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“Was the guy walking after you were through with him?”

“Yeah, but he was wearing a new pair of earrings, if you know what I mean. I also found two minors on the premises and kicked them out. And one of the bouncers was taking kickbacks from the line, so I fired him.”

“Anything else?”

“We had another OD.”

“Shit. Not our product, though, right?”

“Nope. Outside junk.” She pulled a small cellophane bag out of the back pocket of her leathers and tossed it on his desk. “I managed to snag this before the EMTs arrived. I’m hiring some extra staff to deal with the situation.”

“Good. You find that freelancer, you bring his ass to me. I want to take care of him personally.”

“Will do.”

“You got anything more for me?”

In the silence that followed, Xhex leaned forward and linked her hands together. Her body was all tight muscle, nothing but hard angles except for her high, small breasts. She was deliciously hermaphroditic, although fully a female so far as he’d heard.

The cop should feel lucky, he thought. Xhex didn’t have sex that often, and then only when she found the male worthy.

She also didn’t waste time. Usually. “Xhex, talk.”

“I want to know something.”

Rehv eased back in his chair. “Is this going to piss me off?”

“Yup. Are you looking for a mate?”

As his eyes started to glow purple, he tilted his chin down and stared at her from under his brows. “Who said I was? And I want the name.”

“Deduction, not gossip. According to GPS records, your Bentley’s been by Havers’s a lot lately. I happen to know Marissa is unattached. She’s beautiful. Complicated. But you’ve never cared about the glymera. You thinking about mating her?”

“Not at all,” he lied.

“Good.” As Xhex’s eyes nailed into him, it was obvious she knew the truth. “Because it would be crazy for you to give it a shot. She’d find out about you—and I’m not talking about what goes down here. She’s a member of the Princeps Council, for chrissakes. If she knew you were a symphath, that would compromise both of us.”

Rehv rose to his feet and palmed his cane. “The Brotherhood already knows about me.”

“How?” Xhex breathed.

He thought about the little lip/fang thing he and the Brother, Phury, had shared and decided to keep that on the down-low. “They just do. And now that my sister’s mated to a Brother, I’m a member of the frickin’ family. So even if the Princeps Council found out, those warriors would keep them at bay.”

Too bad his blackmailer was unaffected by the ways of the Normals. Symphaths, he was learning, made very bad enemies. No wonder his kind were hated.

“You sure about that?” Xhex said.

“It would kill Bella if I were sent to one of those colonies. You think that hellren of hers would stand for her being upset like that, especially as she’s pregnant? Z’s one mean-ass motherfucker and he is very protective of her. So, yeah, I’m sure.”

“She ever guessed about you?”

“No.” And though Zsadist knew, he wasn’t going to tell his mate. No way he’d put Bella in that position. Laws read that if you knew of a symphath you had to report him or her or face prosecution.

Rehv came around the desk, relying on his cane now that Xhex was the only one around. The dopamine he shot himself up with regularly kept the worst of the symphath urges at bay, enabling him to pass for a Normal. He wasn’t sure how Xhex managed it. Wasn’t sure he wanted to know. But the thing was, with his sense of touch gone, he had to use a cane or he was liable to fall. After all, depth perception got you only so far when you couldn’t feel your feet or legs.

“You don’t worry,” he said. “No one knows what either one of us are. And it’s going to stay that way.”

Gray eyes stared up at him. “Are you feeding her, Rehv.” Not a question. A demand. “Are you feeding Marissa?”

“That’s my business, not yours.”

She shot to her feet. “Goddamn you—we agreed. Twenty-five years ago when I had my little problem, we agreed. No mates. No feeding with Normals. What the hell are you doing?”

“I’m in control