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Lorna Bea peered through the thick trees and bushes. He had the sudden urge to move but he didn’t.
A man’s shout suddenly burst through the woods. “Lorna Bea, where the hell are you?”
He balled his hands into fists, kneeling in the bushes as he watched a big man in a T-shirt and jeans stalk through the thicket of pines and oaks. Thick dirty brown hair. A craggy face. Scar on his chin and… yes, on his hand.
His heart thundered. It washim. The missing link.
The one who’d inspired them to make the pact. The one they thought had broken it.
The girl took off running toward the cabin, hair flying behind her as she darted through the bushes and weeds. When she reached the clearing, she stopped, breath panting out, fear in her eyes.
“I told you to stay inside,” he barked.
She bit her lip. “Sorry, Daddy. I just wanted to play with the kids.”
“You should have listened to me.” He jerked her arm then dragged her toward the cabin.
“So you did come back to see us, Frank,” he muttered. And he had a daughter. Was there a wife hiding somewhere in this picture? Had Frank actuallysettleddown?
Laughter mushroomed in his chest at that thought.
No, the man he’d known would never settle into family life. And the kid… Wouldn’t she be surprised to know why her father was here?
FIFTY-EIGHT
SOMEWHERE ON THE AT
Odessa drove to the gathering place for the brothers where they’d first carried out the initiation. She parked, studying the concrete structure. The building had been shut down twelve years ago, left abandoned and standing. The overgrown kudzu covering the outside of the building and the grimy mud-coated windows reminded her of the day she’d first met Dom.
Ever since she’d written him that last love letter, she’d hoped for a call from him but one hadn’t come. Maybe he hadn’t received the letter yet? Of if it got there, those uptight assholes might have confiscated it?
Dom had his own decree. Had built his reputation with his signature.
The brothers looked up to him. They’d met weekly behind closed doors in a secret location, had literally formed their own fraternity, modeled on things they’d learned in that criminology class. The things they’d discussed were private.
Their motto—if you talk, you die.
No one knew about their secret society.
Would they return here this weekend? Relive the initiation?
Would they remember her and what she’d done to help them?
Adrenaline pulsed through her. She slipped from her car and darted around the edge of the building to the private rear entrance. Vines and brush covered it, but she knew how to get in.
Smiling, she raked the weeds aside and unlocked the latch with the key she’d kept for a decade now. Then she crawled into the opening that led her into the dark where they’d all brought their fantasies to life.
FIFTY-NINE
THE JAVA JUNKIE
Working with the copycat theory, Derrick phoned the prison warden where Radcliff was incarcerated.
“Warden Brewer, this is Special Agent Fox. I arranged for Dr. Leon Morehead to interview Dominique Radcliff.”
“Yes, he was here.”
“Did he speak with you after the interview?”
