Chapter 1 - The Grave Before Sunrise
Cold dirt struck Evelyn Cross across the cheek.
She jerked her head sideways, but there was nowhere to move.
Her wrists were bound behind her. Zip ties cinched her ankles together beneath the hem of her dirt-streaked coat. Black tape sealed her mouth so tightly that every frightened cry collapsed into a muffled sound in her throat.
Above her, three men stood along the edge of the deep pit.
Victor Hale.
Miles Crane.
Dean Mercer.
All three wore black suits and gloves.
All three carried shovels.
And all three were burying her.
Beyond them, a black SUV sat beneath bare trees in the wooded clearing outside Asheville, North Carolina. Dawn had not broken yet. The sky between the branches was turning from black to a cold blue-gray.
Victor threw another shovelful down.
Dirt scattered across Evelyn’s legs and chest.
He looked directly at her.
“By sunrise, no one will even know where she disappeared.”
Dean’s shovel kept moving, but something in his face had changed.
His eyes flicked toward Victor.
Then toward Evelyn.
Then back again.
He stopped.
“This wasn’t the deal. You said we drop her, not bury her alive.”
Victor and Miles looked at each other.
Evelyn saw the decision happen before Dean did.
Miles grabbed him from behind.
Victor lunged forward.
Dean cursed as they forced his arms behind his back and cinched a zip tie around his wrists.
Then Miles kicked Dean’s legs out.
Victor shoved.
Dean dropped over the edge.
He crashed into the loose dirt beside Evelyn.
For one stunned second, they stared at each other.
Then dirt began raining down again.
Victor and Miles had resumed shoveling.
Dean twisted onto his back.
Victor looked down with a thin smile.
“Loose ends get buried with the job.”
Dean’s face changed from shock to absolute panic.
He looked at Victor.
Then Miles.
Then Evelyn.
“You idiots—if I die, no one will know which one of her children paid for this!”
The shovels stopped.
Victor froze with one load of dirt suspended above the pit.
Miles slowly turned toward him.
Evelyn’s eyes widened.
Her children.
Mara.
May you like
Colin.
One of them had paid these men to put their own mother in the ground.
