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Chapter One

Brutus was dead His body lay under an oak on the Hendersons' lawn A sathered around his corpse, their faces sad and shocked

It had been such a niceThe Texas suht, happy breeze Not a single cloud as-station convenience store had turned out to be downright pleasant Noras station at seven thirty on Friday ood policy to accouests, especially if they've paid for a lifetiathered my blond hair in a ponytail, put on htailed it half a mile to the store

I was coathered under the tree And just like that, round to a halt

"Hey, Dina," Margaret Pineda said

"Hello" I glanced at the body A second's worth of looking toldI needed to know Just like the other two

Brutus hadn't been what you would call a good dog An oversized black Cho, he'd been suspicious of everyone, ornery, and often too loud for his own good His chief activity when he'dbehind trash cans and exploding with thunderous barking at anyone who dared to walk by But nohe'd been, he hadn't deserved to die

No dog deserved to die this way

"Maybe it's a ht, with a fluffy cloud of dark, curly hair fraaret was in her ain and turned away, her fingers covering her mouth "That's just terrible"

"Like, a real mountain lion?" Kayley Henderson raised her head fro seventeen, Kayley lived for drama

David Henderson shrugged his shoulders He was a heavy man, not fat, but thick around the middle He and his wife owned a pool-supplies shop in town and did their best to parent Kayley, with mixed success

"Here? In a subdivision?" David shook his head

"Why not?" Margaret crossed her arot owls"

"Owls fly," David pointed out

"Well, of course they fly They're birds"

It hadn't been aand bitten through the nape of his neck, then dragged hi that had killed Brutus had s blow Then it had scoured the dog's sides and sliced open its abdole bite This was a territorial kill, left for everyone to find -- look how bad and clever I am

"That's the third dog in teeks," Margaret said "It has to be a mountain lion"

The first had been a lovable but dumb escape-artist boxer one street over She'd been found the exact sae by the le named Thompson, a notorious lawn bandit who'd made it his life's rass He'd been left in the shadow of a shrub And now Brutus

Brutus had a lot of fur Whatever had , razor-sharp, and growing froers with a lot of manual dexterity

"What do you think, Dina?" Margaret asked

"Oh, it's a mountain lion," I said "Definitely"

David exhaled through his nose "I'ot to take Kayley to school and open the store in fifteen minutes Did anyone call Byrne?"

Brutus was Mr Byrne's pride and joy He'd walk hi when people stopped to pay him compliments

"I did," Margaret told hirandkids to school I left a e"

Hi, I' died in a horrible way It had to stop Now

Ain his step that said he could run and run very fast if he chose Sean Evans Just the devil I wanted to see

Sean Evans was a new addition to Avalon Subdivision Ruht In uys ca hair, sprouted beards, and indulged in all the things they hadn't been able do while they'd been in the arot out

Sean Evans belonged to the second category His russet-brown hair was cut short His square jaas clean-shaven Tall and broad-shouldered, he had a strong, fit body, honed by exercise to a lean, muscular precision He looked like he could pick up a fifty-pound rucksack, run across the city with it, and then beat an ungodly number of enes exploded draly polite, but so in his stare coe

"Sean!" Margaret waved "We've got another dead dog!"

Sean ht for us

"He's so hot it's sick," Kayley volunteered

David turned purple in the face "The man's twenty-seven years old That's too old for you"

"I didn't say I wanted to date him, Dad Jeez"

Forbrains, hu to adht of the events two nights ago, he was also the pris

Sean stopped and looked at Brutus As he glanced up, I checked his eyes They were aolden hue, alht, and they were surprised He hadn't killed Brutus I let out a quiet breath

A black SUV pulled around the bend Mr Byrne Oh no