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the way she acted around Gideon. Gid might be a good ten years older than her, but he wasn’t so old that Raina would see him as a father figure. And since she couldn’t see him, his scars wouldn’t turn her off either. Gideon wasn’t hideous or anything, but some women might find the scarring on his face and shoulder a little off putting.
    By the time he got out of the shower, he had made the decision to be a little less subtle about his feelings and to start touching her more. Nothing that would make her uncomfortable, just enough to let her know definitively that he was interested.
    Bryce hurriedly got dressed and ran his fingers through his unruly hair. He was going to have to get it cut soon, or he’d start looking like a girl.
    If he didn’t leave in the next five minutes, he would definitely be late. He rushed down the stairs and pushed open the kitchen door. Raina sat at the kitchen table, laptop in front of her, headphones on. She stopped typing when the door closed and looked up. “Bryce?”
    “Yep. Who’d you think it was?” Bryce actually found it kind of creepy the way she always knew when someone was in the room, even though she couldn’t see them.
    She gave him a smile. “Since you’re the only one in the house, I rather hoped it would be you.”
    Even though he knew what she meant, it made him feel good to know that she was glad to see him.
    “Do you have class today?” she asked, unhooking one end of her headphones and going back to typing. Bryce could hear words coming through the end of the headphone and figured that she must have been using the program that read back what she typed.
    “Yeah, at ten.” Bryce stepped to the cabinet and took out a mug to fill with coffee.
    Raina checked the braille clock by her side. “You’d better hurry. It’s almost quarter of ten. It’ll take you a good fifteen to get there.”
    “I know,” he said. He took a deep breath for courage before saying, “I just wanted to spend a few minutes with you before I left.” He walked over and laid his hand on her shoulder.
    Raina went very still.
    “You look beautiful today,” Bryce added, squeezing her shoulder before sitting across from her. “What are you working on?”
    “I’m still trying to wrap my mind around my thesis,” she said. Although she lost her sight, she was still a PhD candidate in the Classical Studies Department.
    “Are you still focused on Clytemnestra?” Bryce asked. Agamemnon’s wife in Greek mythology had always been interesting to Raina.
    “I think I’m going to focus on her role in the death of Cassandra.” Raina frowned when she added, “I’ve been focused on Cassandra ever since I lost my sight. I find it fascinating that she could see , even though no one believed her.”
    “Cassandra’s been done to death, but if you make the connection to Clytemnestra I think you’ll be entering an area not often covered by scholars.”
    “I hope so. I found an obscure text written in early Greek to support my dissertation,” Raina said, referring to the copy of the scroll she’d be working with.
    “I have faith that you can pull it all together.” Bryce finished his coffee and rinsed his cup before placing it on the drain. “Gotta get to class. See ya.” Before leaving, he stepped behind Raina and kissed her on the top of the head.
    “Yeah, see ya,” she said faintly.
    Bryce was humming as he left. When the door closed behind him, Raina just laid her head on her arms. She understood that he was basically declaring his intentions. “Now what am I going to do?”
     
    * * * *
     
    Gideon looked at the modest little Cape Cod cottage with a white picket fence and a beat-up Ford F-150 in the driveway. The man who lived there knew over one hundred ways to kill a man and had probably done more than half of them. The only reason he hadn’t tried the other half was that killing had always been a business to him, and he didn’t see any reason why assassination had to be