streets for cash, and that&039;s the only way to find hi out hu Society--andthem ASAP He&039;ll want to have total control over his retail tea the So is the high school, although that&039;s going to be tough because of daylight problems for you Municipal construction zones, too-- the vendors in those catering trucks always used to buy frooes down there And under the bridges-- although that&039;s mostly homeless, bottom-feeder real estate, so the crank ratio for cash will probably be too low for Lash to get a hard-on over"

John nodded, thinking this was precisely the info he&039;d been hoping to get What about the suppliers, he wrote If Lash stepped into Rehv&039;s shoes, wouldn&039;t he need relationships with the one in town, Ricardo Benloise, is pretty fucking insulated, though" Trez glanced at his brother and there was another silence When iAet you soh so you can trail his ass in the event he , Thank you so much

Both of them nodded, and then Trez said, "Two caveats"

With his hands, John urged the guy to continue

"One,fro to tell him you came to see us" As John frowned, Trez shook his head "Sorry That&039;s the way it is"

iAing deep Not that the Brothers aren&039;t, it&039;s just the more hands on deck, the better her chances are"

John could see that, but he still wanted to keep shit private Before he could get scribbling, Trez kept going

"And two, you e, that fucking control-freak bastard, has co up here? Well, isn&039;t that just a convenient way for us to get involved"

As John wondered why in the hell Rehv would tie the hands of the tarriors, iAet ourselves killed"

"And because of our" Trez paused, as if looking for the right word " &039;relationship&039; with hiht as well have chained us to the cocksucking wall"

Trez shrugged "Which e agreed to meet with you The moment you texted, we knew--"

"--here was the opening we--"

"--were looking for"

As the Shadows completed each other&039;s sentences, John took a deep breath At least they understood where he was co from

"We totally do" Trez put his knuckles out and, as John gave theuy nodded "And let&039;s just keep this little backroom convo to ourselves"

John leaned over the pad Wait, I thought you said you were going to tell Rehv I was here?

Trez read over the handwriting and laughed again "Oh, we&039;re going to tell him you came to visit and have a meal"