cient. She knelt and pulled a large, dust-covered storage box from beneath her bed

osing around a worn teddy bear with one missing

d lain dormant for four years, took over. With a firm, practiced

life, a contingency her mother had insisted upon. She had risked a highly dangerous, secret excursion thre

off a heavy, vintage silver brooch. In less than a minute, she had the

muffled thud of heels on the thick

closed her fist around the brooch

thousand pieces clattered onto the rug. She dropped to the floor amidst the colorful me

e bedroom door swung

scanned the room, searching for any sign of abnormality. She glided across the room, her heels sin

ttle sister?" Angele asked, her

trickled from the corner of her mouth. Her eyes fixed on the plate, wide and h

e plate back with a look of

a steel trap. The sweet facade dropped, and her voice became a venom

elicate bones. She fought the instinct to rip her arm away, to

ling finger at the plate. "Cookie," she demand

a flicker of understanding, a hint of the f

oor, kicking her feet like a toddler denied a treat, h

ossible. This pathetic, drooling creature was no threat. She

solde's arm away. She tilted the plate, and th

er shoe into a chocolate chip cookie, crushing it into the expen

alked out, slamming

g. She sat up, her move

nightgown. Her expression was placid, but he

ly pinned it to the inside of her collar, adjusting i

pressing her ear against the wood,