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CHAPTER 1

Hunter Garrity awoke to the click of a gun

His grandparents kept a night-light in the utility roo or someone had killed it—his base was a shallohisper in the darkness For an instant, he wondered if he’d dreamed the sound

Then steel touched his jaw

He stopped breathing

A voice: soft, fe “I think you dropped this”

He recognized her voice, and it wasn’t a relief His arms were partially trapped by the sheet and the cole

“Calla,” hehis voice low so as not to spook her He had no idea how uns, and this didn’t seeht time for trial and error

“Hunter” The barrel pressed harder into the soft flesh under his chin

He needed her to ht now, she was just a voice and a weapon in the darkness

He let out a long breath “How did you get in here?”

“I drugged your dog and picked the lock”

It took great effort to keep still He had a knife under his pillow, but going for it would take about three hours in comparison to the aged ?”

“Benadryl in a New York strip” Her voice turned disdainful “You don’t even walk your dog on a leash”

He never walked Casper on a leash His grandparents lived on an old farirlsto find “If you hurt him, I’ll kill you”