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Chapter One

For the third night in a row the wind and rain whipped up the Oregon Coast and se The tee for late su her s closed The other sat about eleven ate

But cool te nerves further on edge The rattle came first, then the thud That would teach her to wait on fixing the shutter in the family room until “sometime next week”

She leaned back into the stack of pillows piled behind her on her bed and reopened her book After she stared at the same line for what felt like the billionth tiht for dry research reading She slipped her legs over the side of the bed and winced when her bare toes hit the chilled hardwood floor

She made it two steps down the hallway in search of the perfectwas off In the air, in the tight spaceso

Up on the balls of her feet, she spun around, thinking to head back to the bedroohtstand Then it hit her No banging The wind still howled and the rafters shook now and then But no more noise

Torn between possibilities, she stood there The poor shutter probably finally blew off Thatit, properly this ti in herof dread deep in her sto anxiety before and knew the sensation never led her wrong

She turned back toward the fa and shadowed Without thinking, she took off in a sprint in the opposite direction Her feet tapped against the floor as she broke for the bedrooun and the phone She’d use the la to survive

Footsteps thundered behind her, louder and faster Just as she hit the doorway a hand fell on her shoulder Fingers clenched against her pajaed it and her backward She landed with a thuainst a solid mass

“Listen to me” The deep voice vibrated as he whispered

“No” She scratched and clawed “Let go!”

She wound up for thescream of her life, but it choked off in her throat when his hand landed on her mouth “Lindsey, stop”

In the haze she didn’t recognize the voice Didn’t et that he knew her naet him out or take him down Those were the only two options She would not be a victiain