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Back Deception Cove Save as PDF
Chapters (78)
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. Prologue
  7. One
  8. Two
  9. Three
  10. Four
  11. Five
  12. Six
  13. Seven
  14. Eight
  15. Nine
  16. Ten
  17. Eleven
  18. Twelve
  19. Thirteen
  20. Fourteen
  21. Fifteen
  22. Sixteen
  23. Seventeen
  24. Eighteen
  25. Nineteen
  26. Twenty
  27. Twenty-One
  28. Twenty-Two
  29. Twenty-Three
  30. Twenty-Four
  31. Twenty-Five
  32. Twenty-Six
  33. Twenty-Seven
  34. Twenty-Eight
  35. Twenty-Nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-One
  38. Thirty-Two
  39. Thirty-Three
  40. Thirty-Four
  41. Thirty-Five
  42. Thirty-Six
  43. Thirty-Seven
  44. Thirty-Eight
  45. Thirty-Nine
  46. Forty
  47. Forty-One
  48. Forty-Two
  49. Forty-Three
  50. Forty-Four
  51. Forty-Five
  52. Forty-Six
  53. Forty-Seven
  54. Forty-Eight
  55. Forty-Nine
  56. Fifty
  57. Fifty-One
  58. Fifty-Two
  59. Fifty-Three
  60. Fifty-Four
  61. Fifty-Five
  62. Fifty-Six
  63. Fifty-Seven
  64. Fifty-Eight
  65. Fifty-Nine
  66. Sixty
  67. Sixty-One
  68. Sixty-Two
  69. Sixty-Three
  70. Sixty-Four
  71. Sixty-Five
  72. Sixty-Six
  73. Sixty-Seven
  74. Sixty-Eight
  75. Acknowledgments
  76. Discover More
  77. About the Author
  78. Also by Owen Laukkanen

“You go in a slack tide, or you don’t go at all.” Hank handed her the tide tables. “Eight thirty tomorrow morning, that’s your next shot. Miss it, and you’re waiting all day.”

“We can’t afford to wait.” Jess zipped closed the duffel bag. Lifted it and started for the door. “I’d better get moving. Thanks for your help.”

Hank lingered. “You’re sure you don’t want me to come with you?” he asked Jess. “It’s been a long while since I fired a weapon in anger, but I can’t see how it’s something you forget.”

“You’ve done more than enough, Hank,” she told him. “You’ve got brothers. Family. Just keep an eye out for my dog, would you?”

She didn’t have to say the rest. This might be a suicide mission, what we’re talking about here. There’s a good chance we don’t come back. She figured Hank already knew that part.

He didn’t argue, anyway. Just nodded again and watched her drive off.

Thirty-Nine

Thirty-Nine

Somewhere in Deception Cove, Lucy was scared.

She’d bolted when she heard the gunshots, the noise of the fight triggering some flight instinct inside her such that everything but her fear disappeared from her mind. She’d run from Mason and Jess, wouldn’t have returned even if they’d called to her, run to the Blazer and didn’t recognize it in her panic, and kept running into the trees as the firefight continued behind her.

Now she was lost. The guns had stopped firing, but the night was still filled with unfamiliar sounds, threatening sounds. Car doors slammed. Men shouted. Diesel trucks rumbled past. Lucy stayed to the shadows, slunk alongside dark houses, her ears flattened back and her tail tucked between her legs, the leash dragging on the ground behind her. She wasn’t panicked anymore, but she was scared nonetheless. She wanted to find Jess and Mason and safety.

And she wanted to see to it that Jess was all right.

Lucy might well have hidden. Curled up in the crawl space beneath somebody’s trailer and shivered and been scared and waited for dawn or death or whatever was coming for her. But she was a well-trained animal. And though she felt fear, she also felt a duty to Jess and a kinship to Mason, and it was those instincts that won out over her fear.

She stayed as hidden as possible, but she didn’t stop moving. She skulked through weedy backyards and over crumbling asphalt streets, searching for Mason and Jess.

*  *  *