Tempting Evil

Twenty-four hours ago

Aaron Doherty caressed the worn, full-page picture hed cut from a magazine article more than a year ago.

Joanna.

His love was beautiful: blonde hair woven with gold, large, round chocolate eyes, and two deep dimples that he suspected revealed themselves even when she wasnt smiling. He couldnt wait to touch her, her smooth, fair skin, skim his fingers over her red lips, kiss her.

Joannas beauty was just part of her attraction. She was the only woman in the world who truly understood him. And when they finally met in the flesh for the first time, shed know instantly that Aaron was her true love.

Just like he knew when he first saw her picture two years ago. When he read her books. When he learned everything about her.

When he killed for her.

They were soul mates. Every word she wrote, she crafted for him. Every story she told, she told just for him. Like in Act Naturally.

He pulled the battered book from his backpack. Hed stolen it from a library last week, shortly after the quake and their escape. It had physically pained him to leave all his Joanna Sutton books behind in his cell, but he didnt have a choice. The earthquake had hit when his cell block inmates were on the exercise yard at San Quentin State Prison. Hed been standing alone thinking (of course) about Joanna. Doug Chapman was only a couple of feet away sneaking a smokemuch easier when it was so cold you could see your breathand then the ground shook. Aaron had lived in California for years, but never realized how loud earthquakes were when you were at the epicenter. He and Doug saw the breech in the wall and they went over it as soon as they could move. No looking back, no stopping when the guards shouted. Aaron watched one of his fellow prisoners, a cold bastard named Theodore Glenn, kill one of the injured guards. Still, he kept going.

Aaron knew immediately where he was headed. Montana. To be with Joanna.

Hed taken three of her paperback novels from the library because they didnt have the security sensors in the spine and he could easily hide them in his jacket. He wished he had more.

He opened it to one of the many underlined passages. Hed read the book twice since the escape last week. It made this time moving from one filthy motel room to another more bearable.

She swung her legs just enough to make the porch swing move, then tucked them beneath her, the easy rocking of the old chair comforting her. Was Garrett thinking of her? Thinking of her over thousands of miles, in the desert, serving his country. Being the hero shed always known he could be.

Grace took the newspaper article from her pocket. It was worn and torn from being carried everywhere, but she couldnt bear to part with it. Front-page headline: Hometown Hero Saves Three in Bombing.

She stared at the vast openness that was her home as tears clouded her vision. Her hand absently rested on the small swell of her stomach. How could she tell him over the phone about this new life they had created? Over e-mail? How could she act like everything was the same when her entire world had changed overnight?

“Come home safe, Garrett.”

Garrett and Grace lived happily-ever-after, and so would Aaron and Joanna. She was thinking of him right now, he could feel it. Wondering when he was going to come for her. Shed recognize that he was her hero as soon as she saw him. Shed kiss him, touch him, love him. Shed stay with him forever.

Im almost there, Joanna.

His dick hardened and he shifted uncomfortably in the motels torn vinyl chair. He shoved his hand down his pants to alleviate the discomfort, but it only made his hard-on worse and he groaned.

Aaron let himself think about Joanna as he rubbed himself. They would get married in a quiet ceremony, then hed take her to a secluded hideaway where they could be together. Maybe theyd never leave. Hed make love to her every night, and watch her write every day. Theyd be inseparable.

He groaned again and looked at the picture of Joanna, on the verge of release.

Rebecca.

Joannas face morphed into the woman who had once loved him. Who had hurt him. Who had made him kill her, the bitch.

“I love you, Rebecca. I know you love me.”

“You know its not like that between us. I dont love you, not like that. Please dont do this to me.”

“What do you mean you dont love me? You tell me all the time you love me! Have you been lying to me? Playing with me?”

She stared at him as if he were a stranger. Was that fear in her eyes? Why would she be scared of him? He worshipped her. Her fear made him angry. More than anger, he panicked that she would leave him.

“Aaron, you need to go. Now.”

“No!” They were in Rebeccas house. Shed invited him over. Hed been over many times.

(Only twice, and because you made her invite you in.)

Aaron stamped down the dark voice and grabbed Rebecca by the arms. “Did someone make you deny your feelings? That asshole youre working with on the set, Bruce Lawson?”

“Bruce?” She shook her head rapidly back and forth. “I dont know what youre talking about Aaron. Youre scaring me. Please, please let me go.”

He shook her and her hair came loose. “Dont you understand? We were meant to be together, Rebecca.”

“Let me go!”

“Tell me you love me!”

Tears streamed down her face.

“You love me, I know you do, just last week you said, ‘I cannot imagine living another day without you.”

She blinked rapidly, confusion on her face. “What? That was a line from my movie. What are you saying?”

“Weve known each other forever, Rebecca.”

“We know each other because were neighbors.” She was sobbing, her voice becoming hysterical. “Please stop this!” She opened her mouth and he knew she was going to scream.

A vise gripped his heart, squeezing so hard he couldnt breathe, he couldnt think, blood pumped, louder, hotter, faster, the tightness in his chest blocking out everything.

He didnt know how the knife got into his hand. He didnt even remember bringing it to her house. Suddenly a long red slash cut open Rebeccas cheek and she was screaming, in pain and fear.

Aaron moaned, a pathetically weak sound, as he shook his head, ridding himself of the image of Rebeccas bloodied face. His dick had gone limp without relief. He crumbled Rebeccas picture and threw it against the wall.

Joanna. It wasnt Rebecca in the photograph, it was Joanna!

He rushed across the room and picked up the paper. “Im sorry, Im sorry, Im sorry.” He carefully smoothed the picture, trying to rub out the wrinkles, then refolded it, heart racing.

Joanna wasnt Rebecca. She wouldnt lie to him. Aaron had it figured out. Someone had told Rebecca to leave him. That Bruce Lawson. She hadnt wanted to, shed been manipulated.

(You killed her Aaron.)

He didnt want to think about that day. It depressed him because hed never wanted to hurt Rebecca. Hed loved her. But she lied, and he hated liars.

(You dont deserve women like Rebecca. Or Joanna.)

Aaron pushed the dark thoughts from his head, sat in the uneven chair and stared at the cigarette-scarred table until his pulse slowed to normal.

A key in the door made Aaron jump and look around for escape. If it were the cops, theyd burst in, or pound loudly, shouting their presence. Aaron swallowed his apprehension from being on the run for nearly a week.

It was Doug holding two large fast-food bags in clenched fists. Originally, after the earthquake, it seemed like a good idea to stick close to his cell neighbor Doug Chapman. He had great instincts, could hot-wire a car, and he got them a gun within twenty-four hours. But after living next to the guy in a six-by-nine-foot cell for eighteen months, and being practically tied at the hip this last week, Aaron was antsy. The last thirty minutes while Doug had been out getting food had been the first real peace hed had in days.

“Fuck, Aaron, we should have gone south for the winter. I should never have listened to you.” Doug dropped the food on the table.

“Youre free to leave,” Aaron said, lips tight. “Ill give you half the money.”

“Chill, man. We agreed we were in this together, that two is better than one and all that crap.”

“Wheres OBrien?”

“Coming,” Doug said. He pulled off his jacket and tore open the bags. “We caught the news while we were waiting. They caught Blackie and his gang over in San Francisco yesterday. I think OBrien got a little freaked someone would recognize us.” Doug nervously ran his hands over his buzz cut, frazzled for the first time since theyd escaped five days ago. “That guy got them all.”

“Two guys drowned in the bay the night of the quake,” Aaron answered. “Your ghost didnt get everyone.”

“I dont give a fuck about them, Blackie was caught. I thought hed be smart, sure thing.”

Aaron shrugged. Doug had a theory about everything, Aaron had learned since Lincoln Barnes died and Doug moved into his cell. Dougs current theory was that someone was tracking all the escapeesa ghost or some avenging angel.

“We gotta get the hell out of here.”

“Were already a thousand miles from Quentin,” Aaron said. “We got new clothes, some money, were laying low. I have a place for us. And Blackie was a brute. He was stupid, robbing stores right and left. Arent you glad I stopped you from joining their gang?”

Doug shrugged, talking with his mouth full. “Guess so. But I swear, Im gonna go down to fucking Mexico as soon as its safe. Somewhere where theres no snow. Its twenty degrees out there! Twenty!” He slurped his soda.

“Why do we have to go in separate?” Doug continued to complain, shoving fries into his mouth, his face low to the table as if someone would snatch his food at any moment.

Joanna Sutton can cope with the fierce winter storm bearing down on the small rural community of Centennial Valley, Montana; the popular romance writer has survived much worse in life. Haunted by the loss of her husband and child, Jo has found refuge at her familys secluded lodge, but her haven soon becomes a hell. During the ferocious blizzard, a local Boy Scout troop is stranded in the wilderness, compelling Jo to spearhead a desperate rescue mission, aided by a newly arrived stranger with an unknown agenda.

Meanwhile, Sheriff Tyler McBride hears that three escaped convicts are fast approaching Big Sky Country. Hoping to warn Jo, he faxes over the mens mug shots. But they never reach their intended recipient. Then Tyler makes a shocking discovery: Two people are dead, and a killer is among the group, along with the woman Tyler loves, searching for his lost son.

More than one innocent life is at stake. For the sake of those Jo cares about most, and for her own survival, shell need all the cunning, courage, and passion she can muster to survive the mounting terror.