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Chapter One

If it hadn’t been for the vultures circling above the Johnsons’ old tobacco field, Rose Holland would’ve never seen the dead body

“Oh my God!”

Slarabbed her cell phone, jabbing at the buttons Nothing happened and she looked down at the screen “No signal,” she er seat Of course not, she was thirty s, North Carolina And that, according to her Garmin, was smack dab in the middle of nowhere

Rose had two choices: wait; or drive to town and get help

She should wait It was the decent thing to do, and eventually so State troopers loved to patrol this stretch of highway that the locals referred to as a speed trap

Tapping her fingers against the dash, she muttered, “Any minute now”

A vulture landed and poked at the arm

Bile rose in her throat, then pity flooded her heart He, judging by the large shape she thought it to be aand out of their minds for him

Before she could question her sanity, she’d unbuckled her seat belt, thrown open the door and now stood at the edge of the road Staring

Steeling her nerves, she strode to the field Her foot slipped on round with a splat Cold water andher This was ridiculous No one in their rightout a dead body, but so inside of her insisted that he wasn’t dead

She tracked another vulture as it landed It too began pecking, but at a bare foot Glancing to the right, she breathed through her nose, trying to called along the ditch bank Deep gashes in the soft earth held puddles of water Was he a victim of a hit and run?

A third vulture landed

Those ugly things had always disgusted her, even e disposal’ reputation Pushing away fro at the birds, she waved her ars Shoo!”

After a good ten minutes the vultures decided that either he wasn’t worth it or she’d est She dropped to her knees in the loa for the stench of rotting flesh to hit her

It never came

She turned and the hipped her corkscrew curls around, blinding her to the man sprawled over rows of dirt

He groaned and her mouth dried out

Rose shoved her hair out of her face Feet She could handle looking at his feet Another groan and this time his pinky toe moved

Oh God! Was that a death twitch?

Finally, she aze travel to his chest No other spot but there The tattered remnants of a button-down shirt rose and fell with shallow breaths

“You’re alive!” she shrieked, scra to hiolden hair was matted down and dirt smeared his face

His face

“It’s you”

Alexander Ro with pain “Sorry to disappoint,” he rasped, his British accent ain

“Who did this to you?” She dropped to her knees, searching his beautiful face But for a cut at the corner of his mouth, it was unmarred His body, however, was an entirely different story Almost every exposed inch had a shallow cut or bruise It looked as though soo the sheriff’s office and make a report”