Zach was half-sure he’d heard her wrong. Hell, he was still trying to process the fact that she’d walked in here with a picture of his crime scene. He recognized it—the damn thing had been taken by the Augusta coroner before the man took the body—which meant there was a leak somewhere along the line, and hell if that didn’t make his job a whole lot harder. Now he had strangers showing up claiming to be . . .176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7Hffvx4k44
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Fuck.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlPrWbYhIiO
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The woman didn’t look like someone who could help him—in those worn jeans and leather jacket—but he’d learned a long time ago that appearances could be deceiving. “Can you repeat that?”
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You have trouble—”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsO7tfGjxmo
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“I heard that. The other part.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDPHQKSGc7d
176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUMqz8ZHdRJ
She gave a wry smile. “The part where I said my name was Eden Collins?”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrQThxtUaIJ
176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdXzT994Mwb
Yep, that was it. There was only one Collins he knew of, and it was one Martha Collins, cult leader. He looked Eden over again, trying to reconcile what she appeared to be saying. “You’re related to—”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLriOA73VZe
176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoarDZQTu3d
“She’s my mother.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQi7E2v8EUn
176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe1xRzqIqBR
This was Martha Collins’s long-lost daughter? The Elysians tended toward nondescript clothing and plain hairstyles—the exact opposite of the woman in front of him. Oh, there was nothing overtly flashy about her long dark hair or her clothing, but something about the way she held herself spoke of combat training. She’s dangerous. “If you think this is funny, it’s not.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaZd3ZVwMyP
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She sighed. “Let’s get this over with so we can move on to what actually matters. My mother and I don’t get along—or we didn’t when I was growing up. We haven’t spoken in ten years, though she’s reached out to me a few times.” Something passed over her face, gone too quickly for him to identify. “That’s not why I’m here. I’m here because I recognize that tattoo in the picture.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0AUj9B9hoC
176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtVCAOQYS6V
“How? It’s barely more than a blot on the screen.” It’d been barely more than that when he’d actually seen it in person. He was hoping the coroner could get more once they cleaned the body.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTMFuI1dlwg
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The body.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxvJKJNOOpZ
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It was such a cold way to refer to a person, even if whatever had made that girl a person had fled long before Zach had ever walked on the scene. Focus. You’re not doing her any favors by dwelling on that fact. She needs you to find her killer. Then you can mourn the loss of life.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmaJ2K6cGxo
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If there even was a killer. He needed more information before he determined that fact. While it seemed fucking unlikely that she’d stripped naked, tattooed and beaten herself, and then hiked out to die on the side of a road, stranger things had happened. She could have been partying and wandered off.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBQwgg1P94M
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And maybe you’re just praying like hell that was what had happened.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡllqpEbHpwo
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He forced himself to focus on the woman in front of him rather than the one on the slab at the morgue. “Explain.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS4cM68qWXw
176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUGtm3u77v3
“I know what it is because I have one.” She shrugged out of her jacket and turned around, her tank top baring her upper back to him. It took him several seconds to find the spot in the midst of the swirling ink marking her skin, but there it was—a small circle with that familiar image in the middle of it. Eden’s was less blurred than the girl’s he’d found, but it wasn’t as clear a picture as he expected.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvzZxhiXUi0
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“What is that?”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnhRQ6rmdj3
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“A bat.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgA8FRpv3yf
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Now that she mentioned it, he could see the rough outline of a bat. Or it would be if a toddler had drawn it. The lack of expertise behind that particular tattoo only stood out against the skillfully drawn art that was the rest of her ink. “Why?” He didn’t realize he was going to ask until the word was out of his mouth.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1CfeKnMYho
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She pulled her jacket back on and faced him. “It symbolizes death and rebirth in general, and Persephone in particular. Bats are sacred to her because they were thought to carry the souls of the dead in some cases.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1XbW1B4lik
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A slow dread uncurled inside him. “You’re not telling me—”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRZgkdN3JiJ
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“I am. Every follower of my mother has the same tattoo. Several of them, in fact.” She pointed to her hip and her wrist—the same places that had been marked on Jane Doe.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3nEIClBwpQ
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Fuck me. He’d known something was up when Martha wouldn’t see him and the gates had been barred, but he never would have guessed this. Except . . . He eyed this stranger claiming to be Martha Collins’s daughter. There was no proof, and taking her word for it on something like this was too much to ask. “Can I see some ID?”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ43GTR2PDfu
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She flashed that same wry smile she’d given him before, but she pulled out her wallet and passed a Virginia driver’s license over.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcoiULSjMvU
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He examined it, and sure as shit, her name was exactly what she’d claimed. “You’ll understand if I can’t just take your word for it.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYnKYywK8rr
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“Naturally.” She accepted her ID back and handed him a card. “This is my number. Eventually you’re going to have questions, and I’m the only one who’s going to be willing to give you answers. I’m staying at the bed-and-breakfast for a few days if you change your mind.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjp1PDeDKrX
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He read the card, half-sure he was processing the words wrong. “Eden Collins, FBI.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRo4BUxn42q
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“Not right now. I’m on vacation.” She walked away before he could say anything else, the door to the station closing softly behind her.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV6lwtIWumK
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Zach dropped into his seat, frowning at the card. “And here I thought my day couldn’t possibly get weirder.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKYQXuPXySg
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Eden couldn’t help the sense of relief that settled over her as she crossed the parking lot to her car. The sheriff—Zach—wasn’t going to call her. He thought she was a nut, and rightfully so. She hadn’t exactly done anything to disabuse him of that notion. But she’d done her part—she’d offered her help. It would have been so much easier to call, but her conscience wouldn’t let her. He would have dismissed her out of hand, and she’d had to make him sit still long enough to listen. After that, if he didn’t take her up on it, that was his choice. She could move on with her life with her conscience intact.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeNemPKDbT3
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He wants justice done. She’d seen that in his eyes, in the way his attention had lingered on the photo of the body, the guilt there an almost physical thing. This was his town, and at least a part of him felt responsible for the fact that a girl had been brutally murdered here.
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It set him apart from some of the local law enforcement she’d dealt with who just wanted the problem to disappear so it wouldn’t further ruin their day.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwZ2oi6Th8v
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She froze in the middle of reaching for her door handle, the hair on the back of her neck standing on end. “I’m not back.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYVPveZkdpZ
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“You look back.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡInp4LWgUld
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The voice sent ice cascading down her spine. Every instinct screamed at her to run, to hide, to do anything but turn and face the monster at her back—which was why that was exactly what she did. I’ve dealt with scarier people in the last six years. But, as she turned around, she didn’t quite believe it. She kept her shoulders back and her hands at her side as she surveyed the man before her. “Abram.” Her mother had a habit of renaming people who became her followers, but there was something about Abram that made Eden think he could have actually been born with the fire-and-brimstone name.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4utEIsGpgp
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The years had been good to him. She thought hard—he had to be nearly fifty by now, his hair gone silver, the lines on his face slightly more pronounced. It should have made him more approachable, or at least easier to dismiss. Instead, he looked even more menacing than he had the last time she’d seen him.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOKjzg4UP9m
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“Your mother requests your presence.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbH6OVlhqCR
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How many times had she heard those same words from him in that exact tone of voice? Too many to count. They never meant anything good. She doubted that had changed in the intervening decade. “I’m not a minor anymore, and I’m not inclined to see her.” Though it sounded calm and reserved in her head, the words came out petulant, as if she was still the child who’d fled.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPEGI1RQVWy
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“All the same.” He didn’t so much as move, but he seemed closer, invading her space and making it hard to control the fear pulsing higher with each heartbeat.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfMkN0UpYq1
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She glanced at the police station, but if Zach saw Abram confronting her, he wasn’t rushing to her defense. And why would he? As far as he was concerned, she was a crazy person who was related to an even crazier person. This was just family business.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBHK3lYJpGV
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Except it wasn’t.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcFBXcQcL6F
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She knew how this played out. She could get in her car and drive away—Abram would probably even let her—but sometime soon, she’d turn around and he’d be there, and he wouldn’t be so accommodating in that future interaction. So she could do this on her terms or on her mother’s.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4qM5WNzP2A
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That’s a lie. Nothing was on Eden’s terms—not when it came to Elysia. There was only Martha and her indomitable will.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Vs7QGdMfM
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Bend or be broken.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP9B08DB8Dc
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Those were the only true options.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZgXEin5M6n
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I am a damn FBI agent. I can handle this. The sooner I figure out if Martha is at the bottom of this, the sooner I can get the hell out of this town and back to my life.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGEXKONHRY8
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She slipped her keys back into her purse. “I’m not going to Elysia.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmjtxWVkIlg
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Abram stepped back and motioned to the coffee shop across the street. It wasn’t a Starbucks—nothing in Clear Springs was brand-name—and it looked all but deserted at this hour of the afternoon. Too close to school being out for the stay-at-home moms and teens. Apparently her mother didn’t want much of an audience. A first.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8s57w8qwn8
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The walk across the street seemed to take forever, and yet nowhere near long enough. This was the very thing she’d spent so much time and effort trying to avoid, and she’d willingly walked back into a confrontation she wasn’t sure she was ready for. Worse, it was all for nothing.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc36YfmmYWe
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Inside, the coffee shop looked like a thousand other coffee shops across the United States. Dim, intimate lighting, close seating, and a counter that ran the length of the back wall. There was one other customer inside, but he was packing his laptop into a backpack as fast as he could. Good to know Martha still inspires that reaction.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQsqU1LJd6o
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With nothing else to focus on, she finally looked at her mother. The years had treated her just as well as they had Abram. She might have a few extra pounds around her waist, but it made her appear happier—more like the benevolent matriarch she claimed to be.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡas8T0cfkOc
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As she always did when faced with the woman who’d brought her into the world, she went down a mental checklist of features they shared. It wasn’t long—Eden was lean where her mother was bulky, several inches taller than Martha, and she had a violinist’s hands, much to her mother’s chagrin. All of which came from the father she’d never met.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrW5dNqISU7
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From Martha, she got medium-brown hair, though she’d lightened hers, and Martha’s was more gray than brown these days. They shared the same mouth, wide and full, the kind of mouth meant for spilling lies.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhOl9AtofEv
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And then there were the eyes.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1wXXrTrQxk
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The rest of it she could escape. Eden didn’t smile the way her mother constantly seemed to be doing while she was growing up, the spider in the middle of a web of her making. She’d changed her hair deliberately, distancing herself from the girl she used to be.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHe3mEM0rxA
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But when she held still long enough to stare in the mirror, it was her mother’s eyes staring back. Whiskey-colored eyes, the tone too deep to be termed a mere brown.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw3kJxkJFa5
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Martha turned a sunny smile on Eden, and it was almost enough to have her heading for the door—only Abram’s presence at her back kept her moving forward.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdpQHexys3q
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If forced to choose between Martha and Abram, there was only one way to go. At least she was reasonably sure she’d walk away from a confrontation with her mother. With Abram, there were no guarantees.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8bkJM2Y1Vz
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“Martha.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyJ1cG3IQyA
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Her mother’s eyes lit up, and she half pushed to her feet. “Eden. I admit, when Abram told me you were back in town, I could hardly believe it.” “I’m not back.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFzmJG4jwoi
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Her smile dimmed, and Eden called herself an idiot ten times over for wanting to do something to bring it back. Manipulation, that’s all it is. Martha motioned to the cups in front of her. “I got your favorite.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAsFhNGHeQk
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There was nothing else to do but take the empty seat and get this over with. She took a sip—sweet with lots of cream—and didn’t bother to tell Martha she’d switched over to drinking her coffee black a few years back. It would serve no purpose, and her entire goal was to get out of here with the least conversation possible.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdaTYDmDVJe
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“It’s been a long time.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfzDI0EX4QL
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She shifted, not sure how to take the searching look her mother was giving her, as if she was trying to memorize Eden’s features—or, possibly, was comparing them to the ones she’d had ten years ago. What was there to say? I hated the life you created and forced me into, so I left. You won’t change, and neither will I. This will never be what you want it to be. She couldn’t force the words past her closed throat, so she took another drink of coffee.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ04V8tpTfPi
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Martha hesitated and then mirrored the motion. “A lot is different from when you were last home.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmhneMuLzqU
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Not nearly enough, she’d wager. But if her mother was offering information, she’d be a fool not to get everything she could from Martha. “Oh?”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGG2LmPIein
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“Our community has grown. It’s flourishing.” She gave a small self-deprecating smile. “But, then, you didn’t come back to talk about Elysia. How have you been?”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCLxAvxti10
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Over the years, she’d received phone calls from Abram, demanding information at odd times in that quiet, terrifying way of his. He’d never asked more than a few questions, and she’d never offered more than was strictly necessary for those forced check-ins—whatever it took to get him off her back. She didn’t want to now, either. “I’m still working for the government.” Safe enough to admit, since her mother already knew about it.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvoiaN2oSo9
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Sure enough, Martha’s lips thinned. “The FBI.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡITjDQZhvTE
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“Using the skills I learned from you.” She knew better, but she couldn’t help the dig.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMVPOiDGVBA
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“I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT5Eassc88a
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Of course she didn’t. Because Elysia most certainly wasn’t a cult. Right. She didn’t roll her eyes, but it was a near thing. “You might like to pretend otherwise, but I know for a fact that Elysia has been on the FBI watch lists for years, so you’re not fooling everyone.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKWLXjA3hN1
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“Eden Magdalene, you might be a woman grown, but that doesn’t mean you can take that tone of voice with me.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwJgS7bTnMq
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Or speak too many truths, apparently. Eden stared at her coffee cup, suddenly exhausted. “I don’t suppose you know anything about a photograph showing up in my e-mail yesterday?” It had all the hallmarks of one taken for an official police investigation, but that didn’t explain how it had found her. She’d had a friend in the tech department try to trace it, but it had been routed through several IP addresses before disappearing into the Internet ether. Call her paranoid, but her first instinct was to suspect her mother had had something to do with it. How was the question, though.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeHjdcSMt3j
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Martha cocked her head to the side, frowning. “I’m not sure what you’re speaking of.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ72SXu6Z0Jt
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Of course she wasn’t, though Eden was at a loss to decide if that was truth or because she didn’t want to admit to somehow being the leak in a murder investigation. She sighed. “What am I doing here, Martha? You know very well we couldn’t sit in the same room without going for each other’s throats when I was eighteen, and it would seem nothing’s changed since then.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3jjSnP5TWh
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“I want what I’ve always wanted, baby. I want you to come home.”176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkOJQLaeSR7
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There’s no home for me to come to, not now. Not ever. No matter how much I wish that wasn’t true. She cleared her throat. “I—” Think. Think fast. A hard no would just have Martha digging in her heels, and she wasn’t sure yet if Zach would change his mind. “I’ll think about it.” The lie rolled off her tongue with the ease of long practice. She wasn’t going back. She’d set herself on fire before she willingly walked through the gates of Elysia and put herself under her mother’s control again. The only reason she was here was to make sure no other girls turned up dead.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe7zbJDDlo7
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“It would mean so much.” Martha’s smile brightened, and a traitorous part of Eden brightened in response. It was how it always was with her mother. She rarely had to take the stern role when she could manipulate much more effectively with a soft word and a particular look. And when that wouldn’t work? Well, she wasn’t above getting her hands dirty, either.176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ6zimzRJ4x
176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvsJ9JW5Cir
Did you do it? Did you see that girl killed?176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqVoAKVDE1K
176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVwhfSaSISZ
Eden couldn’t ask. The sheriff had already refused her help, and she’d have to be a special kind of stupid to go investigating on her own. There was nothing she could do without the power of the law on her side. If she tried . . .176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtVBlFiy8LJ
176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNXw6hma49r
Well, if she tried, there were plenty of unmarked graves in Elysia. What was one more?176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqZr1rLOyf8
176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhpflHVfuzN
176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDoi2Mwi4aV
176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN4ePm7haLx
176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC2qLxawLNI
176Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhCYRsI0rP6
