Jessie wasn’t sure how to respond to that. She saw that Kat was equally uncomfortable with the roguish FBI agent’s sudden earnestness. Finally, deciding this wasn’t the time to focus on how she was processing her father’s death, she determined the best course was to change the subject entirely.

“Yeah, well. Maybe you should be working less than sixteen hours because you got it wrong. I didn’t take down Thurman single-handedly. If it hadn’t been for that Hannah girl, I’d be dead right now. She really stepped up when it mattered.”

Dolan smiled, happy to let the sincere moment pass as well.

“Speaking of the girl, that’s what I wanted to fill you in on after the doctor left. We learned a little more about her.”

“Yeah,” Jessie remembered. “Thurman said her family didn’t live there—that he brought them in from another neighborhood entirely. Do we know what that’s about?”

Dolan glanced over at Kat hesitantly.

“Okay to speak freely in front of your pal here?” he asked.

“Absolutely,” Jessie guaranteed him. “She’s in the circle of trust.”

“I’m flattered,” Kat said with a smirk, though she was blushing at the compliment.

“Okay,” Dolan continued. “We’re pretty sure we know the reason your father specifically brought them in. As you know, he had the whole scenario planned out—to kill the parents and then you and have Hannah watch the whole thing.”

“Right, he said as much.”

“Yes,” Dolan said, now choosing his words more slowly and carefully. “We believe he was repeating the cycle.”

“What cycle?” Jessie asked. “Of making a young girl watch, tied up in a chair, as people are murdered in front of her?”

“Not just any people, Hunt. We interviewed Hannah earlier. Apparently, the Dorseys adopted her when she was a baby. On a hunch, I had the doctors do a blood test on her. And she was a match.”

“A match for who?” Jessie asked, her stomach already tightening in apprehension.

“For two people: her father, Xander Thurman. And you, Jessie. Hannah is your half-sister.”

NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER!

THE PERFECT LIE

(A Jessie Hunt Psychological Suspense Thriller—Book Five)

“A masterpiece of thriller and mystery. Blake Pierce did a magnificent job developing characters with a psychological side so well described that we feel inside their minds, follow their fears and cheer for their success. Full of twists, this book will keep you awake until the turn of the last page.”

--Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re Once Gone)

THE PERFECT LIE is book #5 in a new psychological suspense series by bestselling author Blake Pierce, whose #1 bestseller Once Gone (a free download) has over 1,000 five-star reviews.

When a gorgeous, popular gym trainer is found murdered in a wealthy suburban town, criminal profiler and FBI agent Jessie Hunt, 29, is called in to find out who killed her. Yet the twisted secrets that this affair-ridden town holds is unlike anything she has encountered before.