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With the girl on his shoulder Harvey followed the familiar path into the woods It had been twenty-plus years since he’d been here, but Harvey didn’troot, rock or bend on the trail These were his woods His home

Robbie trailed after him A couple of ti Harvey had been his father for ten years And Robbie would have ainst any father Harvey had taken him away from a crack-addicted mother, seen that he was educated, well fed and clothed He was a perfect father except for the fact that Harvey liked to kill women Not all the time, but every so often Robbie had never questioned or feared his father’s obsession, and had assumed he’d one day follow But now, faced with this second chance to kill, his courage faltered

When they arrived at the clearing Harvey paused to look at the bluebonnets “Best tihts like this lad he’s alive”

Robbie folded his arertips rubbed his lean biceps, a self-soothing gesture

“No reason to fret, boy I know you’re nervous, but once we’re done tonight, you’ll be glad you saw it through” The woainst Harvey’s shoulder “Better not barf, girl It’ll coht back You’ll be lucky if you don’t choke to death”

She tensed as if struggling with her own bile and then relaxed back against hi fear and failure

Harvey sirl here has finally figured out that there isn’tthe sho, aren’t we, Robbie?”

She was gonna die

No matter what

“Yeah, I guess”

Carefully, Robbie worked his way through the field of bluebonnets that gently grazed his ankles At the far edge of the field, he spotted the hole Harvey had dug a couple of days ago and covered with a tarp

“Boy, go on and pull the tarp off”

Praying he’d not fail his father, he pulled off the tarp and carefully folded it into a neat square Setting it aside he peered into the hole Six feet long, three feet deep and two feet wide Harvey had said it had taken a few hours to dig, and he’d complained the task had irritated the pinched nerve in his back

Grabbing the woman’s bound hands, Harvey hauled her off his shoulders and dropped her on the ground beside the hole An unladylike grunt whooshed from her

The bindings kept her back arched and on her side She looked up at Robbie, eyes silently pleading

Harvey pulled a knife froht She flinched, fear igniting and burning through the pitiful plea dulling her gaze She tried to wriggle away, but the ropes kept her immobile

He cut through the bindings that kept her back arched but did not cut the ropes that still held her hands and feet secure Groaning, she slowly stretched out her body, whi as if her muscles and bones protested

She rolled on her back, her s toward hi of a person who called the streets home

Robbie knelt and reerly, he smoothed his hand over her hair “Scream if you want No one will hear”

Pent-up fear and rage roared out of her in a loud, piercing howl

Harvey laughed

Robbie flinched as he watched her holler until finally she stopped, exhausted

Shethis? I don’t know you”

“No begging or pleading froood one for you, boy”

The girl kept her gaze on Robbie, triggering an odd twisting in his gut that wasn’t all bad

“Not too bad, is it, boy?” Harvey stared at him closely

“Why do you do this, Harvey? It doesn’t make sense,” Robbie said

“No, I don’t suppose it does Just an unexplainable need that I stopped questioning a long tirand final

e”

Shadows sharpened the edge of the woo I won’t tell a soul”

“You’re wasting your breath, girl” Harvey tsked as he reached under her ared her toward the hole “I already know you’re not going to tell”

Tossing a panicked gaze toward the hole, her body tensed as she tried to dig her heels into the hard dirt “Please, let o”

“Robbie, get the shovel It’s lying on the ground over there”

Frowning, Robbie did as he was told and held out the shovel to Harvey

Harvey shook his head “We said you’d do it this ti to help Time to make you into the man I know you can be”

Robbie shoved out a breath The idea of disappointing his father ripped at hiht, Harvey”

Harvey stared at the boy, as if trying to understand his fear “First tihts out of ht But I didn’t get caught Neither will you”

Robbie shook his head, slowly opened his fingers and let the shovel drop “I can’t”

Harvey kept his voice calave you a pass last tiet on with this”

“Robbie,” the girl said “You don’t have to do this”

“Now, that’s enough out of you, girl” Harvey jerked the girl’s upper body and settled her entire body in the hole She lay flat on her back, theon pale bruised skin