September 2025
* * *
FBI Special Agent Avery Hart raised one hand from the steering wheel and shoved it through her thick hair, tired to the bone and fighting to stay awake.
She’d had every intention of leaving earlier, but got caught up at the regional office, receiving last-minute updates on the case she’d been assigned. The sheriff of the small town of Shadow Valley in the piney woods of Northeast Texas had requested assistance from the FBI after the murders of two women in his county.
Though two murders might not necessarily be considered serial killings, the sheriff and his state police counterpart hadn’t wanted to wait for a third before calling in the feds to assist. The murders had occurred ten days apart, and the victims had no known connection to each other.
New to the San Antonio office, Avery hadn’t expected such an important assignment right out the door. She wasn’t even sure she was ready.
She’d barely decompressed from a long-term undercover job that had spanned almost two years and netted thirty-six convictions of racketeering, money laundering, and conspiracy charges, as well as exposing two corrupt politicians and government contractors who had been charged with bribery and aiding a criminal enterprise. After being Sofia Delgado for two years, she barely responded when someone called her by her given name, Avery Hart. With her head still half in the closed case, settling back into her normal world was proving hard. Could she do justice to this investigation?
“Don’t worry,” Paul Fletcher had said. “Agent Bradley will join you. She has another day’s worth of work to wrap up loose ends on her prior case before she follows you there. We need you to head north and get boots on the ground with the local sheriff and anyone the Texas Rangers might’ve sent. I’d go myself, except I’m headed to Las Cabos for my honeymoon.”
Avery had forced a smile. “Again, congratulations. I wish you and your wife many happy years together.” Her brow twisted. “Does she know what she got herself into, marrying an FBI Special Agent? Many marriages don’t last under the pressure.” Hers was evidence of that statistic.
“Ours will,” Paul said. “Our relationship was forged in fire and rain. Literally.” His brow lowered. “I know you’re fresh off a long assignment. If this is too soon, I can postpone the honeymoon and take it myself.”
Avery was shaking her head before he finished his sentence. The bureau therapist had diagnosed her with PTSD from all she’d endured while infiltrating an international criminal network. Though she still suffered from sleepless nights and an identity crisis, she knew the only way to recover was to dive into work.
Thus, the late start on her drive north. She’d chosen to take Highway 281 to bypass Austin, and the parking lot of traffic Interstate 35 became at quitting time.
Though she had to go slow through the small towns, the faster speed limit between them made up for it.
Once past Austin, she crossed over to Interstate 35 for a while, then headed east out of Waco on smaller state highways.
Twenty miles outside of Waco, the rain began. Tired and ready to be in Shadow Valley, she drank cold coffee and prayed for a caffeine rush to see her through the rest of the way. She hadn’t thought far enough ahead to make hotel reservations once she arrived. At this point, she didn’t care. A couple of hours of sleep in her car would suffice before she met with the sheriff.
Avery scrunched her brow. What was the sheriff’s name? Paul had mentioned the man’s name a couple of times, but she couldn’t remember it.
Windshield wipers slapped at the rain, pummeling the glass. Back and forth. Back and forth.
Alas, she came up blank regarding his name. Brain fog had been a reality since the final showdown of Operation Orchid. So, she couldn’t remember the sheriff’s damned name. She’d forgotten her own for the past two years because she’d been so deeply entrenched in her undercover persona. The only way to make the syndicate trust she was who she’d led them to believe was for her to believe she was that person.
Perhaps she needed more time to—what was the word Paul had used?—ah, yes, decompress.
The metronomic monotony of the wiper blades hypnotized her to the point she fell into a kind of tunnel vision, focusing on the glossy black road in front of her while ignoring her peripheral vision altogether.
Until a large brown creature leaped in front of her headlights.
With exhaustion playing on her senses like too many drinks at a dive bar, her reflexes reacted too slowly as she moved her foot from the accelerator to the brake. She stomped hard, but nothing happened. It was as if the brakes weren’t working, and it was too late.
The deer hit the grill of her car, slid over the hood and slammed into her windshield, shattering the glass into a dented sheet of crystals, all reflecting the glow of the headlights, revealing nothing of the road in front of her.
The car veered off the blacktop and down into a ravine, the nose crashing against rocks with the sickening screech of crunching metal.
Avery’s forehead slammed into the steering wheel, shooting pain through her head, accompanied by a kaleidoscope of stars and darkness swirling through her vision and mind. The airbags didn’t deploy.
When all motion ceased, the seatbelt Avery had snapped on as soon as she’d climbed into the car, dug into her chest and abdomen as she dangled over the dashboard below her. The same dash that had been in front of her under friendlier circumstances. The tightness of the seatbelt made it difficult to breathe.
As Avery dangled over the steering wheel, she wondered if anyone would come to her aid. From what she’d observed out the side window, the car had rolled downhill into a fairly deep ravine with trees hiding anything inside it. Even if someone had witnessed Avery’s accident, they’d have a hell of a time getting to her and be even more challenged extracting her from the smashed vehicle.
Without really thinking too clearly, she reached for the button on her seatbelt. When she pushed it, the belt released, and the steering wheel she’d hit moments before rushed up at her.
The impact sent her spiraling into a dark abyss, her last fleeting thought one of regret.
I’m going to be late for my first assignment.
