Alone (Bone Secrets, #4)(88)

“Peres? The lady doctor?” Adams asked.

“Yes. I have a doctorate in forensic anthropology. I’m not a medical doctor.”

A grin cracked the man’s face. She didn’t like it. It wasn’t a happy grin. It was an I’m-a-crazy-bastard grin.

“Why do you think he can help with some paperwork?” Jason asked, his voice low. “He’s an old man. He doesn’t know anything.”

Seth looked at the teen. Jason was helping Trinity wipe off the mud just like he’d done for Victoria. There was an urgency in the boy’s voice that made the hair stiffen on the back of his neck. “Why not?”

“You guys should just leave. He can’t help you. Get Trinity out of here, too.”

“Why did you bring her out here then?”

“I didn’t know he was going to be in one of his crazy moods,” Jason stated. “It’s best to leave him alone when he’s got the gun out.”

No kidding.

“Maybe we should come back another day,” Seth whispered to Victoria.

“No. We’re here. I want to see what he’s got.”

“Jason probably knows when it’s best to leave his grandfather alone. I think we should listen to him.”

Another gun roared and Victoria flung herself back to the ground with Seth a split second behind her. His ears rang, and he mentally checked his limbs for injuries.

“Jesus Christ, Dad. What the hell?” Jason yelled.

Dimly Seth noted that the second gunshot had come from behind them. Looking back, he saw a tall, thin figure with a similar shotgun who’d just blasted a hole in Victoria’s rear tire. Panic flared in his lungs.

“Don’t blaspheme,” the figure said.

Jason’s dad?

“Why did you do that?” the teen yelled at his father.

The man said nothing. Seth couldn’t make out his face in the dark, but he could plainly see the shotgun focused on him and Victoria. Two barrels again. Images of the crazy men in Deliverance spun in his brain.

“Oh my God,” Victoria whispered. “What is this?”

“I’ve no f*cking idea,” Seth said under his breath. “How are we going to get out of here?”

“I don’t care if my tire’s shot out. I’ll drive on it if that’s the only way out,” she whispered.

“Be quiet,” the thin man ordered. “Get up.”

Seth stood, keeping the man in his view, and carefully helped Victoria to her feet. Jason helped Trinity up and moved between her and his father. “You need to let them go.”

“I don’t think so.” His head turned toward Victoria. “I’ve been waiting for her.”

Seth froze. What did he want with Tori?


Pain radiated up Victoria’s arm. Shit. The slightest movement or twist made her eyes roll back in her head. Definitely broken. She’d heard the snap when Seth landed on her. But at the moment, her arm was the least of her concerns. Two crazy men with shotguns took priority.

“What is going on?” she mumbled to Seth, who supported her with her other arm. Rain and mud soaked her jeans.

“I don’t think Jason’s grandfather is happy to see you.”

“I got that. But why?”

“Women shouldn’t do what you do,” came a voice behind her.

She glanced over her shoulder and saw the tall, thin man with his gun’s muzzle at Trinity’s back. He didn’t wear a hat or hood, and water streamed down his face. He gave no sign that he felt it.

“It’s not normal,” he added.

“What do I do?” she asked him.

“Look at bones. Those people are dead. You shouldn’t be handling them like they were pots and pans.” His voice rumbled in anger.

Fire ripped up her spine. “I give every death the respect it deserves! I don’t throw their remains around like pots. My job is to figure out why they died and who is to be held responsible.”

“Why is anyone responsible? Perhaps they deserved to die.”

A new chill started in Victoria’s stomach and filled her lungs.

Was he their killer of the circle of women from forty-five years ago? She dismissed the thought. He was too young to have committed that crime. She slowly turned her head to look at the grandfather. He was not.

The old man was still staring at her, his gun trained on her and Seth. He’d recognized her name. How? From the paper? “Are you Cecil Adams?” She directed her voice at the porch.

“That’s one of my names.”

“And the other?” she asked.

“At one time I was Cesare Abbadelli. Americans struggled with that name. No one blinked when I changed it to Adams.”

Memories poked at her brain. “You were the pastor. My parents went to your church. I remember that it had burned down and I remember you.” She could picture a kind old man, sort of like Santa Claus. But now he was Santa with a gun.

“As I remember you,” he stated.

“That’s enough talking!” Jason’s father snapped.

Victoria leaned on Seth as she turned to look at the angry man. “We need to leave.”

“Absolutely not.” He moved his gun closer to the back of Trinity’s head. Her blonde ponytail dripped rainwater onto her back.