e. A damp late-autumn wind shook the sycamore branches lining the priv

h the narrow awning. Dulce pulled her collar tighter and started toward the curb where her fri

d out from behind a parked SUV, blocking the

o her throat. She took a

e, making way for the man walk

with the measured, predatory grace of som

p cut of his jawline and the suffocating aura of aut

old mountain cedar, layered with t

te

ungs

pendant. Her right hand settled instinctively over her still-flat abdomen,

keep her voice steady as she backed tow

an st

en a memory buried beneath six weeks of drug-clouded fragments-dark hair spilling across white

was

n from S

le across his face. Her stomac

and ran for th

ai

wisted away before he could catch her, but his fin

over her skin, leaving a burning red mark as the woode

plunged through the automatic doors and di

immed glasses who served as the Justice family's chi

ring he

h the glass doors, two hospital security offi

dar had been carved into a delicate oval, with two words etch

slowly over the

ax

ir

ith the hospital cameras. I w

eks ago, she had vanished without leaving him a si

e, and spotted Alanis pulling the matte-red Jeep toward the cur

st the raw mark on her neck and the other sti

bloodless face and slammed

traffic, Dulce looked back at th

ed for her. If she

d from Alanis's personal savings, Dulce board

assed like sand slip

t her life piece by piece. She gave birth to twin boys whose fa

ct that tore through advanced computer algorithms before he turned five. Leo, t

Ray sat perched on a high wooden stool, his chubby fingers fl

as childish, but his cadence was as serious as a Wall Street auditor. "The automated email from Justice Enter

rd box in the kitchen, her hands

d up a frantic,

his arm. He leaned against her knee, looking up with big, soulful hazel eye

n wooden floor, pulling bot

efore looking into Ray's solemn, calculating eyes. "I have to find out the truth a

. A flicker of cold maturity, far beyond

y, placing his small hand over hers. "I have th

g 777 roared as the plane touched down on the