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Prologue

FIRE AND WATER

One

HANNAH WILLIS WAS a second-year law student at Virginia, and everything that lay ahead of her see—except, of course, that she was about to die in these dark, gloomy, dismal woods

Go, Hannah, she told herself Just go Stop thinking Whining and crying won’t help you now Running just ht

Hannah stuered forward until her hands found another tree trunk to hold on to She leaned her aching body into it, waiting for the strength to take another breath And then to move another burst of steps forward

Keep going, or you’ll die right here in these woods It’s that simple

The bullet lodged somewhere in her lower back ony, more pain than Hannah had ever knoas possible It was only the threat of a second bullet, orat all

God, the woods were al over the thick forest canopy did little to light the ground below Trees were shadows Thorns and brambles were invisible in the underbrush; they pierced and raked her legs bloody as she pushed through What little she’d been wearing to begin with—just an expensive black lace teddy—now hung in shreds off her shoulders

None of that istered with Hannah anyh the pain, and the panic, was Go, girl The rest was a wordless, directionless nightmare

Finally, and very suddenly—had it been an hour? more?—the low canopy of trees opened up around her “What the…” Dirt turned to gravel underfoot, and Hannah stu on to

In the hazy host of a double line, showing the curve of a country road It was like a miracle to her Half of one, anyway; she knew she wasn’t out of this mess yet

When a motor sounded in the distance, Hannah leaned on her hands and pushed up off the gravel Suain, then staggered into the h sweat and fresh tears

Please, dear God, don’t let this be them This can’t be those two bastards

You can’t be so cruel, can you?

A red truck careened around the bend then, co at her fast Too fast! Suddenly, she was just as blind as she’d been before, in the woods, but frohts

“Stop! Please stop! Pleee-ase!” she screamed “Stop, you sonofabitch!”

At the last possible second, the tires squealed on the pavement The red pickup skidded into full view and stopped just short of flattening her right there into roadkill She could feel heat corille

“Hey, sweetheart, nice outfit! All you had to do was stick out your thumb”

The voice was unfaood Loud countryfroistered, just before Hannah collapsed onto the pavement

The driver was down there on the road a second later as she regained consciousness “Oh, my God, I didn’t… What happened to you? Are you—what happened to you?”

“Please” She barely mustered the word “If they find me here, they’ll kill us both”

Thethe dime-sized hole in her back as he picked her up She only exhaled, too weak to screaray and indistinctreally fast down the two-lane highway

“Hang in there, darlin’” The driver’s voice was shaky now “Tell me who did this to you”