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Back Blood in the Water
Chapters (82)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Notice
  3. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  4. ONE
  5. TWO
  6. THREE
  7. FOUR
  8. FIVE
  9. SIX
  10. SEVEN
  11. EIGHT
  12. NINE
  13. TEN
  14. ELEVEN
  15. TWELVE
  16. THIRTEEN
  17. FOURTEEN
  18. FIFTEEN
  19. SIXTEEN
  20. SEVENTEEN
  21. EIGHTEEN
  22. NINETEEN
  23. TWENTY
  24. TWENTY-ONE
  25. TWENTY-TWO
  26. TWENTY-THREE
  27. TWENTY-FOUR
  28. TWENTY-FIVE
  29. TWENTY-SIX
  30. TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. TWENTY-NINE
  33. THIRTY
  34. THIRTY-ONE
  35. THIRTY-TWO
  36. THIRTY-THREE
  37. THIRTY-FOUR
  38. THIRTY-FIVE
  39. THIRTY-SIX
  40. THIRTY-SEVEN
  41. THIRTY-EIGHT
  42. THIRTY-NINE
  43. FORTY
  44. FORTY-ONE
  45. FORTY-TWO
  46. FORTY-THREE
  47. FORTY-FOUR
  48. FORTY-FIVE
  49. FORTY-SIX
  50. FORTY-SEVEN
  51. FORTY-EIGHT
  52. FORTY-NINE
  53. FIFTY
  54. FIFTY-ONE
  55. FIFTY-TWO
  56. FIFTY-THREE
  57. FIFTY-FOUR
  58. FIFTY-FIVE
  59. FIFTY-SIX
  60. FIFTY-SEVEN
  61. FIFTY-EIGHT
  62. FIFTY-NINE
  63. SIXTY
  64. SIXTY-ONE
  65. SIXTY-TWO
  66. SIXTY-THREE
  67. SIXTY-FOUR
  68. SIXTY-FIVE
  69. SIXTY-SIX
  70. SIXTY-SEVEN
  71. SIXTY-EIGHT
  72. SIXTY-NINE
  73. SEVENTY
  74. SEVENTY-ONE
  75. SEVENTY-TWO
  76. SEVENTY-THREE
  77. SEVENTY-FOUR
  78. SEVENTY-FIVE
  79. SEVENTY-SIX
  80. Praise for Blood in the Water
  81. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  82. Newsletter Sign-up

To Diamond, the thaw felt like a new beginning. It seemed to signal, somehow, that the nightmare of the previous weeks was at an end. She knew that it wasn’t, though. Cormack had left two men downstairs in the house to guard her, and that was reminder enough that the danger remained. These two were younger and bigger than Joe Konicki had been, and that gave her some sense of comfort.

She’d slept late that morning. It felt good. She needed her sleep. Pregnancy wasn’t fully agreeing with her, though it wasn’t nearly as bad as she’d heard. She’d had some morning sickness, but that seemed to pass, and now all she had was a little nausea every morning until she got some food in her. The baby seemed to have come through the ordeal on Long Island strong. Strong and hungry, she thought with a smile. Like Buddy. Maybe that meant it was a boy. It didn’t matter to her one way or another; all she wanted was a healthy baby.

She slid out of bed and put on some jeans. They were feeling tighter, and she realized that she would soon have to start wearing bigger pants. The thought made her laugh to herself. She’d always been thin, and she wondered what it would be like to gain weight.

The stairs creaked as she went down to the first floor. “Mike?” she called. She was pretty sure one of the men whom Cormack had left to guard her was named Mike, though she could be wrong. It could have been Mark. She couldn’t remember even being introduced to the other young man. “Mike?” she called again, muddling the name a little, so that if his name was Mark, he might somehow not notice.

No one answered, which she thought was odd. Perhaps it meant that she was wrong about the name. “Mark?” she called as she came off the stairs and walked through the living room toward the kitchen. She was feeling the twinge of nausea that she’d come to expect in the morning, and she knew she had to get something in her stomach to chase the feeling away. “Mark? Are you in here?”

She pushed the kitchen door open and walked in. She heard the door swing shut behind her. She nearly vomited as she beheld the scene. There was blood everywhere. It covered the counters and the floor. She could hear the sound of a man coughing over near the door to the outside, around the corner by the small entryway. She stepped gingerly in that direction. “Mark?”