Also by T.R. Ragan
Abducted (Lizzy Gardner Series #1)
Dead Weight (Lizzy Gardner Series #2)
A Dark Mind (Lizzy Gardner Series #3)
Obsessed (Lizzy Gardner Series #4)
Almost Dead (Lizzy Gardner Series #5)
Also by Theresa Ragan
Return of the Rose
A Knight in Central Park
Finding Kate Huntley
Taming Mad Max
Having My Baby
An Offer He Can’t Refuse
Here Comes the Bride
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Text copyright © 2015 T.R. Ragan
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by Thomas & Mercer, Seattle
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ISBN-13: 9781477827703
ISBN-10: 1477827706
Cover design by Cyanotype Book Architects
DEDICATION
To my best friends who also happen to be the most wonderful sisters in the world: Cathy, Patty, Sally, and Lorry. Love you all.
CONTENTS
START READING
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
CHAPTER FORTY
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
EPILOGUE
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I am a natural born killer. I have been killing since I was a child. These people were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. You can lock me up and throw away the key, but it won’t make a difference because evil never dies.
—The Sacramento Strangler
CHAPTER ONE
Lizzy Gardner Investigations had gone rogue.
While handling the usual skip-traces, missing persons searches, and workmen’s compensation cases, Hayley, Kitally, and Lizzy had handpicked six criminals who needed to be punished. The worst of the repeat offenders. The list included five men and one woman, all of whom had committed numerous crimes, including rape, stabbings, muggings, and assault and battery.
At the moment, Hayley stood over one of the men on their list. He couldn’t see her through the thick duct tape she’d wound around his head to cover his eyes.
But she could see him.
Owen Dunham was naked and blindfolded, and his hands and feet were each tied to a separate bedpost. He was a rapist. He was the number two man on their list of creepers living right here in Sacramento. The number one guy on their list was Wayne Bennett, but Lizzy was handling him.
Divide and conquer. That was the plan for now.
Following Owen around all night, watching him stagger from club to club, Hayley and Kitally had waited patiently before making their move. It was well past midnight when they followed him onto the freeway, then watched him weave through traffic and somehow make it back home without killing anyone.
By the time he stumbled through the door to his apartment, he was an easy target. They pushed him inside and sent him crashing to the floor. Kitally locked the door, and then they were both upon him, riding him as he thrashed about like a slimy beached fish until Hayley succeeded in injecting him with etorphine hydrochloride. Hopefully not enough to kill him, although Hayley wasn’t too worried either way.
Lucky for him, the drug appeared to be wearing off fast, which meant he wasn’t dead from an overdose. Dragging him through the apartment and getting him onto the bed had taken some work, but they’d managed.
“What’s going on? What are you doing?” he asked as he came to, wriggling beneath the tape and ties.
Ignoring him, Hayley told Kitally to get the knife ready. She could have done that ten minutes ago, but she wanted him to hear every word. She wanted him to sweat, to know what it was like to have zero control. And mostly she wanted him to know that something bad was about to happen.
Kitally began sharpening the blade, making certain he could hear the sound of metal scraping against metal.
Owen Dunham had raped twin girls. Eight years old. Open-and-shut case. He was linked to the sexual assault of five others, but for some reason prosecutors had only concentrated on the twins. Unlike most rapists, Owen spent ten years in prison. He was released two years early for good behavior.
It wasn’t long before he met a woman who happened to be the mother of a blonde, curly-haired six-year-old. She and her daughter lived in a trailer park. The woman could not believe her good fortune in finding such a wonderful man, and she swallowed his story about the reason for his prison sentence (unjustly accused by a vindictive ex-girlfriend after he broke up with her) hook, line, and sinker. Not only was he handsome, he helped her around the house and even did things for her, like change the oil in her car. For her birthday, he bought her an entire year of yoga classes because he knew how difficult raising a child could be for a single mother. He also offered to babysit. He wanted her to relax and have some time to herself.
But two months later, class was canceled unexpectedly and the woman came home to find her wonderful, too-good-to-be-true boyfriend raping her daughter.