City of the Lost (Casey Duncan #1)(107)

KELLEY ARMSTRONG is the internationally bestselling author of the thirteen-book Women of the Otherworld series, the Nadia Stafford crime novels and a new series set in the fictional town of Cainsville, Illinois, which includes the novels Omens, Visions and Deceptions. She is also the author of three bestselling young adult trilogies, and the YA suspense thriller, The Masked Truth. She lives in rural Ontario. www.kelleyarmstrong.com





PUBLISHED BY RANDOM HOUSE CANADA Copyright ? 2015 K.L.A. Fricke Inc.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Published in 2015 by Random House Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Distributed in Canada by Penguin Random House Canada Limited, Toronto.

www.penguinrandomhouse.ca

Random House Canada and colophon are registered trademarks.

Armstrong, Kelley, author

City of the lost : part six / Kelley Armstrong.





eBook ISBN 978-0-345-81620-7


Cover design by Terri Nimmo


Image credits: Foxes ? Airin.dizain / Shutterstock

v3.1





Contents



Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

About the Author





Previously, in City of the Lost…


Hot on the tail of a sadistic killer, Casey receives a midnight visit. Eric confesses to lying about his relationship with Abbygail, the young woman found dismembered just days before.


But Casey soon realizes that her suspicions of Eric were unfounded. She and Dalton come to believe that Hastings—who made many sleazy moves on Abbygail—killed the vulnerable young woman. Then Mick, a former cop who is Isabel’s lover but was Abbygail’s friend, killed Hastings to avenge Abbygail.


A wood shed catches fire. Inside, Mick is found stabbed to death. Diana is also found nearby—unconscious, bloody, and extremely high. Dr. Beth Lowry confirms that Diana murdered Mick.


The council then deals Casey another horrible blow—Diana wasn’t running from her abusive ex-husband, Graham. Instead, Diana was running from the law. Graham had manipulated Diana into stealing from her employer, and then Graham took the money and attacked Diana—playing Casey, who promptly made Diana disappear. Graham even hired a hit man to make Casey think her own dark past had returned.


This confession means Casey’s free to leave—No danger awaits her down south. And she just might. Casey loved her job, and she misses Kurt, her sexy, no-strings-attached ex-con lover.


But Casey also wants to explore her growing tenderness for Eric, and she could never leave a job half done. Casey vows to catch the killer.





One



Of course I’m going after Dalton. There’s no doubt in my mind that I’m staying in Rockton, and I need to tell him that. He did not, however, head out for a quiet walk in the woods. I’m halfway across town when I hear the roar of an ATV and look to see him on one, ripping into the forest.

I don’t have time to get an ATV. I know the path he’s on, and the next one over will let me cut him off if I run. So I run as fast as I can, ignoring the stares and the calls of “Casey?” and “Detective?”

One of the militia guys tries to come after me, alarmed, but I yell back, “I just need to talk to Eric. He didn’t take his radio,” and he nods and waves away the concerns of anyone else who finds it troubling that their detective is running like a madwoman for the woods.

The paths converge about a half mile in, so it’s no short sprint. But I manage to make it to the convergence point just in time to see him ripping around a bend. When he spots me, he’s off the ATV almost before it comes to a stop.

“Get the hell back to town,” he shouts to be heard over the engine.

I shake my head. “I want to talk—”

“No. You know the rules. Get your ass back to town. Now.”

I loop past him and shut off the ATV. “I want to talk.”

“And I don’t.”

I walk over to him and look up. “You’re overreacting, Eric.”

I expect a flash of rage and a hot denial. Instead, he says, teeth clenched, “Yes, which is why I’m out here. By myself. And why I don’t want to talk.”

I back up to the ATV and perch on it. He looks down the side path, the one he’s just come from, and I know he’s ready to walk away, leaving me with the ATV, so I can get safely back to town.

I take the keys from the ignition and pitch them into the forest.

“What the hell?” he says.

“If you walk away, so will I. In the other direction. Which leaves me out in the forest alone.”