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