Page 1 of Dark ’N’ Deadly

Chapter One

Tess bolted upright, gasping for air. Her heart beat fast and hard.

Am I having a heart attack?

Her cell phone lit up, vibrating on the bedside table like a swarm of bees.

She flinched, caught somewhere in that foggy void between deep REM sleep and being fully awake. When her eyes finally focused, she stared at the phone. It was a number she didn’t recognize, but she did know the area code.

Alabama.

Her blood went colder than ice water. Only one person in all of Alabama had her number. This could be the call she’d been waiting for.

Waiting for ten long years.

Again, the phone shrilled. Her hands trembled as she snatched up the phone.

Please, please, please be him, and not…

The one person she feared most in her life.

Gripping the phone tighter, she swiped the screen. “H-hello?”

“Tess?” a man—a very young man—said in a slightly familiar voice. “It’s Jesse.”

Her eyes widened, and the corners of her mouth lifted. It had to be him. His voice was deeper than when she’d last heard it, but she’d recognize his Southern cadence anywhere.

“Jesse,” she whispered. Oh my god. Her heart began pounding again, but this time from sheer joy. “Is it really you?”

“Yeah, Tessie. It’s me. I can’t talk long. Things are messed up. I want out. I—” A police siren wailed in the background. “Shit. I gotta go.”

“No, don’t hang up!” The siren wailed again, louder this time. “Jesse. Jesse!”

The call ended.

“No!” She punched up the most recent number, but it went right to voicemail. “Jesse, call me back. Call me back.” Unable to sever the only link she had between her and her brother, she stared at the screen for a few more seconds before hanging up.

Oh, no. She held the phone tightly to her chest, rocking back and forth. Her emotions vacillated between outright joy that Jesse had finally reached out to her after all this time, and gut-wrenching fear, because something was wrong. Very wrong.

Her hand shook. There was no mistaking the panic in her brother’s voice. It had practically screamed through the phone. The worst part was that she couldn’t help him.

I don’t even know where he is.

If what she suspected was the motivating force behind Jesse’s call after all this time, it could mean only one thing.

Evil was coming for him, and soon, it would come for her.

…

“Sonofabitch.”

The pickup’s bed cap sailed off the back of the truck, missing Eric’s SUV by inches.

He glanced in the rearview mirror. Luckily, the cap had bounced harmlessly onto the shoulder.

Claws scrabbled in the kennel behind him, followed by disgruntled huffs and snorts. Still snorting, Tiger thrust his dark brown muzzle through the cage opening.

“Hang on, pal.” He punched it, and the Interceptor’s 365-horsepower engine kicked in, rocketing the SUV down the highway.