“He’s supposed to be protecting Cousin Mike’s girl.”The trooper looked in the limousine for a second and then shouted, “Cousin Mike’s girl...is here, too. She’s a pretty one.”Pat Ables walked over to the car and stuck his head in the window. He gave Melinda a thorough visual examination and then said, “Cousin Mike said you were pretty, but calling you pretty just doesn’t do you justice. If he hadn’t laid claim to you, I’d be pulling you over ten times a day until you said enough and agreed to. Suddenly, it was a little awkward between us."Call me this evening. I want to know how your mother stood the trip." Okay. Jones, I don't know how to thank you for doing so much for me. It is a debt I'm afraid will never be paid, because it is so much." Don't worry about it unless I send you a bill. Chazzy, I'm being honest now. You have made my life so much less lonely these last few months. I'll miss you just for the few days you will be gone." I stepped to her and put my arms around her. "I. With all the excitement, the question of whether I was boffing Paul Warren's barely legal daughter just never came up.Maria and I became the soul of discretion after that. My apartment wasn't a high-risk area, because there weren't any other players living on the premises, and my public image was still pretty much on a par with the guys on the University of Maryland lacrosse team.A few folks might have had raised eyebrows at seeing a pretty white girl going into the apartment of One of Those. Every time she conversed with me she learned more about my Darkness, and the more she learned about my Darkness the more she became enthralled with it, the stronger the call became to her. Now we are both stuck in a horrible place, we hear each others call to Darkness loud and pure and sweet as Surrender, but she is afraid, she didn’t even know she had this Darkness inside of her six weeks ago and now it seems as if it will Consume her. I have tried to explain to her that when our Darkness’.