The Unexpected Bodyguard

". . . No one else came out of the store. No car passed on the highway. No siren raised its alarm in the distance. The silence of the night was undisturbed except for a struggling, desperate girl, four grunting men, and me—watching.”

“. . . In these last few days I’ve killed four men, been paid two and a half million dollars for watching a beautiful young girl, gone to Las Vegas and gotten married, and moved from a thousand a month condo into a four thousand a day hotel suite. What in hell are six more months going to bring?”

“Monsieur Stecher makes blood run in our Paris streets, but why—and how does a man sitting unarmed having coffee kill so many?”

". . . Eve lowered the tip of her knife, and the dead man slid off its blade. She looked at her victim with grim satisfaction, like a gladiator standing over a defeated opponent—short sword dripping blood.”