Chapters (110)
- Cover
- ALSO BY J. TODD SCOTT
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- PROLOGUE
- I
- II
- PART ONE
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- PART TWO
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- PART THREE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- FIFTY-FIVE
- FIFTY-SIX
- FIFTY-SEVEN
- FIFTY-EIGHT
- FIFTY-NINE
- SIXTY
- SIXTY-ONE
- PART FOUR
- SIXTY-TWO
- SIXTY-THREE
- SIXTY-FOUR
- SIXTY-FIVE
- SIXTY-SIX
- SIXTY-SEVEN
- SIXTY-EIGHT
- SIXTY-NINE
- SEVENTY
- SEVENTY-ONE
- SEVENTY-TWO
- SEVENTY-THREE
- SEVENTY-FOUR
- SEVENTY-FIVE
- SEVENTY-SIX
- SEVENTY-SEVEN
- SEVENTY-EIGHT
- SEVENTY-NINE
- EIGHTY
- EIGHTY-ONE
- EIGHTY-TWO
- EIGHTY-THREE
- EIGHTY-FOUR
- EPILOGUE
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- V
- VI
- VII
- AUTHOR’S NOTE
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- Excerpt from LOST RIVER
- LITTLE PARIS
- DILLON
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- What’s next onyour reading list?
His smile broadened, almost real. “Sounds like a date. I’ve really been meaning to ask you out, you know, officially.” He looked past her, back through the open door of the house, the smile now faded, gone. “I hope this all goes fine, and this guy with the red shirt shows up with your mother and Fox Uno gets whatever the hell it is that he wants, and he walks out of your life and the Big Bend forever. But if it doesn’t go that way, then you want me doing exactly what I’m doing right now. Because if I don’t, you and the sheriff will die. I wouldn’t let that happen over there, I’m not going to let it happen here.”
She searched his face for some different answer. He understood her far better than he even knew, and although there was more she could say, more she wanted to say, there was nothing that would ever change his mind.
They stood silent together, the air around them hot and still, like the entire world was holding its breath. It drew them together like gravity. Clouds bunched around the distant mountains, cool shadows that might never reach them, because on a day darkened by threats, rain wasn’t one of them.
He put down his guns and his bags, but not before reaching into one and pulling out her silver gun, the one Fox Uno had sent to her. She didn’t want to take it, touch it, but he pulled her to him, into him, and slipped the gun into the back of her jeans.
He understood her far better than he even knew.
“You forgot this. I brought it for you, thought you might want it one last time. No matter what happens, this all ends here.”
She let him hold her . . . and held him back, just as she had in the dark outside her apartment, when he first said to her: I’m going to do whatever you want me to, whatever I have to do, so you’re never hurt again. I thought you knew that. Goddammit, I’ll do anything. I’ll go all the way to the end of the world.
This time was different, though, in every way that it could be.
She tried to ignore the weight of the gun at her back, lost beneath a huge blue sky that went on forever and ever.
To the end of the world.
“I—” she started, but just like he had with the sheriff, he finished for her.
“I know,” he said. And then he kissed her.
It was quick, fleeting. She wasn’t expecting it, and maybe Danny wasn’t, either. He looked surprised, and when she waited for him to do it again . . . when she wanted him to do it again . . . he didn’t.
He picked up his guns instead.
“I’ll see you later,” he said. “Don’t forget our date.”