Poor Pam. Past thirty and still under the thumb of her mother.Not that my life is so wonderful, Judy thought ruefully. Bob never seems to come home an... more. I wonder if he really is working late. If he doesn't come home soon and fuck me I'll go crazy.She inhaled deeply, seething with a frustration that was becoming part of her everyday life. Knowing Pam was probably getting fucked didn't help.Still, she didn't envy her sister-in-law. Pam was almost an old-maid, although the term was no longer. He had re-entered the building with a backward look.Tugging at his jacket to straighten it, Alex sighed. There wasn't a cab in sight. He'd have to walk into town.The suspicion that he was being followed began with vague noises in the darkness behind him. He would see no one, yet the feeling persisted.Climbing a steep street, he was suddenly boxed in by two men. One was heavy, squat, powerful. He reminded Alex of the doorman at the Casa de Los Angeles. His companion was short and skinny, dressed. This was actually part of her designed healing process, making it hard for any of her kind to bleed to death. Earth weapons function mainly by causing a victim to bleed to death from the damage incurred. Béla’s father (or someone, back then) had designed her and her sisters so that they were almost impossible to kill using Earth-type weapons (at least the projectile throwing types – they could still be crushed with a mace or fried with an energy gun).Béla was able to breathe more easily as the. The sun was setting and the view across the water was fantastic. I believe the restaurant was called “Anchorage”. We waited a short time for a table. Several eyes followed Cinnamon as we walked to our table. We were seated at a table that had no other tables between us and the water. The bar was in the center so most of the tables had a good view of the water. The menu was large, but heavily weighted to seafood. We ordered drinks and then ordered our food when the waiter came back with our.