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the stone-cold killer he knew her to be.
    "Do you have a buyer lined up?" he asked, after she had remained silent for a few moments.
    "We'll keep it for a while," Elaine said as she carelessly tossed the torc onto the floor. "Maybe get some of our men to look at it, determine its true potential. There's no hurry."
    "Business is getting back to normal," he said, referring to the reformation of the guild from the ashes of the thieves' war.
    She turned back to him, tapping her fingers rhythmically on his chest as she thought.
    "There is still a long way to go," she said. "The pickpockets are back in operation in the Five Markets and, gradually, the merchants are being brought back into line with their payments - your work with de Lille will help a great deal there."
    "Happy to be of service," he said, running a hand down her back.
    "We'll have to start from scratch with the longer term projects. I want to get that prostitution ring going - the kids running the pickpocket franchises do well under our care, and I know we can do the same for these women."
    "As well as draw in revenue from them," Lucius said.
    Elaine raised her eyebrows. "That is the reason we are all here. But I mean what I say - we can provide protection for the girls, set standard rates, invest their shares of the franchise, and give them a chance for a decent future, the same as any of our current members. Overall, they will be better off."
    With a fluid motion, Elaine whipped the sheets away from herself, and leapt from the bed. She crossed the small room and went to her desk. Lucius watched her leaf through the pages, taking the opportunity to admire her naked body. Her dark hair fell loose down past her shoulders, and she moved with the easy grace common to all good thieves. Exceptionally well-toned for a woman of her age, her skin was nonetheless criss-crossed with a multitude of scars, a testament to the bloody work she had carried out in the past. Those flaws had never bothered him on a physical level, though they always served as a reminder of what she was capable of; perhaps that was part of the attraction.
    They had been sleeping together for several months now, the relationship starting a little after the guild had been put back together. Lucius had still not really worked out why she had chosen him as a partner or, for that matter, why he had accepted.
    At least ten years his senior, Elaine was not known for sleeping with other thieves. He might have thought he provided her with mere physical relief, but over the past few weeks they had started talking more in bed after making love, though the conversation tended to revolve around guild activities rather than anything truly personal.
    They should have been rivals, of course, for both were aware that Lucius could have easily taken the leadership of the guild after the thieves' war. As it was, Lucius was keen to advance to a position of responsibility, but he had no desire for complete authority. Elaine most certainly did, and what Elaine wanted she tended to get, one way or another.
    Still, he had to admit, he liked her. After all, she was an utterly capable warrior, a cold killer, an energetic lover and a superlative guildmistress. He was surprised more thieves had not fallen for her. Then again, perhaps they had and were just intimidated by her manner. There were times when he could well understand that.
    "We done?" Lucius asked when he saw Elaine's attention was sinking deeper into her papers.
    "We're done," she said, a little distracted, before remembering herself and looking over her shoulder briefly. "Work never stops."
    "Too true." Lucius watched Elaine work for several minutes more, rummaging through her paperwork to find the information she sought.
    He saw her frown as she looked up from her papers, then cross over to the window. Grasping the latch, she threw it open and looked down at the street below.
    "What the hell is going on?" he heard her mutter.
    Vaulting from the bed, he joined her,