He sat beside Samantha at the breakfast table and asked her about her sleepover. As she spoke, he tried to adjust to the room, and the reality that the night before had been covered up as though it never happened. He watched Amber’s back as she stacked the pancakes and arranged fresh fruit on the plates. He watched her hands adjust the placement of strawberries until her fingertips were red with juice. Like blood. Just like a killer’s hands would look.

‘Daddy?’

‘Sorry, darling. What did you say?’

‘Can we go?’

Amber placed their plates of breakfast in front of them. Her eyes lit up from the sun beaming in through the windows, and streaks of her auburn hair shone like copper. When she met his eye, he looked away.

‘Go where?’

‘To Winter Wonderland. Laura and her family are going.’

‘We could go as a family,’ Amber said as she sat down at the table. ‘I think it’s a lovely idea.’

They both waited for his response, but the words would mean two different things. If he agreed, his daughter would be happy; she would be safe if he was there to protect her. But to his wife, agreement would seal his fate. If he agreed, he would have to stay with her.

They watched his face intently. He swallowed hard.

‘I’d like that,’ he said.

Samantha smiled and tucked into her pancakes as Richard and Amber met each other’s gaze over the table. She smiled until tears appeared in her eyes, before picking up her knife and fork.

Richard stared down at his plate, and tried to calm his racing heart.

His fate had been sealed.

Read on for an extract from Jack Jordan’s latest thriller…

PROLOGUE

The blood on his hands peeled off in flakes like ash from charred meat. He tasted her every time he licked his lips, and remembered the hot splatter of blood against his face as he dragged the knife across her throat.

The spade crunched into the earth. Drops of sweat mixed with the blood and ran down his face in rosy streaks.

The body lay at his feet, skin washed porcelain white under the moon. The fear she felt as the blade severed her neck was locked inside her eyes.

He stopped to catch his breath and looked down at her.

Even in death she was beautiful.

The adrenalin began to wane. Lactic acid burned in his arms and shoulders; his bones ground together at the joints and seized with every thrust of the spade. He wiped sweat from his forehead and waited for the guilt to come. Nothing.