Without Mercy by Mariah Stewart

Author:Mariah Stewart [Stewart, Mariah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781488095023
Publisher: MIRA Books
Published: 2012-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Subject ID’d as Lonnie Tripp. History of violence. Charged as adult at 16 for assault/kidnapping/rape but charges dropped, victim recanted. No record of employment, no record of anyone living with him at that address. DO NOT APPROACH. Heading home, wait for me.

Too late, Charlie.

The front door slammed, and heavy footsteps started toward the corner of the house. Mallory took off for the fence, hoping that maybe Lonnie Tripp would think she’d ducked into the hedge of evergreens and would waste time enough to permit her to make it back to her car. She ran as quickly as she could along the fence line and rounded the back corner, where she ran face-first into Lonnie’s chest.

Without a word, he spun her around, and pinning her arms tightly behind her, forced her through a gate into the backyard.

“Some people,” he whispered in her ear, “just don’t know when to leave things alone.”

“Listen, Lonnie…”

“Shut. Up.” He latched the gate behind them.

Mallory did her best to take in as much as she could as they crossed the yard in the direction of the barn. Along the far side of the fence stood a row of stark white crosses. Around each one, flowering vines had been draped. A chill went up Mallory’s spine. Graves of the last curious visitors?

The back door slammed and the woman Mallory now knew was Karen Ralston came down the steps.

“What are you going to do?” Karen asked.

“Get back into the house and stay there.”

“She said my mother was alive.”

“She’s a liar. You know where your mother is.” Lonnie jerked his head in the direction of the makeshift graveyard.

“She said she saw my mother this morning.”

“And I said she’s lying.” Lonnie stopped abruptly.

“In that picture, the one you said my mother showed you, what was I wearing?” Karen called to Mallory.

“A yellow dress with a big green collar,” Mallory called back. “You were holding a stuffed green frog.”

“My mother always carried that picture with her,” Karen told Lonnie.

“Then she saw it someplace else.” Lonnie pushed Mallory forward.

“If Donna Ralston isn’t in that grave back there, then who is?” Mallory asked loudly enough for Karen to hear.

He shoved her toward the front gate.

“Who else is buried back there, Karen?” Mallory called to her.

“My babies,” Karen told her. “All the ones that died.”

Lonnie opened the gate and dragged Mallory through, then across the dirt driveway where he shoved her into his truck.

Pick your moment, she told herself. You may only get one shot at him.

He’d just begun to bind her hands behind her with a length of rope when she landed a kick to his gut, but a second kick bounced off his knee. He grabbed her by the throat, cutting off her air.

“You saw that little girl this morning? You keep it up and she’ll be joining the others out back underneath the crosses. Understand?”

Mallory’s eyes widened and she nodded, her stomach twisting with fear and frustration as he bound her wrists tightly. In a clean fight, she could probably take him down.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.