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skirt She started to take a step toward hied at one corner of her mouth

>His own daughter was afraid of hi, itBut years of practice kept him perfectly still Not a hint of emotion crossed his face or crept into his narrowed eyes "What is it, Savannah?"

She chewed nervously on her lower lip "Mama said to come quick Her time's come"

"Now? But she's not due until? Shit!" He pushed past Savannah and ran into the cold, dark night Rain pummeled his face and blurred his vision as he ran toward the house

Christ, while he'd been putting a gun to his head, his wife had been preparing to give birth to his child

What the hell kind of man was he?

"God forgive me," he murmured

But, of course, he had no hope of that

Chapter One

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON 1993

Tess Gregory paced nervously from one end of her small office to the other, her hands twined in a cold, bloodless ball The silence that she'd long ago learned to accept see For the fifth tilanced down at the Mickey Mouse watch on her wrist

Twelve o'clock She let out her breath in an anxious sigh The results should have been back by now Certainly if her latest experiment had been successful?

No She refused to think negatively even for a moment

She knew better thana rut in the utilitarian gray carpet and worrying herself sick wouldn't do a bit of good The lab would get back to her in their oeet time, and until then, she simply had to relax To believe

Tess squeezed her eyes shut It was an old childhood trick to caled nerves, one she'd often used as the doctors poked and prodded and asked questions she could no longer hear She blacked out the physical world and focused on the one special noise that was captured forever in her hter As always, it came to her