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tend to turn
on you the first chance they get. I left her tied up so she
couldn't call for help and exited the room.
    The cozy suite of rooms I'd been in led
directly back into the unfinished interior of the building.
Apparently there was another set of rooms on the far side; I just
needed to cross the wasteland of post-industrial refuse to get
there.
    I found the two huge bruisers I'd been
expecting earlier outside the room just where Jenny had promised.
Sergen apparently had decided to amuse himself while he waited. The
closer guy, a huge islander wearing a shoulder holster over his
white tank top, stepped forward to block my way.
    "No tourists allowed. Turn around and go back
the way you came."
    "Can't. I have an appointment with
Sergen."
    "He's busy."
    I casually slammed the palm of my hand into his
sternum. For all the ease of the motion, it carried enough force to
knock him back into the wall in a rain of sheet rock.
    I'd already turned towards the second
bodyguard, a skinny white guy, but he moved faster than any human
I'd ever seen before. I flipped my briefcase into his arm. It hit
with a sickening crunch as his gun discharged into the ground at my
feet.
    I expected the second guard to fold up around
his shattered appendage, but he went for his backup gun as he was
still falling toward the ground. I could hear footsteps as Sergen's
other men on site were alerted by the gunfire.
    The guard got a shot off as I kicked him. An
awl of fire burned through my side as the guard hit against a
concrete pylon.
    I gathered up the fallen gun and hit
the door to Sergen's room with my shoulder, splintering it as I
went through. The room's three occupants were in various states of
undress. I ignored the first girl, focusing instead on Sergen and
the gun he had pressed up against the second girl's
head.
    "Who the hell are you?"
    The hostage was a slender redhead
whose eyes had all but rolled back up inside her head in fear. She
was at least a couple of years younger than me and my jaw clenched
as I took in the numerous bruises dotting her arms and
face.
    He was
getting jumpy. Only seconds until his men would come flooding into
the room, and he was losing his nerve. I only had a heartbeat to
decide on a course of action. I let the handgun drop.

Chapter 10
    Despite having told Mom that I had more friends
than just Alec and Rachel, I was pretty stunned by how fast my
calendar had filled up. Aspen with Alec, lunch with Sam and Alison,
dinner, sort of, with Ben and the crew.
    Being busy with friends was pretty much foreign
to my existence. It had seemed to reassure Mom though. Obviously if
I had that many friends and she hadn't seen Alec since, I must not
be in some kind of nightmare co-dependent relationship.
    Not only had Mom not freaked out
about my Saturday lunch appointment, she'd actually been excited to
hear that I was going to the Funcade with Rachel, Jasmin and Ben. I
hadn't talked to her about Aspen yet. I was pretty sure the
parental leniency was only going to go so far.
    Sam and Alison arrived as I was running through
Mom's latest batch of pictures with her.
    "Hi, guys, this is my mom. Mom, Alison and
Sam."
    Alison swept into the house and
waved at my mom. "Hi, Mrs. Paige. We've heard a lot about you. How
was Europe?"
    "Exhausting. They kept me so busy with shoots
it was all I could do to drag myself back to my hotel room each
night. I didn't see much in the way of sights, but it was good
experience."
    I swung the door shut behind Sam and cleared my
throat. "Do you guys mind waiting for just a minute? Mom and I were
just about finished running through the stuff she shot yesterday.
She hates it when I bail midway through, says it ruins her artistic
vibe."
    "Don't be silly, dear. I don't expect your
friends to just sit around. We've already been through most of the
decent stuff. Don't let me hold you up."
    Sam smiled earnestly. "Actually,
Mrs. Paige, we'd love to see some of your work. Were you shooting
in Zions again?"
    "I was.