Ripping Time
Robert Asprin & Linda Evans
CONTENTS
CONTENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter One
She hadn’t come to Shangri-La Station for the usual reasons.
A slight and frightened young woman, Jenna had lost the lean and supple dancer’s grace which had been hers . . . God, was it only three days ago? It seemed a year, at least, for every one of those days, a whole lifetime since the phone call had come.
“Jenna Nicole,” her aunt’s voice had startled her, since Aunt Cassie hadn’t called in months, not since before Jenna had joined the Temple, “I want to see you, dear. This evening.”
The commanding tone and the use of her full name, as much as the unexpected timing, threw her off stride. “This evening? Are you serious? Where are you?” Jenna’s favorite aunt, her mother’s only sister, didn’t live anywhere near New York, only appeared in the City for film shoots and publicity appearances.
“I’m in town, of course,” Cassie Tyrol’s famous voice came through the line, faintly exasperated. “I flew in an hour ago. Whatever you’ve got on your calendar, cancel it. Dinner, class, Temple services, anything. Be at Luigi’s at six. And Jenna, darling, don’t bring your roommate. This is business, family business, understand? You’re in deep trouble, my girl.”
Jenna’s stomach clenched into knots. Oh, my God. She’s found out! Aloud, she managed to say, “Luigi’s at six, okay, I’ll be there.” Only a lifetime’s worth of acting experience and the raw talent she’d inherited from the same family that had produced the legendary Jocasta “Cassie” Tyrol got that simple sentence out without her voice shaking. She’s found out, what’ll she say, what’ll she do, oh my God, what if she’s told Daddy? She wouldn’t tell him, would she? Jenna’s aunt hated her father, almost as much as Jenna did.