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CHAPTER ONE
“I’M GOING TO teach you to like pain”
Dawn Alexander felt the tears trailing down her cheeks She could only stare at the man who stood above her, a ly familiar, and shake her head
Her hands were tied behind her back The rough hemp rope bit into her wrists She’d strained to break free for hours, and the rope had sliced into her wrists as she struggled Each ankle was bound to a chair leg
And Daas in hell
He s A sht now, you don’t understand how good the pain will be You still cry out when I hurt you”
He’d hurt her plenty The nightmare wouldn’t stop
He lifted the bloody knife and pressed the tip to her cheek “But soon the real fun will begin By the ti for the knife to slice you deeper”
Hefor death
“Please,” Dawn pleaded then as she had for hours But he hadn’t listened to her The ht was her friend had turned into a o”
His bright blue eyes hardened as he stared down at her “You came into my life, Dawn You came to me You tried to come between me and the one person who matters most”
Her breath sawed out of her lungs They were in a se The man before her—she knew him She’d known him for years Jason Jason Frost Everyone in the area knew hi Jason had been the star athlete on the football teauy most likely to succeed Sure, there were plenty of stories that had swirled about his family—or rather, his father—but Jason, with his perfect looks and easy charirls loved
But not me I didn’t love him
Because she’d lost her heart to his younger brother She’d fallen fast and hard for Tucker Frost the first time they’d met
She’d been thirteen He’d been sixteen She’d been so taken by him that no other boy had ever been able to cohteen, Tucker had left her He’d joined the Navy, gone far away She’d heard people say that he’d become a SEAL
And he’d justvanished
Until a feeeks ago Until he’d co in the library at Louisiana State University He’d been looking for her And she’d been lost
“Does Tucker knohat you’re doing?” The broken whisper came from her That had been her darkest fear as the hours had slipped by and her pain had continued
Jason had picked her up froive her a lift out to their place She’d gone so easily, so happily, never hesitating Only he hadn’t driven her to their hoe of the Mississippi River To this little cabin
The first time he’d hit her, she’d been stunned Too stunned to move The second time, he’d hit her so hard she couldn’t move
Jason tilted his dark head down, seeht
Her heart pounded frantically in her chest “Tucker won’t like this,” she said, desperate “You’d better let ry—”
His head lifted His eyes—eyes the exact saain Tucker’s smile Oh, God “Of course he knows Why do you think he came to see you when he arrived back in town? You’ve been on our list for quite a while”
Her heart stopped Dawn shook her head No Anger was there, beating just below the terrible fear Tucker wouldn’t do this
Not Tucker
He’dhe’d seemed to care about her They’d always been close, secretly so before he left for the Navy Nothing romantic or sexual, justfrie
nds They’d been friends when they were kids He’d walk her home He’d make sure she had all her books
But when he’d come back recently, when he’d co just friends They’d beco to her
Not Tucker
The knife lifted and her breath came a little easier
Then the blade sank into her shoulder, going deep, and he twisted the hilt Dawn choked out a scream
He laughed at her “Surely you’ve read the stories in the paper? I reat deal of attention”
Our kills?
“They even gave azed at the blood on the weapon “The Iceman” He nodded once, as if satisfied with that name “But they are so clueless They don’t knohy I freeze the bodies They don’t get it at all”
OhGodOhGodOhGod Yes, she’d heard the stories about the Ice women for the last few years The man who froze their bodies andkept the before he would call the cops, tipping them off to the locations And those poor women would be found, so perfectly preserved, in freezers
She looked up at Jason His thick, dark hair His perfect features His glea eyes That dimple Dawn could only shake her head
“The press should have realized it wasn’t just onethe crimes,” he said “I mean, really, it’s more like Icemen than Iceman”
“Not Tucker” Her breath heaved out “You’re lying!”
His eyes narrowed “Why?” That bloody knife ca to cut her face Dawn tried to brace herself for that pain “Because you think you know him? Because he fucked you?”
She felt her face flame Yes, he had And Tucker had been her first Her only She loved him She trusted him She—
Jason laughed Hard, deep laughter “You are so clueless Blood co else Tuck has my back He always has He’ll be here soon, and he’ll prove the truth to you”
The tip of the knife pressed into her cheek, a shallow cut, taunting her
“And you’ll see the truth for yourself”
He turned away from her
Daisted her bleeding wrists behind her, struggling as hard as she could against the rope Terror clawed at her insides as the stories of the Iceh her le When their bodies had finally been recovered, they had been covered in slices Stabbed again and again Tortured Then frozen in timeas ifas if the killer wanted to savor them
I won’t be another victim
“They’re alive when I put them in the freezer”
For an instant, her struggles ceased Stunned, she could only stare at his broad back
“I make sure of it,” he added “The cops haven’t released that part to the media, but I always put the I like for the over theain” He looked back over his shoulder at her, and his profile It is so like Tucker’s “I told you, before I’row to like the pain”