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 . . .212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHo9BF5Fq5j
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Fuck.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnSEUFFo70q
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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—”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa23sVur2DU
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“I heard that. The other part.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmw5hD8Z4TM
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She gave a wry smile. “The part where I said my name was Eden Collins?”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMEPnpK2kcX
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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—”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmY3H6ZJS9i
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“She’s my mother.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs9F5wkCaU1
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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.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTjScIb2mBW
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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.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡghMQ4gVqKv
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“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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpyE6oEJLKj
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The body.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy5BNE3QpIS
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡexEe9bnggI
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdRqcG7htpN
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And maybe you’re just praying like hell that was what had happened.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsxJFIvmgC0
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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.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8TCk08R3bz
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“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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcNH8S58Hhn
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“What is that?”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMBf5a0JfIU
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“A bat.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcoB0RdiSZC
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbw4swOsCq0
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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.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQWbh5DVwYd
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A slow dread uncurled inside him. “You’re not telling me—”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9yRe1yn7VC
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHEDlm7Zed0
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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?”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfrCBxvPAJw
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAURt2Nccyp
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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.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6sXnJYB3Zz
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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.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJRu4GSAGtl
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He read the card, half-sure he was processing the words wrong. “Eden Collins, FBI.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpNGrZvtnD1
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbo5QHWBCbb
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Zach dropped into his seat, frowning at the card. “And here I thought my day couldn’t possibly get weirder.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNIGYmswXRS
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZhPeQ6rT13
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXEWJrfNZNp
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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.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5Xz5eYb7VZ
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“You look back.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlRNM2eorSC
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnMbLizpM22
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQiGMfIFQI3
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“Your mother requests your presence.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPUkV1T8jXM
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4AC0ceGS1g
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv5SsuAA4mv
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKomhZqlSu5
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Except it wasn’t.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi2yc4U3Cnt
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKiXeL1Q86U
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKyr6l4W2aI
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Bend or be broken.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡllkhZZOLQv
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Those were the only true options.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡApkYSwE4dj
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0Qnc4zNle0
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She slipped her keys back into her purse. “I’m not going to Elysia.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSQVBPbwxCQ
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTTC4czdyuW
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGQILmgOXVQ
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzU63A5GPkq
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW7OT4PcvOf
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx9VZelMrOI
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7UHgYney4v
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And then there were the eyes.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAk7KmgD6HE
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHMX83EeSgU
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3HBXhRGYZX
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdlfW3DhdZB
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpccjPTMtcH
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“Martha.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYnnJMToijx
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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.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzzi7grrRZU
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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.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8efLKDthK4
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡonuZrFk07M
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“It’s been a long time.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeOKxjJYUOl
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGiEFNu7NkC
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Martha hesitated and then mirrored the motion. “A lot is different from when you were last home.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk8CDZubgRN
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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?”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvvJeL9pNag
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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?”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4EP9DqSech
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ3w3UKjl5v
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Sure enough, Martha’s lips thinned. “The FBI.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn4zEzztGFH
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“Using the skills I learned from you.” She knew better, but she couldn’t help the dig.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAYCAE2H3lV
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“I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEzFGDtM3TX
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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.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS7U3gAzZ2v
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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.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY717IbKkWS
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOHZGlpufxG
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Martha cocked her head to the side, frowning. “I’m not sure what you’re speaking of.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2vmeKjougK
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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.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7cjfj6QI7n
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“I want what I’ve always wanted, baby. I want you to come home.”212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC5v8KHxtFk
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbDZtImH8NY
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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.212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbupoCYFS0f
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Did you do it? Did you see that girl killed?212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGHeAy1cS9S
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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 . . .212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUXpF6Pb4vZ
212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhK0Xk1iEiX
Well, if she tried, there were plenty of unmarked graves in Elysia. What was one more?212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh6sXnnTAjA
212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjBzHY2yn04
212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMhQtnZHClY
212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjB8UECxbfI
212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnlIO9WQQUB
212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgAUy92qsWu
