LITMIR.BIZ

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wasn’t ready to admit that he had this time.

      He turned back to his desk and looked at the open dossier lying there. Adam. Thirty years old. Six foot two, one hundred and eighty pounds. The cream of the crop. IQ: immeasurable. Physical condition: perfect. Skill level: unmatched. No one in the program was quite as good.

      Well, O’Riley confessed, there was one who could hold his own with Adam. Cain. But there was one key element that marred Cain’s track record. He was every bit as skilled as Adam but lacked any capacity for compassion or any other essential emotion. That missing component limited his usefulness in many situations. Thankfully, Archer had observed that deficit and all who’d come after Cain, the original prototype, were better for it.

      Archer. It was still hard for O’Riley to believe he was dead. They’d worked together for more than twenty years. How could something as simple as a thoughtless mistake lead to this? He shook his head, weary of trying to make sense of it all. It was done. There was no way to change it. O’Riley could only see that the traitors were eliminated. The identity of the primary Judas made the situation unbelievable.

      He refused to analyze it any further. It had to be done, regardless of his reservations or his personal feelings. No one regretted the decision any more than he did. Joseph Marsh would be next, if they could find him. Fury twisted in O’Riley’s chest. He would like to kill that son of a bitch with his own hands. He had to be guilty…otherwise, he wouldn’t have vanished into thin air. Well, Marsh could run, but he couldn’t hide forever. They would find him and when they did, he would die.

      For the moment, O’Riley would be happy if Adam just reported in and let him know what was going on.

      There had to be a reasonable explanation for why his tracking device had failed. O’Riley was unwilling to accept that he was dead.

      Not yet, anyway.

      Chapter Two

      Virginia

       Archer Ranch

      At the sound of a sputtering engine, Dani Archer paused in her trek from the barn to the house. She lifted her hand to shield her eyes from the early morning sun and smiled as she watched the rickety old blue truck bounce down the mountain road on the back of her property. Hunting season was still a couple of weeks away and already the boys were scouting out the best locations in which to set up their tree stands. She inhaled long and deep, relishing the underlying scent of the lush evergreens cloaking the eastern Virginia landscape.

      Her smile faded as she considered that if her father hadn’t allowed those two to hunt on this land since they were barely big enough to handle rifles, she wouldn’t now. Especially after hearing those gunshots yesterday morning.

      Hunting was totally barbaric. To her way of thinking, anything one wanted to eat should be purchased at the local market, not hunted down and shot. Tucking her fingers into the pockets of her jeans, she walked out to the edge of the dirt road and waited for the truck to reach her.

      She supposed that, basically, it was the same thing. Someone had killed the animals that ended up as hamburger or pork chops, but buying the products at the market seemed so much more civilized than bringing a carcass home strapped across the hood of one’s vehicle.

      The truck skidded to a stop in front of her and a smile lifted her lips once more. She could handle a few minutes of company this morning. And she needed to ask about those gunshots she’d heard. “Hello, boys.”

      “Howdy, Miss Dani,” Calvin Peacock offered first. “You’re looking mighty pretty today.” That wicked grin he’d perfected to an art form slid across his face. At nineteen, he was more than a little full of himself.

      Randall Williams, the driver, bopped Calvin on the head with his camouflaged cap. “Stop flirting, Cal. Miss Dani ain’t interested in nothing you’ve got.”

      Cal glared at his friend who was a year younger. “Shut up, Rand. Don’t make me have to kick your butt,” he warned.

      Rand huffed in disbelief. “Like you could.”

      “Now, now, gentlemen,” Dani cut in as she propped her arms in the open passenger-side window and studied the two young men. “You know I love you both, but I can’t tolerate your incessant pissing contest.”

      Rand blushed. Cal looked a bit sheepish himself. “You guys preparing for hunting season already?” she inquired, knowing the answer before she asked.

      “’Course,” Cal said. “I mean, that’s the way we’ve always done it. Mr. Archer didn’t mind. That’s okay with you, isn’t it?”

      “Sure. Just be careful.” She considered their camouflage attire. “Aren’t you supposed to wear something orange to make yourselves visible to other hunters?” No one else had permission to be hunting on the land. It was posted, but some people ignored the signs.

      “No way,” Rand enthused. “We like to blend in. There ain’t supposed to be nobody else up there anyway.”

      “That brings me to my next question,” she ventured, almost dreading the answer. “I thought I heard a couple of shots fired around this time yesterday morning. You guys don’t know anything about that, do you?” She looked from one to the other. “I mean, the season hasn’t even opened yet,” she added, hoping neither of them had been doing anything he shouldn’t have.

      Rand’s gaze bumped into Cal’s and he looked away quickly…too quickly.

      Dani frowned at the covert move. “What?” She directed the question at Cal since he was the oldest.

      “He thinks—”

      “Shut up, Cal,” Rand snapped.

      Worry tightened Dani’s chest. “Look, fellas, my father has allowed the two of you to hunt on that mountain since you were kids. And I don’t mind that the tradition continues. But if you’re keeping anything from me, well…then I’ll mind.”

      Rand dropped his chin to his chest and blew out a resigned breath, then turned to her, albeit reluctantly. “I don’t know for sure that it was what I thought,” he told her finally. “I didn’t see…exactly. Just a glimpse.”

      “The knucklehead thinks he shot a man,” Cal explained with a snort of disbelief. “I tried to tell him it was nothing but a deer or a bear, but his head’s as thick as a block.”

      Fear trickled down her spine. “Shut the truck off, Rand,” she ordered.

      “Damnation,” he complained, but did as he was told.

      “Start at the beginning.” Her tone left no room for protest from either of them.

      “I thought it was a deer,” Rand began without looking at her. “I got excited and fired. I know I shouldn’t have.”

      “That sounds just as stupid now as it did then,” Cal said. “I thought the world had come to an end the way you were squealing like a girl.”

      Rand glared at him for two long beats before shifting his attention back to Dani. “Anyway, when whatever it was darted deeper into the woods…” He hesitated, clearly not looking forward to telling her the rest. “I could’ve sworn it was a man.”

      “Get over it, Rand, it was not a man,” Cal ground out. “You’re getting Miss Dani upset for no reason.”

      Dani moistened her lips and swallowed at the sensation tightening the back of her throat. “And this happened yesterday?”

      “Yeah,” Rand admitted balefully.

      “Did you see anything this morning?”

      Cal shrugged. “We did find some blood, but, hell, there would’ve been blood whatever he hit, four-legged or two-legged.”

      Dani resisted the urge to shudder. There was no point in overreacting. Cal was probably right. “But you didn’t find any tracks or…or a body?”

      Rand

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