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Chapter 569
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2024-10-29 19:42:56CONNER PRESSED THE GLOWING orange doorbell button just before seven o’clock. A triple chime echoed faintly from inside the house. While he waited, he breathed deeply of the cool evening air, relishing the fresh scent of trees and grass not often experienced in the valley below. He had found the house in the hills above Beverly Hills without trouble, in a quiet neighborhood Conner thought of as “almost there.” The homes were of moderate size, comfortable and well kept, secluded enough to provide privacy and security from the dangers of the urban jungle below. What Alexa’s neighborhood lacked, what kept it from being filled with lavish mansions peopled by those who had truly “arrived,” was favorable topography. Nestled in a small valley whose hillsides folded back upon one another, the lots provided no views, no wide-open vistas of sparkling city lights or mesmerizing blue ocean to double or triple the price of the real estate. Driving up, Conner ha
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Leesa's Advent Chapter 570
“Sit, please,” she said after Conner deposited the salad bowl onto the table. “I’ll be right back.” She pivoted back into the kitchen.Conner slid into the chair on the side of the table, leaving the end seat for Alexa. From his seat, he looked out a large bay window into a grassy backyard ringed by tall hedges. A small ground light near the house threw enough pale yellow illumination onto the yard for him to see the grass was neatly trimmed and that the hedges were oleander bushes.Alexa returned with their half-filled goblets and the bottle of wine, which she emptied into their glasses before placing it on the shelf of an oak breakfront behind her. She leaned over the table and deftly lit two tall lavender candles, then twisted a switch on the wall to dim the crystal chandelier above the table before settling into her chair.“That’s better,” she said. “Why don’t you serve us some salad, Case, while I perform surgery on the lasagna.”Using a set of plastic tongs, Conner filled each o
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Leesa's Advent Chapter 571
Just before nine o'clock on Sunday morning, Conner swung into the parking garage at Parker Center and followed the ramp up to the rooftop level. He pulled into an open spot near the stairway and climbed out of his car into the bright sunshine. The air was warmer than he expected for this time of year, and he wondered if the heat signaled the beginnings of a Santa Ana, when hot, dry air from the desert rushed toward the coast, compressing and heating up still more as it flowed down over the mountains into the basin. The gusty winds usually carried temperatures of ninety or one hundred degrees, and could reach forty or fifty miles per hour in L.A., much more in the outlying communities. Along with the heat, the winds carried a heightened risk of terrifying fires, which seemed to have increased in number and ferocity in recent years. Many people swore the Santa Ana winds also brought a rash of aberrant behavior with them, even more than a full moon, but the only aberrant behavior that
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Leesa's Advent Chapter 572
Conner left Sloane to get the ball rolling with the task force while he headed to a meeting at Collins-Cline Productions. He hopped onto the 101, getting off at Santa Monica Boulevard, delighted by the lack of traffic on both. In less than fifteen minutes, he was pulling up to the Collins-Cline building.The group of picketers out front had grown since his previous visit. He estimated there were close to forty now, despite the fact that it was a hot Sunday afternoon, milling about in bunches in front of the entrance and the driveway to the underground parking. The demonstrators were mostly women, but there more than a few men sprinkled in the crowd. The majority carried signs. One of the signs, hoisted high by an attractive young blond in a tight red body suit, bore the rather ironic message “Death to the Purveyors of Violence.” Conner wondered where she had come up with the word “purveyors,” and whether she truly believed the missive she carried. Or,
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Leesa's Advent Chapter 573
Less than two minutes later, the door swung open. The first person through was a man Conner didn’t recognize. He was short, perhaps five-nine, with a chunky build. By his face, Conner judged him to be in his early thirties, though his balding head made him look older. The top of his skull was nearly completely bald, with only a few wisps of dark brown hair lying flat against his white skin. To compensate, he’d grown the hair on the sides and back long, and gathered it into a short ponytail in the back.Behind him, Keith Stennie swept into the room, though it took Conner half a moment to recognize him. The Zorro outfit was gone. This time, Stennie had outfitted himself in a pirate costume—white shirt with billowing sleeves, loose-fitting black trousers tucked into knee-high black leather boots, a red sash around his waist, with a matching red bandanna tied like a cap around the top of his head. A rough stubble of whiskers covered the young scriptwriter’
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Night had clocked the city for more than an hour by the time Conner carefully guided the BMW down the steep incline to his parking spot beneath his apartment. His dinner, cashew chicken and steamed rice from a Chinese restaurant a few blocks away, sat in a white bag on the seat beside him, filling the car with a sweet, spicy aroma and causing his empty stomach to growl impatiently. He shut off the engine and sat quietly in the dark silence for a few moments, trying to gather enough energy to pull himself out of the car and trudge up to his apartment. The Santa Ana he had guessed at this morning had indeed blossomed, bringing afternoon temperatures into the mid-nineties. The searing heat and long day had drained him. Waves of fatigue lapped at his mind and his body, making him feel he was thinking and moving at a reduced version of his normal pace. Not as dramatic as slow motion; more like the air around him had thickened, requiring just a bit more effort to move through it. A simila
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Conner sagged against the bag of his couch, his gaze fixed on the glowing green digits of the clock on his DVR. Only minutes remained until the start of Vice Squad, and the numbers seemed to change with agonizing slowness. Though switched on, the television was silent. Annoyed by the sound and impatient with the commercials, Conner had pushed the mute button moments after turning the thing on. Through the thin walls of his living room, he heard the muffled sounds from a television in the next apartment. He glanced at his own TV—the voices from the other side of the wall seemed to match the images of the car commercial filling his screen. He shook his head grimly at the reminder of the morbid fascination sweeping the city. Like everybody else in Los Angeles, Conner’s neighbors were getting ready to watch Vice Squad.His entire day had seemed to drag by at the same pace as the last few minutes, each hour creeping by in slow motion, only to be replaced by an hour eve
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Leesa's Advent Chapter 576
Conner prowled restlessly around his apartment, a caged beast pacing mindlessly from kitchen to living room to bedroom, then pivoting and retracing his steps back out across the living room and into the kitchen before turning once again and heading back the way he had come, unable to relax, compelled to keep moving, trying to make the most of the limited space within his cheerless walls. Sitting down or even stopping seemed impossible; the neurons in his body felt as if they were all firing at once, forcing his muscles into action. If he stopped moving, surely he would collapse into a twitching mass of human protoplasm.His mind was equally restless. Random, jumbled thoughts flitted into his brain and then winked out like the fireflies he had chased across dark backyards as a boy on a warm summer nights in Connecticut. He tried not to think about the killer and what tomorrow night would bring, tried to force his thoughts to neutral, inconsequential matters, but it was like as
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Leesa's Advent Chapter 577
The door swung open. Alexa greeted him with a smile.Conner felt his pulse quicken. She was wearing only a simple, over-sized blue and gold UCLA T-shirt that barely reached half way down her shapely thighs. Her auburn hair curled loosely over her shoulders, and her face was scrubbed clean of any make-up, giving her a fetching, innocent look. Despite the hour, she didn’t appear at all surprised to see him.“Hi, Case. You’re out late.”Conner shifted his weight uneasily from one foot to the other. “I was driving around,” he explained, “and I, uh, sort of ended up here.” He grinned sheepishly. “I hope I didn’t wake you.”Alexa frowned, feigning hurt. “Do I look like I was asleep?”“Definitely not,” he said, shaking his head. “You look great.”Alexa smiled. She reached up and tenderly stroked Conner’s cheek with her fingertips. “You,
Last Updated : 2024-10-29
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Leesa's Advent Chapter 727
Serena awoke to the sound of birds chirping and the smell of fresh coffee brewing. She rolled over lazily, reaching out for Raphael, but the space was empty. With eyes still closed, she frowned. Where is that man? That man had probably been out of bed since the crack of dawn, beside himself with nerves for today’s big event, she thought regretfully. They were to be married today. Their lives intertwined for all of eternity. What man wouldn’t have cold feet at the prospect? And they’d known each other such a short time, too. She opened her eyes and blinked a few times, and frowned again. She had awakened in the safe house. Last night, she’d killed a man in her own home, and knew she could never go back there ever again. She didn’t care how good the Brethren’s cleanup crew could restore her home. It would never erase the vivid memories and horrors of what had happened there. She and Raphael would have to find themselves a new home, together. Until such time, this place would be it, th
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It’s going to be a long day without Raphael, Serena thought, as she washed and dressed. But she carried on. With so many loose ends to tie up, final checks to be made, people and places to coordinate, she scarcely had time to think about anything else. Except for her father. In the quiet moments between the bedlam of planning a wedding, she reflected upon him and her heart ached. She had arranged for a nursing home staffer to drive him and his wheelchair to the Chapel of the Holy Cross for the wedding. They didn’t usually allow weddings there, but somehow, Raphael swayed their decision. Kemuel promised to wheel her father down the aisle beside her, and she loved him instantly for that. But her dream was to have him walk her down that aisle. A sob caught in her throat, and she quickly shook her head to whisk it away. None of that nonsense, Serena. Don’t be greedy. At least he is alive and here to be a part of it all. As the day waxed on to evening, Serena felt unsettled. She hadn’t s
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Raphael spent the next few days cloistered with Serena, away from everyone and everything, like a honeymoon before the wedding. But every morning he made creative excuses to tear himself away from her for a little while and work with Fred. To make sure she didn’t visit her father, he dropped her off at her shop first so she could plan a small wedding with Callie and catch up on the mountains of paperwork.The healing sessions with Serena’s father went spectacularly, and with Raphael’s charisma, he convinced the nursing home staff to keep any improvements secret from her. They thought it romantic that he came to help with his fiancée’s father’s rehabilitation. Everyone there rooted for him, amazed at his miraculous awakening. All of the therapists worked their tails off during his therapy sessions, wanting to see their severely stroke-damaged patient beat the odds and walk his daughter down the aisle.On the morning of the fifth day, Raphael got Fred walking without any assistance.“Co
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Raphael grabbed her hands. “Do it!” he demanded. He placed them on his temples and spoke to her through their bonded connection. She felt every thought he had had of Sirona over the years straight to the present down their threaded connection. She heard every thought he’d had of her, including every word he had spoken while holding her in his arms at Dr. Chappo’s estate. He sent her everything that filled his heart and soul about her, and finally, at last, she knew.She knew. And knowing was everything to her. He gently brought her hands away from his face, kissing her fingertips as he eased them down, and she took a few steps backward, looking at him as if for the first time. No one before had ever felt about her the way he felt about her, let alone express so strongly all he’d expressed when she’d lain dying in his arms.“You’re in love with me.” She gasped, astonished. Tears welled again in her eyes, but this time, for a very different reason.“Yes.” He took a bold step toward her.
Leesa's Advent Chapter 723
A bundle of nerves, that’s what she’d turned into. Since leaving her father’s, Serena had been nothing but a bundle of nerves, rehearsing over and over again what she would say to Raphael up on the Rock. Looking all around her now, frightening memories kept popping into her mind, making her think that at any moment, Steve or Wheezer were going to jump out and nab her. Unfortunately, she had gotten to the summit way too early, and now paced like a caged bobcat. It had to stop. The bad guys are dead, Serena. Think positive, and let go the past. So, finding a suitable rock to sit on, Serena decided to do a little meditation to soothe her worried heart. “When I see him, I’ll know the right words to say,” she notified the birds. It may sting for a bit, but it’s for the best.****Raphael showed up at the base of the mountain with time to spare, and noticed Serena’s Jeep already parked. Perfect, he thought. He checked his pocket for the millionth time, making sure the ring box hadn’t fallen
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Raphael watched Serena leave the nursing home from behind one of the bushes in the front. She seems in good spirits, he thought. Only when he saw her disappear down the street did he dare to venture out of his hiding place. He walked into the nursing home and headed straight to the reception desk.“Hello, I’m here to see Mr. Sikes.” He smiled amiably at the receptionist.“Wow, two visitors in one day. Fred’s a lucky guy. Sign in right here, please. You’ll sign out before you leave. Take this badge so we know you belong here. Room 103 is down the hall, make a left, and he’s at the end on the left.”He looked at her name tag, and winked. “Thanks so much, Judy.”Walking down the hall, he found himself fidgeting with the badge in his hand. Am I actually nervous? Hell yeah! Raphael, the man, is about to meet the father of the woman he loves. Raphael, the man, is about to ask for this guy’s daugh
Leesa's Advent Chapter 721
Great! Just great! There’s a leak in my bedroom ceiling. Wait a minute, that’s not right. I’m not in my bedroom. I’m locked away in Dr. Chappo’s house. She remembered more. Being bound to a gurney, her body broken and dying. But I’m not lying on a gurney now, and I actually feel great. How could she be dying and still feel great? And what’s with the rain shower on my face? Slowly her eyes fluttered open, and she gasped.It was raining. Angel’s tears. Raphael’s tears, to be exact.She lay in his arms, and from the way he shuddered and sobbed, she thought maybe he didn’t know she lived. To be honest with herself, she’d only realized this fact just a few moments before. Iridescent wings were outstretched and trembling though no breeze made them flutter so.She gently raised her hand to caress his cheek and whispered softly. “Shh…there now, Raphael, shh. It’s all right. I’m ok
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Raphael noticed a knob on the box. It made sense to dial it to its lowest setting. He followed the tubing to its clamp on Serena’s side and decided to completely clamp it off. Now, no more blood could flow. But he still needed to get the needle out of her arm. He found gauze and tape on the tray stand and proceeded to extrude the catheter from her arm carefully so as not to injure her. He replaced it securely with the gauze and tape. His hands shook. I can’t fall apart like this right now! He quickly shrugged off the threat of paralyzing fear.“Hey, Raphael, this guy says his name is Steve. Isn’t that the name of one of guys who assaulted Serena?” Gabriel asked.“Yes, yes it is,” he said through gnashed teeth. Rage filled him and he clenched his fists, trying to gain some semblance of control. “Bind him, tightly. Make sure he can see Dr. Chappo. I’d like him to see what happens to assholes like him when they choose
Leesa's Advent Chapter 719
Searing hot pain shot like lightning throughout every inch of Serena’s body. Well, every inch she could feel, which left her very disturbed indeed, because she couldn’t feel anything past her waist. She could barely breathe without severe pain ripping through her chest and back. She knew what that meant—broken ribs. But what about her legs? Where were they? And why did her wrists feel shackled? Oh, dear God! What’s become of me? Her shallow breaths quickened. Her heart raced and fought for freedom behind her aching chest. Tears burst through her closed eyes and flowed untapped down the sides of her face.A voice sliced through the whooshing sound in her ears. A voice she knew all too well, and had come to despise with every molecule in her being.“Uh, Doc, I think she’s coming ’round. What do you want me to do?” Steve asked.“Hmm? Oh, nuffin. Nuffin, Seeve. Jus’ keep watchin’,” Dr. Chappo sl
