Life Penalty (40 page)

Somebody should just shoot the bastard
, she heard her father say.

Mommy, when we die
Cindy’s voice intruded,
can we die together? Can we die holding hands? Do you promise?

Gail thought of her old life—of the ease with which she used to walk through her days, the comfortable values she woke up with each morning, the casual ideals that had carried her through till night. All gone. The afternoon of her innocence had been destroyed. It was lost to her forever.

She thought briefly of how far she had strayed from her core, how her mirror image no longer reflected the face of middle America, how very different she was from everything she had been.

And suddenly, Gail understood what it was that had been missing from her life these past months—what, precisely, this man had robbed her of on that last April afternoon, and all that she had permitted him to take.

Thoughts of him had occupied her days and directed her dreams. She had gone nowhere without him. Even now, from behind bars, he continued to control her every move, filling her head like the scent of a strong and unwanted perfume, leaving her little room to breathe. It was
she
who was the prisoner. She had allowed a stranger lurking behind a clump of bushes to seize control of her life.

Gail watched as Dean Majors’ lips curled into that curious little half smile she recognized from the photographs in the newspapers, the smile that stopped just short of a smirk. Now, she told him, the smile transferring itself subtly from his lips to her own, she wanted that control back.

The smile stretched across her face as the feeling of control spread through her body, as tangible to her as the gun which suddenly slipped from her purse into the palm of her hand.

Somebody should just shoot the bastard, a voice repeated, and this time the voice was not her father’s but her own.

From the time of the first shot to the time Dean Majors fell to the floor dead, five holes in his chest, till the moment someone wrenched the gun from her hand before she could fire more, Gail was aware only of this feeling.

Gradually, she became aware of other things—of sounds, of screams, of cries, of shuffling and running. She felt hands all around her, restraining her though she was not trying to move. She saw people pushing against each other to see what she had done, watched the omnipresent cameras trying to make sense of what had happened, heard cries of “My God” and “He’s dead” on top of pleas to give the dead man room to breathe.

Gail marveled silently at what she had done. Her eyes locked on Jack’s. She wondered briefly what would happen
to her. Perhaps a jury of her peers, as a lesson to others about straying too far from the fold, would sentence her to die. If so, she was prepared to accept their decision.

And then she heard it, another sound which told her that perhaps she hadn’t strayed so far from the fold after all. Gail threw her head back, soaking up the sound and letting it envelop her. It grew, spreading like a fire across dry wood, until it filled the courtroom.

The sound of applause.

Welcome to Torrance, Florida. Population: 4,160. As Sheriff John Weber would attest, the deadliest predators to date in his tiny hamlet were the alligators lurking in the nearby swamps. But that was before someone abducted and murdered a runaway teenage girl … and before the disappearance of popular and pretty Liana Martin. The pattern is chilling to Sandy Crosbie, the town’s new high school English teacher. With a marriage on the rocks, thanks to her husband’s online affairs, and a beautiful teenage daughter to protect, Sandy wishes she’d never come to the seemingly quiet town with shocking depths of scandal, sex, and brutality roiling beneath its surface. And as Sheriff Weber digs up more questions than answers in a dead-end investigation, one truth emerges: the prettiest ones—the heartstoppers—are being targeted. And this killer intends to give them their due….

SEAL BOOKS
/
ISBN: 978-1-4000-2505-3

After spending a year in prison, Ralph has explicit plans for his first night of freedom: tonight, someone will be held accountable. He goes to murderous lengths to learn the address of his former wife—the woman he blames for his fate, and has sworn vengeance against. Determined to bring her to his idea of justice, Ralph’s next step is to travel from Florida to Ohio to find his ex-wife’s house on Mad River Road.

Also in Florida, Jamie Kellogg wakes from an agonizing nightmare of her mother’s funeral, and assesses her life: a twenty-nine-year-old woman in a dead-end job, with an ex-husband in Atlanta, a married lover in the hospital, and a virtual stranger in her bed. But this stranger is everything the previous men in her life weren’t: tender, attentive and adventurous. After convincing Jamie to quit her miserable job and ditch her judgmental, perfectionist sister, Ralph proposes a romantic getaway. While Jamie wonders if this thrilling man might finally be her Prince Charming, they plan a road trip to visit his son, who lives with his mother on a street called Mad River Road….

SEAL BOOKS
/
ISBN: 978-0-7704-2959

Amanda Travis is a beautiful twenty-eight-year-old criminal attorney who wins just about every case for her less than admirable clientele. She races through her glamorous life, her only concerns being herself, a good bottle of red, and her pristine Palm Beach condo. Her estranged mother, dead father, two ex-husbands, and countless one-night stands have since lagged far, far behind.

But when ex #1 won’t stop calling, Amanda finally gives in and learns that her mother has shot a man in the lobby of Toronto’s Four Seasons hotel. Despite her best arguments, Amanda knows she must return to her hometown to face her demons and uncover the truth about the dark, strange power her mother seems to hold over everyone. Her childhood nickname, Puppet, echoing in her ears, Amanda must finally confront the past and learn to stand on her own.

SEAL BOOKS
/
ISBN: 978-0-7704-2958-4

Losing Julia has become a constant in Cindy Carver’s life. The first time Julia disappeared, she was five years old and vanished at the playground. That inspired motherly paranoia. The second was when, at age fourteen, Julia decided to move in with her father. That broke Cindy’s heart. But when twenty-one-year-old Julia disappears without a trace after a promising audition with one of Hollywood’s most powerful and influential directors, Cindy begins a frantic search. Secrets are revealed, lives are forever altered, and Cindy is forced to acknowledge the disturbing truth about the young woman she realizes she never really knew….

SEAL BOOKS
/
ISBN: 978-0-7704-2920-1

Jane Whittaker finds herself on a downtown street, her pockets stuffed with a large number of crisp $100 bills, the front of her dress soaked with blood. She has no idea of her identity.

After a terrifying night of hiding, Jane ends up in hospital. There, while undergoing a battery of medical tests, she is recognized by one of the nurses. Soon her husband comes to claim her. He is every woman’s dream: popular, respected, wealthy, a tall, blond doctor. He takes Jane home and vows to cure her with loving care and modern medicine.

But Jane doesn’t get any better. The medication seems to be turning her into a zombie, and she begins to feel that her private nurse is holding her a virtual prisoner in her own home, isolating her from friends who might help her recover. Can Jane remember her past in time … in time to stop whatever it is that is happening to her, whatever made her lose her memory in the first place, whatever is trying to destroy her and her family? …

SEAL BOOKS
/
ISBN: 978-0-7704-2985-0