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Prologue

The Hill Country, Texas

Monday, June 2, 1 AM

A hangover punched and pounded Rory Edwards’s brain as he woke to discover a hang around his neck His hands lashed behind his back, his booted feet were braced on an open truck tailgate He shifted, tried to wriggle free, but he painfully deep into an already bloodstained neck and wrists

What the hell?

He blinked grit and fillanced up the thick rope narled bark to a square knot at the trunk

Shit

He’d done a lot of stupid things in his life, but what had he done to land here?

Panic rising, he scanned the area, illuminated by the full moon, to find dense shrubs and trees and a patch of dirt too rough to be considered a road He didn’t recognize his surroundings, but a lonely isolated feeling banded around his chest Wherever he was, it was far from another human Texas had hundreds of thousands of bleak acres where a man could die and never be found A coyote howled in the distance

Dread kicked and scratched his insides Shit Shit Shit He struggled to free his hands, but when they refused to budge, he couldn’t silence his fears

“Help!” He shouted his plea over and over until his throat burned inside and out No one came

Breathless, he craned his neck trying to better identify his surroundings, but as he leaned forward his foothold slipped and he nearly skidded off the tailgate’s edge Every ht back until he was on fir now, and h to think

This tiaze roa tree It was an old picture, crunition flickered instantly He’d carried the picture in his wallet for a dozen years, and he’d cherished it More nights than he could count he’d stared at that picture asking for strength when life shit-kicked hiut

Tears filled his eyes

The aging iht, and broad-shouldered His thick sun-kissed hair ski blue eyes Tanned skin accentuated a crooked rin His arirl She was pretty, not overly stunning like Rory, but her smile could be electric

At first glance Rory’s e teenagers in love However, closer inspection exposed a wrinkle of tension creasing Rory’s forehead and the pointed edge of desperation behind his gaze The young Rory held the girl a little too close and a little too anxiously

&nbs

p; On that long-ago day, he’d been so worried about himself and his iirl’s forced ss Not once If he had really noticed her, he’d have seen she hadn’t been happy Yes, she smiled, but her full lips often thinned into a strained line, and her blue eyes reflected the weight of her own de swimmer couldn’t save another

If he’d been a little less selfish, he would have seen her sadness Instead of whispering e her when she needed to talk, he could have soothed her wounds He could have done so much for her But he didn’t

Teights of regret and failure settled on his shoulders as he begged for her help one last time “I’m sorry, Elizabeth Save me Just one more time, please Don’t let me die Save me”

Laughter crept out of the darkness and rumbled behind him “How many times is Elizabeth supposed to save you, Rory?” The deep, clear voice made him bristle “Don’t you think Elizabeth deserves a break fro?”

Shocked by the voice, Rory twisted his bound hands against the tight rope “Who are you?”

Silence

“Why are you doing this?”

Laughter

In his peripheral vision, a strike and a flash of flaarette’s tip

Rory craned his neck, trying to see the stranger’s face but the ropes cut and burned until he stilled The smoke’s acrid scent wandered out from the shadows “Who are you?”

As if he hadn’t spoken, the voice said, “How ht? Two hundred and five or six?”

Two hundred and six days of sobriety had bolstered his confidence and pluo back And yet he had tossed away those months so easily He stared at the sparse land as barren as his proet clean and sober Shit Why had he been so reckless?

The demons, which had stalked him for many, many years, murmured familiar words Loser Stupid Failure

Shit He thought he’d licked the drinking Pooling tears spilled down his cheeks

Loser Stupid Failure

The words beckoned hi Who would notice? Who would care? Likely no one

And still he clung to life “I don’t want to die Whatever I’ve done to you, I’ll fix it I’ll ht”

“How are you going to fix it?”

“I don’t know”

The stranger chuckled “Don’t you see? The true fix is death”

Rory sed His throat burned “It’s not too late It’s not I can make amends and fix what I’ve done I’ve a brother who has ht Just tell me what you need”

The stranger li a lean fraround and suround out the embers

Rory cut his vision to the left toward his torht “Come on, man” Pure desperation eht”

“You can kid yourself, but you can’t fool us, Rory You’ll never get it right It’s not in your DNA”

His slight body trembled and he pissed on himself “What the fuck do you want?”

“We don’t want to hurt you, Rory We want to end your suffering”

“I’ predator “I’ my life as best I can”