She’d never thought she’d walk in voluntarily.242Please respect copyright.PENANAGZuWNbyH9R
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She’d never thought she’d come back to Clear Springs at all.242Please respect copyright.PENANAuap0qbVL4H
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She sighed. There was no help for it—either she needed to turn the car around, drive back to Missoula, and catch the next flight out to Virginia, or she needed to stop trying to talk herself out of this and walk in there and offer her services.242Please respect copyright.PENANAmlIQQ3iy9v
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I don’t want to go back. Please don’t make me.242Please respect copyright.PENANAQrR1B4R5hT
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It was the cry of a child in the dark. She’d worked very, very hard to leave that child behind, but the little-girl voice had the nasty habit of popping up at the worst times. Eden had known coming back to Clear Springs for the first time in a decade would rouse all sorts of inner demons she’d been so determined to forget. It didn’t make it any easier to bear.242Please respect copyright.PENANAXeGEXWalfG
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“This is stupid. Get out of the car. Get out of the car right now.”242Please respect copyright.PENANAnoEL0ke0ne
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She threw her body into motion, half-afraid that if she didn’t force herself to move, she’d sit there until someone decided to report her for being creepy. Who am I kidding? The people in this place are just as likely to knock on the window and ask me if I need any help.242Please respect copyright.PENANAnRJCYNaOni
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The fall air had a little bite to it, and she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. Home.242Please respect copyright.PENANAOhGuh6ZRLY
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No. It’s not home. It’ll never be home again.242Please respect copyright.PENANA84wL9b04qA
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She’d made a life for herself in the FBI, and if she didn’t have much in the way of roots . . . well, she’d left the possibility of roots behind when she left Clear Springs. Most days it didn’t even bother her that much. She was doing good in the world, using her nontraditional childhood to give her an edge that had helped her make a name for herself over the last six years in the cult division. She was Eden Collins, FBI agent. She wasn’t that scared little girl. Not anymore.242Please respect copyright.PENANAK48sPbDtpx
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One step at a time, she made her way into the police station. She’d half expected it to be a whirl of motion, with people rushing here and there, trying to come to terms with the fact that death had touched their small town. But there was no one in the room except a man sitting behind the desk in the corner, glaring at the phone on his desk.242Please respect copyright.PENANAA6STScV6s5
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242Please respect copyright.PENANA9LLGjORs61