gging into her skin. He forced her head up, turning her fa
grunted to Debra, his eyes cold a
etus Cobb was a pig, a drunk, and a brute who had alrea
summoned every ounce of strength
gasped, her voice raw w
king for you? The Carlisles? They threw you out like trash. The cops in this town?" She ge
started punching in numbers. He was call
. It wasn't a slow tide anymore; it was a blad
an escape. The front door was bolted. Th
The black card. The thought was a flash of light in the darkness. But if she showed it t
awning as he pressed the phone to his ear. "Hey, Cletus, my ma
as her
hloe scrambled to her feet an
Debra shrieked, t
lance. She burst into the small, musty room and slammed the door
door shuddered un
h! Open this doo
om the phone's speaker: "-ello? Frank, that you? What's goi
loe leaned against the wood, her whole body trembling, her breath coming
had been her cage for eighteen years before the C
ng that would stop them. Somethin
nother heavy kick, and the door groa
essed her hand against her flat stomach and
sell me! I'
nding s
eafening, broken only by
t, cutting off Cletus mid-question. Then more silence. After a few seconds of dead air, De
lf upright, her voice louder now, steadier. "I'm not lying! And the baby
almost hear the greedy ge
raw anger was gone, replaced by a calculating avar
rcing, ice-gray she could never forget. And a name. She had a name-or at least a fragment of one. Something she had glimpsed in that brief moment of col
ate throw of the dice. It could save her, or
etallic screech. The doo
only card l
ce hoarse, "his last name is Dono
eard of Adrian Donovan, but even in the backwoods of Appalachia, the name Donovan
no longer filled with simple rage, but with a complex, dange
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