Chosen To Die (Alvarez & Pescoli)

Lisa Jackson

and the rope was heavy, adding even more weight. There was a chance he would fall through first. This is a crazy idea. You’ll fall through the ice and drown.

But so will he.

And she was running out of options. Fast. Better to try anything than let the son of a bitch kill her without a fight.

Br

ing it on, Billy. I’m ready! Chapter Thirty-One

I shouldn’t be surprised.

As I run after her, I know she’s a cretin. Pescoli, the supposedly smart detective, is just like the others in that inept sheriff’s department that rejected my application. Well, take that, Grayson. How does it feel? To be the laughingstock of the whole damned country! That’s right, asshole, the press, from as far away as Nashville and LA, are looking at you and your ridiculous force being made to look like imbeciles by me, someone not good enough. Well, put that in your pipe and smoke it!

What the hell is she doing running straight at the lake? Another stupid decision!

No doubt Regan Pescoli laughed at me, too, over and over again. All those times I came to pick up my loser of a father from the cell where he was held,

“sleeping it off.”

Yeah, she had some fun at my expense. Bitch! So 430

Lisa Jackson

much like all the others. Common, brainless, cruel whores!

The only kind woman I ever met was Padgett. My throat closes at the thought of her. Beautiful.

Sophisticated.

With intelligent blue eyes and loving hands. She hadn’t laughed.

Hadn’t avoided me because I was crazy Ivor Hicks’s son.

Even when her father had banned us from seeing each other, she snuck out to be with me. At the time, so long ago, I wondered if her interest was only an act of defiance. But I hadn’t cared. I’d won the prize! She was the only bright spot in my otherwise dreary, pathetic life. I smile at the thought of her, sliding a bit, and I catch myself. I’m getting a little winded, my legs beginning to cramp. I have to end this soon. For me.

For Padgett.

I promised her then, as we made love under the summer stars, that I would always keep her safe. Of course, it had turned out to be a lie. How was I to know that Brady followed us? Took pictures of us in each other’s arms? Snapshots of Padgett’s naked breasts, of me holding her as I came? Who would have thought he would have taken something so beautiful and made it so ugly and dirty, showing the photographs to Padgett’s father? The old man had been beside himself, had banned us from ever seeing each other again. If that hadn’t been bad enough, Padgett had made the fatal mistake of going boating with her brother. And she nearly died.

CHOSEN TO DIE

431

That brainless asshole had tried to kill her!

There’s no doubt in my mind that Brady wanted her dead. Well, he’s gone now, too.

Because of me. Because of my patience. There were plenty of other times in the past fifteen years that I was near enough to strangle him, or stick a knife right through his black heart. But I waited. The opportunities weren’t right.

This time, however, everything fell perfectly into place.

And Brady bled out looking at me, knowing that I killed him, realizing that his sins were finally punished. Everything I’ve planned for so long has worked out. Everything except for Pescoli, and that’s only a matter of a few more minutes.

I watch her run straight at the frozen lake. Where does she think she’ll go? Onto the ice? No way. So she’s run out of places to hide. Good.

I push myself, getting close enough to see the panic in her eyes as the bitch takes a quick glance over her shoulder.