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“What’s wrong?”

His hand settled in the s her forward toward the ballroom doors

“Hell if I know,” he ”

The panic intensified Ria couldn’t explain it; she couldn’t force hio to that office, but every fe out at her, de that she run, that she escape

That instinct was a part of her She always heeded it The few times she hadn’t

had seen her heart broken, her pride in shambles And she had seen the pity for her weakness in Leo and Dane’s eyes Always the sad, poor little orphan

“Ria?” Mercury questioned her as they entered the foyer and moved to the back of the hall “Are you okay?”

“Fine” She sent him a smile she hoped wasn’t as brittle as she felt “I think the shoes are pinching ”

Or so The closer they moved to that office, the more she had to restrain herself not to turn and run

“I hate it when you lie to me,” he snarled softly

“I hate it when you ask me questions I don’t kno to answer,” she hissed back “I’ve had a bad feeling all day”

She clutched the side of her dress, lifting the long skirt as they moved closer to their destination She could run now, she told herself

Like hell She wasn’t a coward And it wasn’t physical danger she could feel awaiting her She couldn’t explain the premonition She had never been able to explain them

“Jonas, Callan and Dane are waiting in Jonas’s office,” he told her “Dane wouldn’t allow you to walk into danger”

She shook her head “It’s not danger”