Blood in the Water
Chapters (82)
- Title Page
- Copyright Notice
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- FIFTY-FIVE
- FIFTY-SIX
- FIFTY-SEVEN
- FIFTY-EIGHT
- FIFTY-NINE
- SIXTY
- SIXTY-ONE
- SIXTY-TWO
- SIXTY-THREE
- SIXTY-FOUR
- SIXTY-FIVE
- SIXTY-SIX
- SIXTY-SEVEN
- SIXTY-EIGHT
- SIXTY-NINE
- SEVENTY
- SEVENTY-ONE
- SEVENTY-TWO
- SEVENTY-THREE
- SEVENTY-FOUR
- SEVENTY-FIVE
- SEVENTY-SIX
- Praise for Blood in the Water
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- Newsletter Sign-up
Title Page
Copyright Notice
The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you for your personal use only. You may not make this e-book publicly available in any way. Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the author’s copyright, please notify the publisher at: us.macmillanusa.com/piracy.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
There are too many people to thank for all the help with this book, including all of my family and friends, as well as those who read manuscripts and provided thoughts and advice. In particular, I would like to thank my editors, Trisha Jackson and Peter Wolverton, for all their help and advice. Also, many thanks to the teams at Macmillan: In the United States, thanks to Hannah O’Grady, Hector DeJean, Joseph Brosnan, David Rotstein, Steven Seighman, Elizabeth Curione, Cathy Turiano, Kelley Ragland, and Andrew Martin. In the UK, thanks to Jayne Osborn, Natalie Young, Fraser Crichton, Liz Cowen, Philippa McEwan, Neil Lang, and Stuart Wilson. I would also like to thank all the wonderful people at the Aaron Priest Agency, including Aaron Priest, Lisa Erbach Vance, Lucy Childs, Mitch Hoffman, Eileen Priest, John Richmond, Juliana Nador, and Francis Jalet-Miller.
ONE
Tuesday, January 1
He hummed as he worked.
An old folk tune he’d learned in El Calabozo as a child.
He couldn’t remember the words, which was odd; as a rule, he remembered everything. Memories tortured Vincente Carpio, and his tortured mind gave him a special kind of madness. The leadership recognized it early on. That was why they’d sent him to America—because he was willing to do the things that others weren’t. It was a decision many in the leadership now questioned. Now the madness seemed to have taken over.
He was sweating, and his bald, tattooed head was slick. This one was the eighth he’d done this way, and by far the hardest. He wouldn’t have thought it to look at her. She was young and thin, shorter than him, with a punk haircut: shaved on one side and dyed multiple colors on the other. At first he’d thought she was probably a junkie; Cambridge had its fair share, a consequence of the ultra-liberal orthodoxy of the city that viewed tolerance of everything as an imperative.
He’d realized quickly that she wasn’t. Junkies put up little resistance. They were so unhappy with their lives that they simply couldn’t find a reason to fight. This girl, though, had been full of fight. She fought so hard he considered aborting the attack and moving on, but that wasn’t a realistic option. If she’d escaped, the police would have combed through the area immediately, and there was little doubt that he would be found. He couldn’t let that happen.