|
|
|
|
|
|
|
tantalizing glimpses of the woman denied haunted him. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
There would be no answers for him tonight. He'd walk a while longer, until he was sure she would be asleep when he returned. Tomorrow he would call the mayor and make certain D.J. stayed out of Lakeview on another assignmentreal or fictitiouswhile he returned and took care of his little problem on his own. He could take care of himself, and once D.J.'s scent, D.J.'s voice, D.J.'s damnable presence no longer confused him, he could discover the identity of the person who wanted him dead. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Chris turned away from the blinking lights below, a sigh upon his lips at the thought of what D.J. would do when she learned he'd gone over her head to the mayor. She'd skin him alive. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The sigh hitched in his chest when he saw them. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Three shadows in the shapes of men walked toward Chris at a steady pace. They walked three abreast, strung out across the deserted highway like gunfighters in a scene from an old western. Since they approached from the opposite direction of the freeway, Chris wouldn't have thought anything amiss. They hadn't followed him from the hotel. They couldn't be looking for him. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
But something in the way they walked revealed the truth of his delusion. They were looking for him. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Alone. With no protection beyond his own wits and body. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
He had prepared himself for this moment since the nightmarish night of his twelfth birthday. The time had arrived. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Chris took a deep breath and waited. |
|
|
|
|
|