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CHAPTER 142 PART 2
Ethan shook his head slowly. "I have too much to do. Another time.""Think of the glory," Doctor James pleaded. He trailed after Ethan across the room. "Think of the look on his face when you whisper the answers in my ear.""No," Ethan said flatly. He picked up a jar of crushed roots and tipped it into the furnace."The college is a fine school," Doctor James tried again. His voice grew thin and desperate."The best in the country. They say the students there are brilliant. Why, the Hale girl attends. Harper Hale. The granddaughter of that land tycoon."Ethan's hand stopped in midair. A single leaf drifted from his fingers and fell into the flame, and it burned with a bright green spark."Harper Hale studies there?" Ethan asked slowly. He turned around, and his eyes were sharp."Top of her class, I hear," Doctor James said. He blinked. "Why, do you know her?"Ethan did not answer. The Green Phoenix Vine grew in her private rooms in New York. A public lecture at her own school was the
CHAPTER 142 PART 1
The clinic was quiet after Mason left. A single lamp burned on the wall of the back room, and its yellow light fell across a framed portrait that hung above the old oak desk.It showed a gentle woman with soft eyes and a faint, tired smile. Her hair was pinned back, and she wore a plain white coat with a stethoscope around her neck.Ethan stood before it for a long time. He raised one hand and wiped a thin film of dust from the frame with his thumb."Mom," he whispered. His voice was low and rough. "I know you never wanted me to carry this. But I cannot put it down."He looked into her painted eyes and made a silent vow. He would go to New York, and he would stand in front of every family member who had driven her to her grave.Not a single one of them would be forgotten. Not a single debt would stay unpaid.He bowed once to the portrait. Then he turned away and walked to the back of the room, where a squat bronze furnace sat beneath a cloth.He pulled the cloth away and set to work.
CHAPTER 141 PART 2
"I knew it the moment I saw you at the conference. No one else fights like that.""Ethan Cole," Ethan repeated, and his face was hard. "That is who I am now. Go home, Mason. You have done enough for me.""I will not leave." Mason planted his feet and shook his head. His chin lifted. "Not unless you throw me out by force.""You have a post to return to," Ethan said. He frowned. "The Tiger Guard needs every man it has.""I am not a deserter, sir." Mason's voice cracked, and his fists clenched at his sides. "I walked out in protest. Do you know who runs the Guard now?""Tell me," Ethan said quietly."Charles Sherman." Mason spat the name as though it tasted of rot."That old hound took the command after you vanished. He threw out every loyal veteran who ever fought beside you. He gave the best posts to his own grandson, Ryan Ingram."Ethan did not move. A muscle jumped in his jaw."Evelyn Sherman's boy," Mason went on. His voice shook with anger."Edward Ingram's son. He has never fired
CHAPTER 141 PART 1
The black Bentley rolled back toward the city with its windows still open to the cold night. The smell of Diane Morgan clung to the leather like a bad memory.Mrs. Hayes kept one hand on the wheel and fanned her nose with the other. She glanced at Ethan in the rearview mirror, and her eyes were full of questions."Why did you not just leave that woman in the gutter?" Mrs. Hayes asked. She wrinkled her nose and shook her head."She treated your mother like garbage. Nobody would blame you.""Because she is useful," Ethan replied. He leaned back and watched the dark fields slide past."Tamara Watanabe is using Sophia to reach for the herb supply in the Southwest. Diane knows how that deal started.""So you keep her like a guard dog," Victoria said slowly. She turned to him with sharp, thoughtful eyes. "One that watches for the wolf.""A guard dog that I do not feed," Ethan said. A cold smile touched his lips. "I only need her to stay alive and stay close."Mrs. Hayes snorted a short laug
CHAPTER 140 PART 2
The engine purred, and the Bentley rolled forward. Diane scrambled to her feet and ran after it, clinging to the window frame with both hands."Wait!" Diane panted. Her feet slapped the asphalt as she jogged alongside the glass. "Please, Ethan, I will do anything! Do not leave me here! I will die!"Ethan watched her through the glass, wheezing and weeping beside the car, and a flat, tired thought moved through his mind.Carl Hunter, the one they called Blackhawk, was dead. Preston Wells was a useless coward. But Tamara Watanabe had picked up Sophia like a piece on a board.The Watanabe Pharmaceutical Group needed a local partner to fight for the Southwest's best medicinal herbs. Sophia was desperate, bitter, and carried the Morgan name. She was the perfect puppet.And Diane knew exactly how that puppet had been made. She might be a useful leash someday.
CHAPTER 140 PART 1
The black Bentley slid through a dim street on the east side of Chicago, where the lamps buzzed and the sidewalks were cracked.Ethan sat in the back seat with his eyes on the passing storefronts.A shape stumbled out of an alley and into the glow of the headlights.It was a heavy, filthy woman in a coat so black with grime that it shone, and she was licking something off a dirty wrapper.Mrs. Hayes braked gently and the car stopped at the curb. Ethan stepped out into the cold night air, and Victoria followed him with her coat wrapped tight.The woman looked up. Her face was swollen and gray, and her gray hair stuck out in greasy ropes.She stared at Ethan for a moment and then her mouth fell open."Ethan!" she croaked. She lunged forward and seized his arm with both hands, and her black fingers sank into his tailored sleeve. "Ethan, it is me! Thank God, thank God!"Greasy handprints bloomed across the fine dark wool. Ethan looked down at them with a face that showed nothing at all."
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