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would have thought that her heart was mistaking Cullen for someone she had been in love with all her life. “Yeah, thanks,” was all she could muster.
    Cullen almost changed his mind about leaving when he saw the glassy look in her eyes. It just wasn’t something he could do. He was supposed to be mated to Jenna. The arrangements were made. He shouldn’t be having sex with some random girl. This was probably just his subconscious trying to get him in trouble and out of the arrangement. He nodded at Aislinn, pushed past Keith and headed down the stairs at nearly a run. When he reached the street he let out a yell and punched a nearby signpost hard enough to bend it in half.
    Keith was completely baffled by the situation. He followed Cullen in silence to the SUV. They both got in and Keith started driving before he finally got up the nerve to ask, “What was that?”
    “I’ve found myself saying ‘I don’t know’ to similar questions repeatedly tonight. Just drop it.”
    The tone in Cullen’s voice was dangerous and Keith didn’t really know what, if anything, he could or should say. So they drove back to the den in silence.

Chapter 2
    A man's as miserable as he thinks he is.
    -Lucius Annaeus Seneca

    Aislinn put on what she considered to be her best interview clothes. The outfit consisted of a pair of black dress pants, a white button up shirt, and a shear black scarf she tied at her neck. She put on a pair of black heels and combed her brown hair into a twist at the back of her head. She didn’t really know what kind of business was at the other end of the address, but she figured that the look was conservative enough for just about anything and not overly dressy. She had bought the clothes to attend a funeral and hadn’t been given another opportunity to wear them since. She sighed and remembered that she didn’t even get to go to the funeral.
    She took one last look at herself in the mirror before pocketing the piece of paper she’d been given and heading downstairs. She put this off for more than a week. When she had gone into work at the bar the day after she met Cullen she found out that Derrick ended up in the hospital after all. Luke said that he’d been told Derrick would be out for a couple of weeks or more.
    When Derrick had initially gotten to the hospital he’d been unconscious. Some nice passerby doing a good deed had called the ambulance. Aislinn had decided to wait and see. She hoped that he would keep his mouth shut and leave her alone because he wouldn’t want to have to deal with her accusing him of attempted rape. But when he woke up he fired her. Then he decided to press charges against her for battery. She was arrested and spent the night in jail before Renee and Luke managed to put together bail money.
    The story she ended up getting was that Derrick claimed she tried to steal some money from the register that night. Supposedly he caught her and she took off with the money. He chased her down and she and some big guy that Derrick didn’t know beat him up and left him for dead. When Aislinn told the cops what really happened they suggested she bring up charges of attempted assault.
    Everything was going to hell. Aislinn hadn't wanted to accept this job after Cullen had taken off that night. He'd given her that kiss, and then disappeared like there had been something wrong with it. She didn’t understand why she felt betrayed by that. It was all too strange. On top of that, there was the court case, and now she owed Renee and Luke a lot of money. She tried to find another job at a different bar, but Derrick apparently had a few friends. No one was hiring Aislinn. She finally decided that she needed the money too badly to let her pride get in the way of taking the job she had been offered.
    Aislinn had been so caught up in her misery that she didn’t pay attention to where the taxi was going. When the taxi pulled up in front of Taigh-O  sda, the restaurant/bar/hotel attached to the