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CHAPTER ONE

There is blood in the ocean

I don’t notice it at first, but then, most people don’t It’s called denial We refuse to see e eventually have to cope with, or perhaps even confess For the innocent, they don’t expect the brutality of the actions required to take a life, so they siuilty, it’s all about denying your own ability to do such a thing, and denial can be a slow, brutal sword that carves you inside out Though there is another class of people that are more animal than hu joy froain You won’t find guilt in their eyes You won’t find remorse There are tiuilt starts again

But you see? There is no remorse I’m not sure what that says about me

And so I walk on the beach, not seeing what is there, and it’s like soEast Hampton’s beach Cool sand between, like I’ down Like I’m dead and that other person on the beach is alive Sometimes I can almost hear that hisperme to a place it knows I entle, soothing caress of a whisper—a seductive proiveness

The wind lies It always lies

But then, that’s why it wants me Because of my lies Because it kno they haunt me It knows my secrets when no one else knows Only that’s a lie, too, and I blink to find the only other person who does know in the distance and closing in quickly

He walks toward , his suit ridiculously expensive, the wet sand beneath his black lace-up shoes impossibly smooth everywhere he steps But then he’s a man who easily convinces people he walks on water, so why not sand? A ance, while his charisma is just one of his many weapons He can kiss a woman and make her crave more—he certainly did that to me—but I remind myself that this does not make me naive, as he also has the power to utter only a word and have grown men follow him He is the picture of perfection that very few see is fras about him no one else knows

Like he does me And therein lies the problem

Rejecting hi the ocean, a nen illu the deep blue of the water It begins to grow, and grow sootten spills through it like oil set on destruction Blood is now everywhere There is nothing else but it and the guilt that I’ve tried to deny

And suddenly he is behind me, his hand on my shoulder, and I shiver with that touch He did this He spilled this blood

Onlyno That doesn’t feel right I thinkI did this

I wake froht were finally over, to a dark roo from the need for sleep

“Rich,” I ed to drape over mine “Get off

My phone’s ringing” He doesn’t move, which is a problem that reaches beyond thisin the saether “Rich, damn it”

He gives a groan and rolls in one direction while I go the other and grabat the caller ID It’s the local PD “Special Agent Love,” I answer

“We’ve got a body off the Santa Monica Pier and need your assistance,” the er made the discovery and called it in”

I glance at the clock, 5:00 a, in the dark, on the beach, but this isn’t my job anyway “That’s the local authority’s territory You’ve got the wrong girl”

“You are Special Agent Lilah Love, correct?”

“You knew that already,” I say irritably, and since this clearly isn’t going away easily, I sit up, preparing to fight for my need to sleep

“Then you’re requested by name Director Murphy sent the directive”

My boss isskills to the locals if he’s joining ht there” I end the call and throw off the blankets, gri Rich’s shirt, which is not sending hi last night’s “talk” But it sood, the way he always does, I think as I push myself onto my feet and stumble toward the bathroom

Stepping into the tiny bathroorimace, then take up residence at the equally tiny, ancient sink and grab my toothbrush

“When are we going to finish that talk we started last night?”

At the sound of Rich’s voice, I start brushingin with hiht “Lilah,” he says i all of ten seconds

I glance over at hi drape ofon the doorway Naked The oodness, but still Good grief “Why don’t you have clothes on?” I ask, though I’m not sure he can understand me with my mouth full of foam

“I’m serious, Lilah We’ve been hot and heavy for six months We need to have this talk”

“You’re naked,” I say, yanking the toothbrush from my mouth, since clearly he didn’t hear o back to brushing my teeth

“You aren’t naked I am”

“Aren’t you funny,” I say, turning on the water and rinsingthere when I’m done, I face him “I’ on me The two do not compute Now is not the time”

“You’re one of the top FBI profilers in the country,” he states “You always have a dead body waiting on you Which is e never talk”

I turn and pressthe white ceraht deserve ht now “Everyone has their fetishes, I guess”

“You don’t like dead bodies Why do you say shit like that?”

Because I want to scare you off, I think, and I ht actually really freak him out if I insist I do have a fetish for dead bodies Of course, as logical as Rich is, he’d know it’s because they helpdressed” Hoping he takes a hint and does the same, I turn to walk into the closet Thankfully, his sound of frustration is followed by a shift in the air that tellsfor the shower I don’t have time to take, I yank a pair of faded jeans and a black V-neck T-shirt froet dressed, and then lean on the wall to pull on black combat boots

All of three minutes later, I reenter the bathroom to find Rich back in the doorfra black jeans aren’t doing ht now I toss hi the momentary distraction I’ve created, I head back to the sink to wash my face, brush my hair, and contemplate hoashed-outright now I’irl despite this job, and I prettylove how that, mixed with my “potty mouth,” as my mother would call it if she were alive, confuses the hell out of people

Ready to get out of here for e, his big body blocking my petite one “So about that apartment,” Rich says “You’ve been in Cali for two years This place is the size of a Cracker Jack box, and it’s a due”