Chapters (48)
- Cover
- The Bad Man
- Epigraph
- PROLOGUEBLOOD
- PART ONE
- CHAPTER TWO
- CHAPTER THREE
- CHAPTER FOUR
- CHAPTER FIVE
- CHAPTER SIX
- CHAPTER SEVEN
- CHAPTER EIGHT
- CHAPTER NINE
- CHAPTER TEN
- CHAPTER ELEVEN
- CHAPTER TWELVE
- CHAPTER THIRTEEN
- CHAPTER FOURTEEN
- CHAPTER FIFTEEN
- CHAPTER SIXTEEN
- CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
- PART TWO
- CHAPTER NINETEEN
- CHAPTER TWENTY
- CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
- CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
- CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
- CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
- CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
- CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
- CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
- CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
- PART THREE
- CHAPTER THIRTY
- CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
- CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
- CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
- CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
- CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
- CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
- CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
- CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
- CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
- CHAPTER FORTY
- EPILOGUE
- Acknowledgments
- High Praise for Nate Kenyon’s
- Other Leisure Books by Nate Kenyon:
And in that moment, she realized that it was the same for him, and that he really didn’t want to believe it was true either. We’re not doing all we can, she thought. We’re sitting here on our big fat behinds and bitching about some storm when there are people out there dying.
The phone rang. A moment later, the dispatcher yelled something about an emergency call from a man who said his wife and daughter had been kidnapped by some psychopath out at the hydro plant. “It’s them,” Amanda said to Flint. “David was right. Jonathan has them!”
“Jesus,” Flint said. He rubbed at his face.
“I’m going,” she said, suddenly sure of what she wanted to do. “I don’t care about the storm. I’m going to convince that cop to take me. You can come, or stay.”
And that was how the three of them ended up in a police cruiser in the middle of one of the worst storms in recent memory.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
David swung the front door shut and followed Hank to the Cherokee, keeping his face low inside the collar of his parka. It was good to be moving again. The long wait (at least it seemed long to him) in Jessie’s bedroom had worn his nerves thin, his own sanity hanging by a thread. The police weren’t coming, at least not until it was too late, and he knew it was up to him. He no longer felt fear, at least not like he had those first few minutes inside the house. That had been like nothing else he had ever experienced. And I hope I never have to experience it again.
Something told him that he would.
The snow was steady but the wind seemed to have calmed just a little. Maybe we’ll have a chance at this after all, he thought. It didn’t reassure him. His guilt at what had happened was overpowering, and the only way he could silence those insistent voices in the back of his mind was to bring his wife and daughter back safe and sound. There had to be more than a chance. He was counting on it.
They were at the trailer. “Give me a hand with the ropes,” Hank shouted. “The knots get mighty tight and my joints ain’t what they used to be.”
David nodded, taking off his gloves. His hands became numb almost immediately, but he worked the frozen knots furiously with his fingernails, yanking with all his strength. They wouldn’t budge. He pulled his pocketknife from his jacket pocket and sawed through both ropes.
Hank tipped the trailer, and they grabbed onto the runners of the machine, yanking with everything they had. The snowmobile slid off into the five inches of fresh powder that now lined the ground.
“You ever ridden one of these before?”