ith a perpetually pinched face, slid a cashier's check across the polished conference table. It was an obsc

hovered beside him, her attempts at smug glances

g air. She took a deep breath. It didn't smell like freedom.

a.m. Fifteen minutes until

ab dropped her off across from the Plaza Hotel. She paid the driver and stepped onto t

, watching the

h the city's symphony of noise. It wasn't the sound of

around the corner from 58th stree

rajectory and speed. It was moving at well over six

o leap out of the way. She could have bee

ht, a cold, clinical

damage threshol

od her

he sound of the crash-a deafening boom of twisted steel and shattering

ossed by a giant. She hit the pavement with a sickening

away. The passenger door opened, and a bo

d cold beauty, his eyes the color of a winter sky. He watched the sc

were out, recording. Someone was s

his bodyguard to

shoulder, her eyes snapped open. The pupils gl

sa

h the crowd. People scrambled backward. The bodygua

place. Inside, she could feel a strange, accelerated process taking place-the faint grinding of bone knitting itself back together, the tingling sensat

red. His pupils constricted, and a flicker of somethi

er clothes. Her gaze swept past the terrified crowd, past the

ep, internal source. A key figure, flagged with the highest possible security clearance and a danger r

ady and purposeful, ignoring the police offic

wheelchair, looking down at him. A sm

dy. "But next time you try to run someone over

sed a hand, his long, elegant fingers reaching for her

tatic-like probe against her consciousness. It was weak,

a wall of pure, s

cked, revealing a sliver of raw, stunned disbelief. He had ne

apped his

she said, her voice low and mo

Iain's face. The shock was gone, repla

," he said.