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PROLOGUE

Liberty, Georgia, nine years ago

THE Ca as anybody could recall

First they'd farmed the land Then they'd ranched it, and when real estate values went sky high they subdivided it and built houses The houses weren't very good but they were big and expensive It wasn't cheap to live in a town that was rapidly beco an Atlanta suburb

Nowadays, the Caest bank in Liberty, the most prosperous realty company, and there wasn't a politician in the state didn't knohere to go to pick up a fat check in return for an occasional favor

People talked about the Camerons with respect They talked about Isaiah that way and about his eldest son, Ted but that wasn't how they talked about Cole

Ted spoke of his kid brother with love Mrs Sherry, the high school principal, talked about hiret Sheriff Steele talked about him with dismay

Isaiah talked about hiust

Cole didn't care He had once, a long tiiven up hoping his father would ever look at him with love, the way he looked at Ted, or even with affection, the way he looked at his dogs

By then, Cole was little over six foot two He had brown hair streaked gold by the sun, green eyes, and a body leanlydeveloper son a penny unless he worked for it

The boy had been nothing but trouble from the day he was born