Blood Song

Blood Song Read Free Page A

Book: Blood Song Read Free
Author: Cat Adams
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that I haven’t had a chance to get it cut. If I hadn’t been wearing it pulled back it’d be driving me crazy.
    “No, really. You’re closing in on beautiful tonight.”
    That made me stare at him with an open mouth. I am
not
beautiful. Oh, sure, I have pretty good bone structure, but my features are too harsh to be considered traditionally pretty. At five ten, I’m too tall for my body type, and my skin goes beyond “creamy” to nearly goth pale. My last boyfriend described my eyes as the gray of storm clouds with chips of ice. A fair enough description, and certainly more poetic than I would have expected.
    “I’d better not look beautiful. Seriously, Bob. That’s not good for business. Be honest. Is this outfit too … much?” I looked down at my clothes and then looked up at his face. He finally understood what I was talking about and my question made him look at me critically. I was wearing mostly black, from the comfortable flats on my feet to my jeans and blazer. The only contrast was the deep burgundy of my blouse. Well, that and the garnet earrings I was wearing that matched it. I’d put on makeup, but it was minimal. I was, after all, here on business. I’d noticed that if I look too good, male clients get the wrong impression—start treating it as a date—and the other bodyguards don’t take me seriously. Better to keep things simple and avoid misunderstandings.
    He’d just opened his mouth to reply when a voice came through the speaker above. “You’re early.” The tone made it sound like we’d done a bad thing, but I heard the whir of machinery as the private elevator descended toward us from the penthouse.
    “We came early to check the perimeter for threats. There was a problem.” Bob did his best bored, professional voice. “We’ll need to report it to the authorities.”
    I could’ve sworn I heard swearing in the instant before the intercom was cut off. It surprised me a little. One of the first things I’d learned as a bodyguard was that you don’t let the protectee know you’re upset. Concerned is okay. But you stay calm. Emotions just get in the way, so you bury them deep. Don’t get me wrong, you still feel them, but they’re under control and they
don’t
show.
    Which meant somebody upstairs wasn’t a professional. Terrific. I just love working with amateurs. (And if you believe that, there’s this bridge …)
    I cast a meaningful look at Bob, and he rolled his eyes. We stood in silence for a few seconds. In the end he was the one who spoke first.
    “The outfit is fine. Not overdone. Sorry. I understand how compliments can be a double-edged sword.” He paused. “So, how’s Vicki?”
    I shrugged off the compliment. He’d meant well, but … well, it does always worry me. “Still in the hospital. She seems to like it there.” She did. I’d have felt trapped, but she liked the safety of it. “How’s Vanessa?”
    He flinched, and I saw a flash of pain in his eyes before he was able to hide it. “We’re divorced.” He closed his eyes for a second. When he opened them again, his face was a pleasant mask. “Back on the market again.” He smiled, but I knew him well enough to know he didn’t mean it. “She got everything except the clothes on my back and my weapons. That’s the main reason I took this job. I didn’t really like the look of the guy they sent to talk to me, but I needed the money.”
    “Speaking of weapons, what have you got on you?”
    He held open his jacket to show me his main gun, a Glock Safe Action 9mm in a custom leather holster. Loops in the lining of his jacket held a pair of throwing knives. I knew they had high silver content, and could tell from the engraving that he’d sprung for the throwing accuracy spells. But that was it. Which was
so
not like him that I was actually taken aback. I tried to hide my surprise, but it must’ve shown, because he answered me, his voice gruff with embarrassment.
    “I had to pawn some of my stuff to

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