LITMIR.BIZ

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man’s right shoulder. The knife fell to the floor with a clatter as he screamed and his blood soaked his shirt. “Perp down,” Jill snapped. She was wired—all of the agents were—and her earpiece had a microphone that would pick up her words so she knew the agent monitoring the team would immediately dispatch medical personnel. Then she hurried forward, kicking the knife even farther out of his way.

      Agent Henry Shaw was at her side. He kept his gun leveled at the man howling on the floor. Henry, a tall, distinguished African-American agent, was the leader of their team. A damn good leader. “I got this guy, Jill,” Henry told her, his eyes never leaving the perp. “Find the girl.”

      Jill gave an abrupt nod and hurried to the back room. She kept her gun at the ready. All of their intel had indicated that they were only looking for one assailant, that Neal Matthew Patrick had become obsessed with the sixteen-year-old victim after first meeting her in an online chat room. He’d abducted her, determined to live out that obsession.

      But just in case the guy did have a partner, in case someone else was waiting to attack in that back room, Jill didn’t lower her guard.

      The door was partially open. She used her foot to swing it all the way inward and then—

      “Help...me...” Such a weak whisper, completely at odds with the desperate howling coming from Neal.

      Jessica was on the floor, her hands pressing to her stomach—trying to stem the heavy flow of blood that had already soaked her shirt. Her face was stark white, her eyes so big and scared in her young face.

      “Victim needs assistance!” Jill called out, knowing the monitoring agent would act immediately. “Get help in here, now!” And Jill ran to the girl’s side. She needed to see just how bad the damage was but the fear in her heart already told her...

      Bad...it’s too bad.

      “I—I want...m-my mom...” Jessica whispered.

      Jill looked at the wounds—multiple stab wounds. So deep. A pool of blood was under Jessica’s body. “We’ll take you to your mom, don’t you worry, okay?” She applied pressure, fear nearly choking her.

      “I’m sorry...” Jessica’s voice was even softer now. She was starting to shake. “T-tell her...s-sorry...n-never...should have...g-gone...”

      Because Jessica had made a date with Neal. She’d snuck out of her house to meet him at her high school football field. She hadn’t realized she was going to meet a man who’d long gone over the edge. She couldn’t have known how dangerous that meeting would be for her. Just a date. A sixteen-year-old going on a date. That was all it had been, to Jessica.

      “It’s all right,” Jill told her. “You’ll be with your mom soon and you can—”

      Footsteps rushed behind her. Help, finally coming. The EMTs ran into the room and pushed Jill back. She watched them, hoping, praying, so very desperate.

      Jessica was shaking even harder now.

      Jill looked down at her hands. The girl’s blood covered her fingers. Her hands fisted. Her breath heaved in and out. Every heartbeat that passed seemed to echo in her ears.

      Jill was still standing there, still watching them, when Jessica’s eyes closed, when the girl took her last breath. The EMTs didn’t give up, they kept trying to work, kept trying to bring her back but...

      Jessica’s body had gone still.

      She had just...

      Another victim. Another child taken.

      Jill stumbled outside, her stomach in knots. The night air hit her face, slightly chilled, making goose bumps rise on her arms. The cases weren’t supposed to be like this. She was supposed to help, not arrive in time to see a young girl die.

      Tears pricked her eyes. The perp—that jerk Neal—was in the back of a nearby ambulance. He was alive. He was yelling at the agents with him.

      Jessica was gone. Life was so unfair. So cold and dark and violent. She looked at the scene around her, the chaos, the pain, and then Jill glanced down at the blood that covered her hands.

      I have to get away. I can’t do this. Not anymore.

      “Jill?”

      She put her hands behind her back and glanced over to see Henry frowning at her. Henry had been her mentor from the moment she signed on to the team. He’d trained her from day one when she joined CARD. As he stared at her, she saw the pity in his dark eyes.

      He knows I’m close to breaking.

      “We’ll need to tell the parents,” Jill said, trying to make her voice sound strong. The mother. They’d have to tell the mother. Jill swallowed.

      “I can do it,” Henry offered. He always handled the families so well. He seemed to know exactly what to say to them. How to give them sympathy. How to let them grieve. “You did good work on this case,” he told her, his voice soft. “You were the one to find the house, to trace Neal here, you were—”

      “I was too late.” That was the stark truth.

      “This time,” Henry said, his jaw tightening. “But there will be other cases, other children. You of all people know how important our job is.”

      Because of her past, yes, she knew. She also knew... “I have to talk to Jessica’s mother.” She needed to look the woman in the eyes and tell her that at the end, Jessica had been thinking of her. That her daughter had loved her. When she took a case, Jill saw it through to the end. But after she met with the Thomas family... Jill’s breath shuddered out. “Then I think I’ll take some of that vacation time I’ve been saving.” Hoarding, more like. Work had become her life in the last few years. Only now, that life seemed to be tearing her apart.

      “Good idea,” Henry murmured. “Maybe you can go someplace warm. Someplace where you can forget about this coldness for a time.”

      She thought of Jessica’s last words. “I think I’m going home,” Jill said. Home. The spot of her greatest happiness...

      And her most desperate moments.

      * * *

      HE SAW HER the instant she came into town. It wasn’t as if it were easy to miss a woman like her. Jill West had always been able to stand out in a crowd. The sunlight hit her dark red head, making it gleam. She wore a pair of jeans that hugged her long legs, and she walked with an easy grace as she headed toward the pier.

      Hayden Black stood inside of the bait shop, watching her as she moved with such purpose. It had been far too long since he’d seen Jill... Too damn long.

      What were the odds that when she came back to Hope, he spotted her on that same damn pier? He hadn’t thought that she would come back. Hell, he’d been planning a trip to see her in Georgia, but for her to show up now...in that spot...

      He’d never been a particularly lucky guy. The luckiest day of his life had been when he’d met a cute redheaded girl on that same pier.

      A girl with the greenest eyes he’d ever seen. A girl who’d turned one of the most hated punks in that town into a hero.

      “You gonna watch her all day?” Jeff Mazo, the owner of the bait shop asked. “Or are you actually gonna go over there and tell that woman hello?”

      Jeff didn’t get it. The woman in question might not exactly be thrilled to see him. He and Jill hadn’t ended things on the best of terms.

      I lusted for her during my teens. When I became a man, she was all that I could think about...

      Then she’d joined the FBI and he’d become a SEAL. Two different paths. Two different lives.

      Now they were back. Both back in Hope.

      Maybe it’s not luck. Maybe it was more than that. Maybe.

      “Never realized you were the nervous sort,” Jeff snorted, as if he’d just found this

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