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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

She dropped the empty magazine out of her rifle. Slammed another one in. Whatever happened, she would need to conserve ammunition. She slipped through the trees toward where Harwood and the others had landed, and hoped Burke was at least savvy enough to provide some kind of diversion.

*  *  *

Mason plowed his way through the forest, bullying through the overgrowth with the butt end of his shotgun. He’d heard the shooting, a staccato conversation, and he’d realized very quickly that things weren’t going as planned.

Jess wasn’t figuring on having any kind of back and forth, he knew. She’d hoped to deliver a sermon from on high, Old Testament style. But Harwood and his boys had clearly interrupted.

The woods were rough going. Branches tore at his clothes and clawed at his face, left him scraped and bloody, and the rocks ripped at his pants and into his knees as he climbed up and over yet another obstacle. He could hardly be sure he was moving in the right direction. He caught glimpses of the little lagoon and the wrecked troller through the dense brush now and then, but he was more following his ears toward the sound of the gunshots than he was navigating by sight.

The rifles kept popping off. Mason guessed Jess was the single shots, slow and methodical, and the jackhammer repetition belonged to the deputies. He hoped so, anyway; it meant Jess was still far enough away to be picking her shots.

Sooner or later the deputies would close in on Jess, though. So Mason kept plowing through the trees. Tried to keep his movements quiet, so the boys wouldn’t hear him approach, but hell, they were shooting real loud and the surf was crashing anyway. With any luck, he’d be able to walk up behind them and near tap them on the shoulder before they knew he was there.

With better luck, they wouldn’t know at all.

He kept moving, following the shots. Hoping Jess could fend the men off for as long as it took for him to swing in behind them.

Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; protect me from those who rise up against me.

*  *  *

Behind Jess, on the southern side of the island, Lucy could hear the shots too. They boomed through the forest around her, resonating through the tall trees and bouncing off the rock faces, filling her ears with apocalyptic noise.

She whined, paced, tail between her legs, wanting to escape but unsure in which direction, the sound ceaseless and deafening, her panic mounting. She fled to the end of her tether, cowered there, shaking, as the gunfire fell silent. The silence did nothing to calm her; the sound had come before, and it could come again.