Killer's Prey. Rachel Lee

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Killer's Prey - Rachel  Lee Conard County: The Next Generation

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bail. Just the sight of it made him furious. He was an upstanding member of this community, a business owner. They should have released him without this damn bracelet.

      Hell, he wasn’t even being charged with murder. Rape, yes. Aggravated assault, yes. But guys who’d done a lot more than take a knife to a woman had been allowed to walk out of court on bail alone.

      But not him. He blamed his soon-to-be ex-wife for that. She’d gone into that hearing and claimed he was a violent man, that the whole reason their child was receiving counseling from Nora Loftis was because of his violence. She had even said she was afraid of him.

      He would never forgive her for that. Just as he would never forgive Nora Loftis for surviving. He’d dragged her to a ditch in the woods and she should have rotted away before anyone found her body.

      Instead, she had managed to climb out of that ditch hours later and flag down help. So now here he was.

      He knew he could cut that bracelet. He’d read about it online. It could be done. He could set himself free. He just had to be sure he did it right, because he wouldn’t have much time.

      Ten or fifteen seconds before the alarm sounded at the police station. Five to ten minutes before the cops managed to respond.

      So he had to plan it carefully. Very carefully.

      Then, one way or another, he was going to take care of that cheating wife of his and finish off the Loftis woman. Two birds. Then off to Canada and parts unknown. He’d already moved his money. He’d taken care of that a long time ago, stocking away most of it in the Caymans.

      So he’d be fine. He just had to make sure that he cleared out fast enough. That he dealt with his wife swiftly. Hunting Nora Loftis might take more time, but no one would expect that. No one would even begin to guess how badly he wanted to see her die, not when he’d insisted in the face of the evidence that he’d never hurt her, that they’d been lovers.

      No, they’d think his wife was the end of it, because he’d never told them the truth. He’d let them think he was having an affair with Nora. Little did they know that he still wanted that woman’s blood and her essence.

      But he knew.

      Chapter 1

      When Nora Loftis had emerged from a roadside ditch, bloody and beaten, raped and tortured, dazed and half-crazed, she’d at least thought she had survived.

      Little did she realize that her battle for survival was hardly over.

      Three months later, still healing in so many ways, she arrived at the baggage carousel in the Denver airport to be greeted by one of the last people she ever wanted to see again.

      Jake Madison, larger than life, towering over six feet, built like a cheesecake dream, wearing jeans and a loden-green chamois shirt under a light jacket. His hair was still intensely dark, and his eyes were still that peculiar green, a color that seemed to be lit from within. If anything, the years had made him more attractive.... Stronger, broader, more like an oak than a sapling.

      And he was still one of the reasons she had avoided her hometown of Conard City. He was a big reason, but not the only reason.

      He saw her and nodded, but something about his eyes seemed to narrow.

      Well, she looked like hell, and he hated her anyway, and they had a history she would have preferred to utterly forget. Why wouldn’t his eyes narrow? And why had her dad sent him of all people?

      She fought down an almost overwhelming urge to turn and run. But while she might need a place to lick her wounds, she had also developed some backbone, and she was damned if she would give him the satisfaction.

      “Nora,” he said when she approached. His voice had deepened, too. Everything about him had reached the fullness of manhood while she’d been gone.

      “Jake.” She hoped she sounded cool. Inside she felt as if nerves already stretched too tight had just stretched tighter still.

      “Your dad asked me to get you,” he said, explaining. “His car is acting up.”

      “Thanks.” Short and ungracious. Well, he didn’t deserve any better from her, not after what he had done to her. She’d avoided him for twelve years and Conard City for ten. Now her choices had become limited to one.

      She turned to watch the carousel, where the first bags had begun to appear. Maybe she could pretend he wasn’t even there.

      “You won’t find the town much changed,” he remarked.

      “I didn’t think I would. It never changes.”

      “Oh, things change,” he replied calmly. “Lots of things.”

      She let that lie. Bad enough that she had to come home without hearing cheery stories about how things had changed for the better. She wouldn’t believe them anyway.

      He picked up her luggage for her, leaving her with only her rolling carry-on to tag along behind him out to the parking garage, where he stowed her bags in the back of his tan Jeep. Then she climbed into the passenger seat, looking straight ahead, thinking that if there was one thing she didn’t need now, it was a couple of hours in the car with Jake Madison.

      He seemed to feel the same, surprisingly enough, and didn’t offer any kind of casual conversation. Good, she thought. Good. Because she just plain wasn’t up to it.

      The doctors had told her she would tire easily for weeks to come, and that she needed to conserve her energy for what was most important. Already she could feel her nerves letting go, simply because she couldn’t maintain the tension. Not now, not for a while.

      After Jake paid the parking fee and pulled out onto the exit road, he spoke again. “I heard what happened.”

      “I don’t want to talk about it.”

      A mile passed, then another, before he spoke again. “I’m just letting you know that people are talking.

      “Surprise, surprise. Apparently that hasn’t changed.”

      He glanced at her. “Bitter now, too?”

      “Maybe I have cause.”

      “Maybe so.” But he let it drop.

      Pointedly, she closed her eyes, not wanting to talk to him at all. Then, without warning, fatigue crashed down on her between one instant and the next. She fell soundly asleep before they’d made it all the way out of the suburbs of Denver, and she didn’t wake until they were drawing near her home.

      * * *

      The familiar state highway into Conard City carried Nora Loftis back too many years. Way too many years. It also carried her to a home she had vowed never to visit again.

      The wide expanses of ranch land—brown now as winter drew closer, tumbleweed snared in fences—still looked desolate. Had she ever seen the beauty out here? But the purpling mountains ahead were still beautiful, still drew her as mountains always had. She had missed them during her years working in Minneapolis. Gentler hills were just not the same.

      But

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