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left behind.
    But the explosion’s aftershock passed quickly, leaving shaken nerves behind but very little real damage. I sat up and pulled Connor into my lap. He was shaking and staring at the ceiling with frightened, solemn eyes, but he didn’t cry. I smoothed his hair, rocking him and trying not to be obvious about watching Dominic and Aleksei. The two men couldn’t help but see us now or know we’d heard every word. That concerned me a great deal.
    Mr. Mullaney glanced our way, but something else, a noise or a movement I’d missed, caught his attention. He stared at the ceiling for an instant, eyes growing wider. “Mother of God … look out!”
    Dominic Mullaney shoved Aleksei hard, sending him flying to one side. He dodged in the opposite direction, hitting the floor and rolling. A chandelier crashed to the ground between them, missing Aleksei by inches.
    Connor stared at the fallen chandelier, quiet and unnaturally calm. A thousand shards of shattered crystal littered the floor, and a thousand more unbroken crystal prisms still clung to the chandelier’s frame, or had rolled into the alcove. I looked out across the lobby at the mirrored sconces set into walls, the remaining chandeliers, broken vases and crystal prisms scattered on marble floors.
    The princess ghost looked back from each one.

 
    CHAPTER 3
    Gabe
    Picking their way through the debris in the square took longer than Gabe had planned, but both he and Jack were unsteady on their feet and ready to collapse. By the time they limped into the damaged lobby of the Palace, Gabe knew neither of them was in any condition to run an investigation. Only sheer stubbornness and the need to see their wives, to make sure Libby and the children were safe, had gotten them this far.
    One small window on the front of the hotel building had shattered, but the rest were crazed with spiderweb cracks and would need to be replaced. Distance from the blast was the only reason Gabe could come up with for why they hadn’t all broken. Hotel staff rushed around the lobby, doing their best to clean up the wreckage caused when the dynamite cache exploded. Fragments of broken porcelain vases crunched underfoot and flowers lay dying in puddles of water, but the damage was only an annoying mess, not anything life threatening or that would bring the building down.
    Sending Dee and Sadie to the Palace had been the right thing to do. Still, he wouldn’t relax until he saw them.
    â€œDelia said they’d wait near the back of the lobby.” Jack was flushed and winded, his limp much worse. “Don’t let me fall over before we find them.”
    â€œNot a chance. Sadie would never forgive me if I left you behind.” Gabe got a shoulder under Jack’s arm and took more of his weight. He ignored the stabbing ache in his side. “Sam’s got his hands full and I’m too tired to drag you the rest of the way. Let’s go.”
    More cops were already arriving on the scene, including the rest of their squad. Both Sergeant Rockwell and Marshall Henderson were more than capable of taking over, questioning any witnesses that hadn’t fled and making sure nothing was overlooked. Unless he missed his guess, Henderson had already started the squad searching the rubble for the injured and laying out bodies of those who’d died.
    Gabe wouldn’t need to argue his partner away from duty and into going to the hospital; Sadie would see to that. She’d take one look at Jack, and the battle would be over before it started.
    A glance over his shoulder let Gabe know Sam Butler and the girl were still right behind them. She was leaning heavily on Sam, his arm around her shoulder all that kept her moving. Shock and reaction to everything she’d seen left her with a disbelieving expression and a glazed look in her eyes.
    He’d seen that same numbness on the face of survivors trapped in their own heads, reliving the