Chapter 89

There were not many people, Harper thought, that looked as good asleep as they did awake, but Mira was one of them. There was an innocence to her that worked with the abandonment of limbs and tangle of hair. She had taken up most of one side of the couch in her sprawl, and so Harper sat on the other wing of chair, her back against the arm and her knees drawn up to her chest, willing herself to stay awake. There was no clock in the living room, the men having no need for it, their cuffs containing a time piece amongst all it s other functions, and so Harper had no idea of the time, except that the evening meal had come and gone, without the men returning home, and it was late. Very late. The elevator bell went, jerking her out of a near sleep, but she would have heard them anyway, their laughter loud and drunken. Mira woke and sat up as the door into the apartment opened, spilling three men into the living area. Daevishk had his arm slung over the third man s shoulder and was