Description
About the Author Catherine Coulter is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of eighty-four novels, including the FBI Thriller series and The Brit in the FBI international thriller series, cowritten with J.T. Ellison. Coulter lives in Sausalito, California, with her Übermensch husband and their two noble cats, Peyton and Eli. You can reach her at [email protected] or visit Facebook.com/CatherineCoulterBooks. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Chapter 1 1 WASHINGTON, D.C. CORRECTIONAL TREATMENT FACILITY OCTOBER 3 Marsia Gay would be living like a queen, not like an animal locked in a cell, if it weren’t for FBI agent Dillon Savich. He was the one who’d screwed her perfect plan sideways, the man responsible for her being locked in this soulless circle of hell. Of course, that bitch Veronica would pay for her betrayal, too, no doubt about that, but he was the one who’d rained this misery down on her, the one she wanted most. Savich was a dead man walking—but not yet, not just yet. She wanted to savor his downfall. He would die only after she killed the two people closest to him, the two people whose deaths would hurt him most. She knew she had to snag his interest with something unique, begin with only an oblique threat, nothing too over-the-top, but something enigmatic and bizarre enough that Savich wouldn’t be able to resist. And suck him in. She wouldn’t underestimate him, not this time. He’d proven he was smart, but she was just as smart—no, she was smarter, and she was going to prove it. She’d make sure Savich knew it was Marsia Gay who’d set everything in motion, who’d had her final revenge. Halloween was coming up. It was the perfect time. She heard her mother’s vodka-slurred voice whisper, Even as a child, when you wanted something, you grabbed for it, didn’t think. Didn’t work out for you this time, did it? “I won’t fail this time!” She didn’t realize she’d screamed the words until the guard, a big lummox named Maxie, appeared at the bars and stared at her. Marsia wished she could tear her face off. “A nightmare, sorry.” Maxie didn’t point out it wasn’t dark yet, too early to sleep. She only shrugged and walked away. Marsia went over to the narrow window that looked out over the desolate exercise yard with its scarred, ancient wooden tables and benches, the pathetic torn basketball hoop where she usually won playing Horse—cigarettes, a small bar of soap from a Holiday Inn, an offer of a prison tattoo made from soot and shampoo or melted Styrofoam, no thank you. She saw Angela lounging against a wall, probably giving orders to her minions. What a sweet name for a mean-as-a-snake muscled gang leader awaiting trial for the murder of her boyfriend and his lover. It hadn’t been difficult to seduce Angela into her orbit. She’d been even easier to manipulate than Veronica. Angela had taken to Marsia right away, told her she’d see to it no one would harm her, if Marsia was nice to her. Marsia had shuddered when Angela lightly touched her arm, but, well, Marsia had been nice. Angela always stayed in sight and took care of whatever Marsia wanted. She kept the other bullies away from the pretty artist girl who spoke so beautifully and was always so polite, so of course they hated her instinctively. Angela never tired of hearing about Marsia’s sculptures, how she worked with this metal and that. Marsia missed her sculpting, of course, but now she looked forward to returning to her studio once she was found not guilty at her trial, and of course her studio would still be waiting for her. After all, she owned the building. The wind had stiffened, whipping up the dirt into dust devils. She saw a dozen women wandering around the yard, doing nothing in particular, and one lone prisoner, head down, pacing back and forth, apart from the others. It was Veronica. She’d rarely seen her here. The guards made sure they were kept apart, but soon that wouldn’t matter. Marsia knew Veronica well enough to know she felt guilt, awful guilt, about striking the deal as the prosecution’s star witness against Marsia in exchange for the safety they’d promised her. Sorry, Veronica, that isn’t going to happen; it’s going to get you killed . With no witness to testify against Marsia, the evidence would be more circumstantial than not. No, not enough to convict her. Veronica, I’m going to choreograph a special dance for you to mark your exit from the planet. Thank you. Later, on the edge of sleep, she heard her dead lush of a mother speaking in her ear. I could tell you things you haven’t thought of yet, wormy things you could do. I could help you. She didn’t scream out this time. She lay there and whispered, “Okay, Mom, talk to me.”
Features & Highlights
- This “intricate…
- extravagant thriller with a paranormal tinge” (
- Publishers Weekl
- y)”
- by #1
- New York Times
- bestselling author Catherine Coulter finds Savich and Sherlock confronting two baffling mysteries.
- A young wife is forced to confront a decades-old deadly secret when a medium connects her to her dead grandfather. A vicious psychopath wants ultimate revenge against Savich, but first, she wants to destroy what he loves most—his family. A series of three red boxes are delivered personally to Savich at the Hoover Building, each one containing puzzle pieces of a town only FBI agent Pippa Cinelli recognizes. Savich sends in Cinelli to investigate undercover but someone knows who she is. Savich and Sherlock are up to their eyebrows in danger, but first they figure must out the red box puzzle and the young wife’s secret before it’s too late in this unputdownable “thriller from start to finish…with so many different surprises and excitement all the way to the climax” (
- The Reading Café
- ).
