Page 13 of Risky Passion

The wet squelch of mud followed, soft but deliberate. I could see it in my mind, a boot dragging free of the muck, heavy and slow.

I hear you, you bastards.

When I opened my eyes, my gaze drifted down to my throbbing dislocated finger and then to the indents in the mud near me. My heart just about ripped through my chest. The biggest crocodile footprints I’d ever seen were right next to my leg.

You’ve got to be fucking kidding.

I shot my gaze through the bushes, scanning for the prehistoric predator that had just walked this way.

My mind splintered in two.

Should I head deeper into the bushes and risk becoming a crocodile snack? Or double back to the shoreline where rescue might actually find me?

Another spray of gunfire shredded the branches over my head.

“Fuck!”

I bolted into the bushes.

CHAPTER 6

Jaxson

I stepped backfrom the fresh gravesite, wiping red dirt from my face with my filthy sleeve. My hands weren't quite steady as I photographed the wrapped body and disturbed pit. Too much adrenaline was coursing through me. Onyx paced the perimeter of the fountain, making soft whines, hoping I’d give her another treat.

Every whisper of wind through the gum trees made my skin crawl. A stone angel stood perched atop the crumbling fountain, its eroded face turned toward the open grave.

Huh. Maybe that’s why the person who buried the body here chose this spot.

I scanned the tree line, aware of how exposed we were. If someone was watching and that someone had buried this body thinking it would never see daylight, then Onyx and I were dead.

The familiar paranoia crept in like an old friend. Twenty years of chasing Charlotte's ghost through dead ends and bureaucratic brick walls had taught me plenty. The cops who handled her disappearance had been hiding something; I would stake my badge on it. The way evidence had vanished, and leads had dried up, how they'd blocked our family at every turn, even after my brothers and I had carved out careers in law enforcement just to get answers.

Same shit with these orphanage deaths. Every breakthroughevaporated like smoke. Witnesses turned up dead in ditches or disappeared without a trace, and their secrets were lost with them.

This body was different. Recent. Whoever had buried this body here had slipped up, and for the first time since this nightmare began, we had a fresh lead worth following.

Ifwe could keep this quiet long enough for Whitney to work his magic.

I jabbed his number on my phone, leaving grimy streaks across the screen.

He answered fast. "Miss me already, bro?"

"Onyx found another one." The words rasped through my dust-choked throat. "But this one's fresh, Whit. Really fresh."

"Where?"

"By the old fountain. The body was wrapped in a tarp, different from the others, and guess what? It’s adult-sized."

"Holy shit.” The line went so quiet I could hear his breathing. “Don't touch anything else. I'm thirty minutes out."

"I can't wait that long. It’s completely wrapped, so I need to confirm the contents are human." My excuse was weak. Unless this was someone’s sick joke, the shape inside the tarp was definitely human. But I needed to know.

"Jax, for once in your life, wait?—"

"No can do, bro."

"Jax! Shit. Fine. Take photos."

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