Cornered In Conard County

So, for a little while, Dory forgot everything else as they played fetch with tennis balls and tug with a twisted rope. In the end she settled on the Malinois. Yeah, she could see the mischief in him, but she loved his coloration, a dark muzzle and legs that looked like they were cased in dark socks. There was something else, too, something that happened when their eyes met. It was almost as if the dog were saying, “I’m yours.”

Crazy, she thought, but she announced her decision. A Malinois it would be. As she turned toward Cadell to tell him, a smile on her lips, she saw the heat in his gaze. Quickly shuttered, but not so quickly she didn’t feel a responsive heat in herself.

She swiftly looked to the dog that had stapled itself to the side of her leg. Cadell Marcus was a very attractive man. Well built, a strong face and a great smile. He stood there in his sweatshirt, hands on narrow jean-clad hips, waiting, and she didn’t dare look at him again.

These kinds of feelings frightened her almost as much as her nightmares. She was broken, she thought as she stroked the dog’s head. Broken in so many ways, and all those ways led back to George. A spark of anger stiffened her spine.

“This one,” she said to Cadell.

He smiled. “You’re already a pair. He really likes you. Great choice. We can start training you right now, if you like.”

“Training me?” she asked, surprised.

“Training you,” he repeated. “All we’re going to do is ask him to use his native personality and skills for your benefit. But you need to know how to bring that out of him.”

Looking down at the dog, she felt a real eagerness to get started, to develop a relationship with him. “Sure. What’s his name?”

“Flash. But you can call him something else if you want.”

She smiled again. “Flash is a good name, especially since I’m a geek.”

He laughed and turned toward Betty. “It’ll be a couple of hours. If you want to stay, there’s coffee and snacks in the kitchen.”

Betty glanced at her watch. “I’ll be back about twelve thirty, okay? You two have fun.”

Cadell waved and returned his attention to Dory, leaving her inexplicably breathless. “Let’s go,” he said.

* * *

NEARLY A THOUSAND miles away in a Missouri state prison, George Lake sat in the yard enjoying the taste of sun. Two more days and he’d be out of here. He had to school himself to patience.

At least no one bothered him anymore. He’d grown strong and tough here, and he intended to take both away with him. He would also take distrust. He knew better than to tell even his friends here what he had in mind. Any one of them could blab, and this time no one was going to be able to link him to what he had planned.

So he sat there smiling, turning his face up to the welcome sun. Life was about to become so good. Just one little hitch ahead of him.

“Say, man,” said a familiar voice. Ed Krank sat beside him.

“Hey,” George answered, opening his eyes just briefly to assess the yard for building trouble. There were no warnings.

“So whatcha gonna do? Man, I can’t believe you’re getting out in two days. How can you stand waiting?”

“I’ve been waiting for twenty-five years. Two days look short.” Which was a lie. Right now they looked endlessly long.

“They don’t give you much when you leave here,” Ed remarked. “You got something lined up?”

“Sure do.”

“Good for you. Somebody said you had some money.”

George managed not to stiffen. He knew where that came from. Even the oldest news got passed around here relentlessly, because there was so little new to talk about. Money had been mentioned in the papers long ago. “Anything I inherited they took away from me when I was convicted. No, man, nothing like that.”

“Too bad.”

Except that he’d been using the computers at the prison library when he could and had been tracking his little sister’s life. She still had most of the life insurance, because she’d gotten money for the house, too. And she apparently had a tidy little business going.

If something happened to her, say, something deadly, he’d be her only heir. This time he’d get it, because this time he was determined that they weren’t going to link him to any of it.

Oh, he’d learned a lot of lessons here, just listening, occasionally acting.

Dory might have disappeared a couple of weeks ago, but he’d find her. She had to surface online again, and he’d spent some time in classes learning how to use those skills, as well.

He’d find her. Then he just had to make it look like an accident.

“I’ll be fine,” he told Ed, not that he cared what Ed thought about it one way or another. “I made some plans.”

Ed laughed. “Got plenty of time in here to make plans.”

“No kidding,” George answered, smiling. “There’s work waiting for me.” He just wasn’t going to say what kind.

“Good for you,” Ed said approvingly. “I’m getting out in eight months. Maybe you can set up a job for me.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” But he had no intention of that. Remove Dory, get his inheritance and then get the hell out of this country.

Closing his eyes, he imagined himself sitting on a beach, with plenty of beautiful women wandering around.

Oh, yeah. Not much longer.

But between here and there lay Dory. Such a shame, he thought. If she’d just stayed in bed like she was supposed to, he could have slipped away and covered his tracks. Neither of them would have had to endure this hell.

But she had disobeyed a strict rule, had come down those stairs and walked in on him. She wouldn’t even listen when he tried to tell her he’d gotten rid of the bad man.

Instead she had run screaming into the streets, and soon the night had been filled with lights spilling from houses, people running to help her, and cop cars. He’d tried to run, but it was too late to cover his tracks. She was to blame for that. Her and no one else.

So, she’d get what was coming to her. He’d paid for his crimes, and now he deserved the life he should have had all along. Instead she owned it all.

Well, he was just going to have to change that. Given the group she worked for, it wouldn’t be long before he located her.

Then he’d have to figure out how to cause her a fatal accident.

He almost felt a twinge for the little girl she used to be, but the intervening years had hardened any softness that might have been left in him, and she was no longer a little girl who sat on his lap for a bedtime story. No, she was grown now, and not once had she written or tried to visit him.

It was all over between them. Well, except for ending her existence the way he’d ended their parents’. Only much more cleanly, making sure it didn’t look like murder.

His smile widened a bit. He’d bet she thought he’d forgotten all about her. Stupid woman. She’d cost him everything.

Chapter Two (#uccb417b5-1823-5824-ad1f-26b7e3fb3d88)

Two hours later, Dory sat in the middle of the dog run, laughing while Flash licked her face. “He doesn’t wear out!”