Haven by Kay Hooper Read Free Book Online Page B

sister was up to, but she had a strong feeling that she wasn’t the only one who viewed Jessie’s calm smile and curiously flat eyes with unease. Worse, she thought Jessie knew exactly the effect she was having on those around her, and that it was very deliberate.
    “Jessie, what are you doing?” Emma asked as the sisters walked the short distance back to Rayburn House.
    Without denial, Jessie merely said, “Stirring the pot.”
    “Okay, but what’s in the pot?”
    “The past. And maybe something that carried over into the present.”
    “Am I supposed to understand what you’re talking about?”
    “No. Not yet.” For the first time, Jessie’s smile held the hint of a real apology. “The less you know, the better, at least for now.”
    “That sounds foreboding.” Emma kept her tone light, but she began to feel seriously alarmed.
    As they turned onto the walkway to the front door of Rayburn House, Jessie was shaking her head. “Don’t worry. I’m not sure it’s even about me anymore. At least…”
    “At least what?”
    Seemingly half to herself, Jessie said, “At least maybe I can help stop something that started with me. Even if it wasn’t my fault. Even if I—Never mind, Em.”
    “Never mind? Jessie—” But Emma never finished the question, because her sister’s face had closed down again, and if she had learned one thing about this woman her sister had become, it was that she didn’t give away anything she intended to keep to herself.
    She didn’t give it away to anyone.

    NORMALLY, HE WOULDN’T have been on the hunt again so soon. He tended to be satisfied and satiated after enjoying himself with his prey, able to go on about his normal life without the dark urges tormenting him. For weeks, usually, even months sometimes when he needed to stretch it out because of the dearth of prey in the winter.
    But the last one…The last one had escaped before he had finished with her, and that had left him unsatisfied. He had tracked her, of course, and he had found her—and left her as he found her. She was far, far off the trails in the area, and he didn’t anticipate anyone else finding her.
    The scavengers would finish off the remains quickly enough.
    He had considered briefly and then discarded the idea of bringing her back to his garden. She didn’t deserve to be there, he decided. She was unworthy of that very precious and beautiful resting place.
    She deserved what she’d gotten, sprawled out on the hard, bloody ground for animals and maggots to feed off.
    He had been enraged by her escape, but he had learned long ago to channel his anger into something constructive; this time it had been repairing and strengthening his trap so that his prey would never escape him again.
    Now, calm once more but highly conscious of the hunger inside him, he began to hunt. Watching the tourists, the hikers, those transients who passed through his town on a regular basis. Noting who was alone or apt to wander away from their group, noting which ones found rooms in town and which preferred to truly rough it in the woods with tents and sleeping bags.
    Looking for vulnerabilities.
    It was half the fun of the hunt, choosing his next prey.
    He didn’t lurk, but came and went casually, making a point not to spend very much time in any one spot. He talked to those he would be expected to talk to, but otherwise kept himself in the background as much as possible, something he was very good at doing.
    And watched.
    A small voice in the back of his mind warned him to wait, to keep an eye on Jessie Rayburn and find out for certain just why she was back here after so many years, but that voice was drowned out by the dark urges driving him.
    He needed to hunt. Now. And if, later on, Jessie proved to be a problem he would need to deal with, well, he knew how to handle her. Nobody would be surprised, after all, if Jessie ran away from Baron Hollow again.
    Nobody at all.
    1
Blood Ties
    2
Hunting Fear

FOUR
    “So, what’s