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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

“Yeah, Asia,” she replied. “Specifically, my part of Asia: Afghanistan. And you know what they do with the profits?”

He looked at her, blank eyes, hardly paying attention. Like he had no idea why she was giving this lecture.

“Guns, Kirby,” Jess said. “Rocket-propelled grenades. Mortar bombs. IEDs. Any way they can think of to kill a US Marine, those opium-selling motherfuckers are buying it. And you and your homeboys are helping them do it.”

Harwood kind of laughed. “We were just moving the stuff,” he said. “We didn’t hardly do anything.”

Jess shook her head. “You ever see somebody with his legs blown off?” she asked. “Someone shot through the belly and trying to hold their guts in? You ever see a woman get beat up and raped and tortured, get sent back to you to die, just so you could watch?”

Harwood said nothing.

“All that stuff costs money,” she said. “And you helped them get it. While I was over there fighting for this country, you were buying guns for the other guys. You ever stop to think about that, Deputy?”

“Jess,” Harwood said. “Don’t make this more complicated than it actually is, you hear me?”

“I guess that’s a no.” Jess steadied her aim, closed her bad eye, stilled her breathing. Focused on Harwood’s chest as the deputy smirked a little.

“Aw, that’s bullshit,” he said. “You’re not going to shoot an unarmed man, Jess. I know you.”

She gestured to the rock in his hand. “That looks like a weapon to me.”

Harwood went white. He let go of the rock. She’d put three in his chest before the rock hit the ground.

Sixty-Four

Sixty-Four

The shots didn’t kill Harwood. Didn’t penetrate his body armor.

They weren’t meant to.

Each round slammed the deputy like a freight train, staggered him, sent him reeling backward across the empty rock. By the third shot he was teetering on the cliff edge, struggling for balance and not finding it. He grabbed at air and it didn’t save him; he opened his mouth to scream, and then he was gone.

Jess heard him fall, heard the grunt of expelled air as Harwood bounced off rock, heard a splash as he finally found water. She crawled to the edge of the cliff and looked over, saw him thirty feet down on her side of the pass, lying in the water with his ass to the sky.

He wasn’t moving.

She watched him for a while. The tide caught hold of him a little, started tugging him out to sea. But Harwood didn’t move, didn’t look up and breathe, didn’t paddle his arms and try to swim for shore. He just lay there, facedown, bobbing in the little waves, and Jess watched him and knew she should feel bad, but she didn’t.

She didn’t feel bad at all.