door of Suite 801 shut behind her and cut of

figures settle, and put it away. Ten million dollars, and she was

oards. Under it, two inches off-key

crowded room. A glass thr

d the sound had come from the half-open door of Lounge 4, t

k on the kind of money that makes people stupid. The

yes in shadow. He was in a navy suit that cost more than the five of

e Hopkins heir - the one who had gone out on a yacht years ago and come back deaf, mute, and

first thing she

d to the door, brake set, the position chosen. Nobody had pushed him around so he could see who cam

and he had done it bef

Macallan bottle wave

Can't even h

and his lashes low, the picture of a man who had

er in his pocket. Tap. Tap. Tap. Counting. Counting money, while they poured whiskey on him, the way a

borate, insulting gesture an inch from

ey went over his shoes, his trousers, the c

ed. That was al

who felt nothing would not have braced at all; a man who felt

lifted h

ed breathing

gray eyes with something wrong in them. He looked like a figure in a painting about grief. It irritated her, the

until his face was a

mute cripple nobody wants

caught the gap in the door. He

hing in h

uth softened. His shoulders came up. He lifted one hand, slow and shaking, to shi

vincing thing Deidre had seen all year, an

ender, grinned, and drew

opped to the kni

mething about the way he waited, the quiet of it, that went straight past her training and

boot again

ls, borders, product, ten million dollars in a basement - none of it had ev

giving a