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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

Or maybe he was still out there, plotting his ambush. But he hadn’t showed up yet, and Joy was still hunting Jess Winslow.

The marine was a sharpshooter. Joy was wearing the proof on his shoulder. In his shoulder, and out the other side. He knew he was lucky he’d lived, knew it was only the unpredictable roll of the ocean swell that had saved him from a kill shot to the head. Joy didn’t want to give the widow another chance to kill him. He didn’t relish the idea of advancing on her hiding hole, letting her see him approach.

But he didn’t feel any allegiance toward Kirby Harwood or the other one, Sweeney. Those men were going to have to die anyway, no matter what happened next. Better they die doing something productive.

Harwood and Sweeney would seek out the widow Winslow. Probably she would kill at least one of them. But she would reveal her position when she did. And then Joy would take her, alive if possible, and she would take him to the stolen shipment.

Joy walked north until he’d nearly reached the trail that bisected the isthmus. He stopped and turned south again, searching through the forest he’d just walked for any sign of the deputies. He couldn’t see them, and that was fine. He would hear them loud and clear when the shooting started.

He took a step in Harwood’s direction, intending to retrace his path and stalk the deputies from behind. Before he could go any farther, though, he sensed something behind him, and he half turned, thinking maybe Mason Burke really was out there, plotting some big rescue.

“Stop right there.”

It wasn’t Mason Burke’s voice. Joy stared as Dale Whitmer came out of the woods, his face scratched and bleeding, his clothing soaking wet and torn, his hand holding a Smith & Wesson semiautomatic aimed square at Joy’s head.

“Deputy, you survived,” Joy said. “That is excellent news. We’re going to need you to help us flush out that widow.”

Whitmer smirked back and the pistol didn’t waver. “Don’t either of us have to worry about Jess, not just yet,” he said. “We’ve got unfinished business between us, and I’m about ready to put things right.”

He motioned with the pistol. “Drop the gun, Mr. Joy, and let me tell you a few things about my brother.”

Sixty

Sixty

Joy didn’t drop the rifle. He stood still, eyeing the deputy over his busted shoulder, watching the man’s gun, and trying to calculate his odds.

“You didn’t think I was just going to let you walk away after what you did to Bryce, did you?” Whitmer was saying. “I mean, shit, you shot him in the head in his own goddamn kitchen, Joy. You didn’t even give yourself a chance to get to know the poor miserable bastard.”