The House of the Present

Anna Blunt has found a career as a troubleshooter. Even as she completes her education at Salem Academy and Salem University, her ties to her hometown of Winnington, Massachusetts remain unbroken. Anna has made faithful friends, found her life's work, and buried her first love. Then the Salem Scholars dearest to her heart are threatened, and Anna is lured her to a far more dangerous place... by a devil she knows.

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Anna turned to John McGinnis. "This especially means you. Don't block the path, in either direction."

"Do you have a weapon?" Sue asked intently.

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't."

Only a mambo would have accepted that answer without doubt. "Okay, we stay out of the way between you and them." Sue glanced at McGinnis, to whom this meant nothing. But the fighter's body language said he was sticking with Anna no matter what.

Anna turned to McGinnis. "I'm not going to tell you what to do because you're going to do anything you damn well please."

"You got that right."

"But I am going to say, if you see either me or him raise our arms, whether you see a weapon or not, drop. Because we're going to fire."

"Maybe I will, maybe I won't."

"You're a stubborn Irishman and I don't have time to argue with you. Let's roll."