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Chapter One

The breeze whispered around her, its touch furnace hot Sweat beaded her skin, staining her T-shirt black and dripping from her ponytail

Around her the night pulsed, a bass-heavy rhythm that made her want to dance The air was rich with the scent of sweat, alcohol and chlorine

Nikki stood in the shadows of an oak and sipped a lukewarm soda Below her, on the main pool deck, bodies writhed in time to the music, unmindful of the heat or the closeness of others They had to be mad If she'd had any choice, she would have been in the pool, allowing the cool water to wash the heat and sweat from her skin

Instead, she was stuck here in the shadoith a lukewarer

It was an all too fa Six ht, and had found herself caught in the host, stifling her She bit her lip, blinking away the sting of tears It was her own stupidity that had driven Michael away Her refusal to trust, to admit what she'd felt, had worn him down as surely as the sea wears down a rock

But what hurt the ood-bye She crossed her arms and stared moodily at the star-drenched sky She'd looked for him, of course She'd spent the first twolittle else But A country, with lots of places to hide And when thewas one with the shadohat hope did she really have of finding him?

None Not that it really h what happened then would very much depend on how he reacted

The tay clipped to her lapel squawked “Nik, you there?" It was Jake—her boss and her best friend He sounded as bored as she was Nikki pressed the button

“No, I' a nice, cool bath"

"Forget the bath A cold beer would go down real well right now The kid still in your area?" She scanned the crowd Matthew Kincaid, a redheaded, flap-eared teenager, stood out from the mob like a wart on a thumb But it wasn't so ood foot or more over his peers Basketball material for sure, if someone could teach him to catch a ball

"Yeah He's hovering near the bar, trying to convince some of the adults to buy him a drink” She hesitated and took a sip of her cola The warar down her throat She shuddered and upended the rest into the garden bed “He's not acting like a kid on the verge of running away from home, you know"

"No But hisus to watch him, so watch him ill Besides, we need the money"

"When don't we?” she said dryly They'd been working together for close to ten years now, and she couldn't remember a time when the business hadn't been strapped for cash Private investigators didn't make a lot of money—not in Lyndhurst, anyway “Why is Mrs Kincaid so convinced he's going to disappear tonight?"

"A conversation she overheard when passing his bedrooirl over the Internet and has fored tothe party"