Chapter 47 : Repairing Relationships

The lawyers shuffled out after about half an hour of celebratory drinking and self-congratulations. Raven was left alone in the dining room, the last of the drug’s aftereffects fading into the light champagne buzz.

Raven hoisted herself onto the table, where all the monitors and laptops had been set up only a little while before.

But Kade didn’t come back in. She linked her ankles and swung them back and forth. If he didn’t show up soon, she decided, she was going to get at least a few hours of sleep before they met up with Christina Lu. But what was keeping Kade?

Then she caught the flow of low, low voices. Hushed, coming from the kitchen. Kade and Seymore.

She hopped off the table and moved tentatively toward the conversation. She told herself that she wanted to defend Seymore, if it came down to it. To tell Kade she understood what it would be to be dominated. To be taken. But she also knew she was just intensely curious.

Kade and Seymore were poised, facing off from oppos