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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

He hated her for not rolling over like she was supposed to, for ruining his life and the only good thing he had going for it.

Fuck, he hated her bad, and he was going to make sure she paid for it, no matter what it cost him.

He wanted her to start shooting. He wanted to know where she was hiding. She was one woman, after all, and they were three men.

They would take her. They would take that rifle from her. And then they would make sure she hurt.

A noise behind Harwood scared him out of his thoughts. He spun, ready to open fire, wondering how Jess had outflanked them, but Jess wasn’t there.

Nobody was there.

He realized the sound had come from deeper in the forest on the north side of the island, a branch falling over, a loud report like gunfire as a piece of wood must have cracked. Harwood met Sweeney’s eyes, but Sweeney, as usual, was no help at all. The kid looked thirty seconds from pissing his pants, or not even.

“Burke,” Harwood whispered. “Must be coming around behind us.”

“Should we go back?” Sweeney replied.

“I’ll do it.” This was Joy. He’d closed the distance faster than Harwood had registered, and now he stood beside Sweeney, his busted shoulder packed tight with bandage and bloody fabric, a look of calm determination on his face. “You two find the widow. I will take care of her friend.”

The look in the Nigerian’s eyes was enough to keep Harwood from arguing, even as his mind hollered that the plan didn’t make any sense. Joy was the most capable of the men; Mason Burke was a nobody. Surely, even Sweeney could handle the criminal, leaving Joy and Harwood to flush out Jess with their carbines.

But Joy was already gone, slipping back through the trees, and Harwood couldn’t call out to him, for fear of alerting Jess, and so instead he locked eyes with Sweeney again and gestured him onward, toward the south side of the island.

Shit, he hated that woman.

*  *  *

Joy made his way north to where the island narrowed between the western bay and the little lagoon. He moved quickly and quietly through the forest, listening closely for any sound he might hear over the roar of the surf.

He wasn’t listening for Mason Burke.

Joy wasn’t concerned about the murderer. He hadn’t seen any sign of him since he watched the troller leave the dock, back in the little shit town Kirby Harwood purported to rule. There had been only one person shooting at the helicopter; Kirby’s boat the same story. For all Joy knew, Mason Burke had died on board the troller from one of Joy’s grenades. Or maybe he was curled up in a ball somewhere, terrified.