BooksBarbecue
Back Deception Cove
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

Lucy looked at her a beat, then took to surveying the area; she nosed up to a fern and took an exploratory bite. Jess watched the dog, suddenly reluctant to leave her. The damn mutt the cause of so much of this chaos—her very existence leading Burke here and thus leading them all to this island—and the dog was more concerned with eating her greens than with the reckoning that would come.

Shit.

She loved the dog, and she was glad Burke had come into her life to help get her back. She reached over and scratched Lucy’s flank, once, and then she straightened and studied the dog, and hoped they would see each other again. She couldn’t remember ever getting this hung up on a goodbye with a human being, but hell, who on earth needed proof that dogs were better than people?

“Bye, dog,” Jess said. Lucy looked up, wagged her tail a couple of times. Went back to eating her fern, and Jess decided that was her cue. She turned and left the dog there, made her way back down toward the cliff overlooking the pass. The tide would be turning soon, and she needed to get into position.

*  *  *

Mason hurried through the dense forest, the shotgun in his hands and the pistols at his waist. He couldn’t hear the boat, but he knew it was out there, and he could see that the water in Dixie Lagoon was lapping at the tree line. He knew the tide was going to have to turn soon.

He had no time to think, and no time to be worried about anything other than Kirby Harwood driving that little boat up the pass before he was ready. He made the isthmus and glanced west at the open water, big, rolling swells coming in, pounding the beach and the outlying rocks with surf. He pressed on.

There weren’t any paths to the north side of the island, none that Mason could see, and the trees went right to the shoreline, so there wasn’t any beach to follow either. He had to slog his way through the middle of the forest, tangled overgrowth and deadfall, the ground muddy and soft beneath his boots, the trees saturated with rainwater. He was soaked through his jacket before he’d made it ten yards.

It took him a full half hour to struggle his way around the top of the island to the point, the terrain rocky and uneven, rising and falling and rising again. He was winded by the time he was close, and he slowed down to catch his breath and so that Kirby and his boys wouldn’t hear him crashing toward them, wouldn’t see the trees move and know he was coming.