Her voice trembled with fear, and the same emotion wrapped like a vise around his chest. “Daddy, that’s our house.” His six-year-old daughter, Allie, called to him from where she sat in the backseat. He didn’t have to ask to know whose house that was. Parking just beyond the police barricade, Jackson slid from the car and set his shaking hands on the cool metal roof, peering through the crowd at the house. Flames danced up the sides, as if daring the men to try to tame them. The gusts of wind blowing through the trees only served to fuel the fire. For mid-January on Washington State’s west coast, the usual thick cloud cover had cleared to reveal a black sky littered with twinkling stars. Their muffled shouts mingled with the crackles and pops of the blaze engulfing a house at the end of the block. Their lights glowed against the darkness, flashing red and blue over the people, houses, and cars. Two fire trucks took up the entire street, walled in on both ends by police squad cars parked nose to nose. What he’d found instead scared the hell out of him. It was a neighborhood of families, and being after six p.m., most would be indoors, sitting down to dinner. When he’d turned down the familiar street they lived on, he’d expected quiet. He’d arrived barely a minute ago expecting to have to argue-again-with his ex-wife, Becca, about why he’d forgotten to grab their daughter’s suitcase. Seated behind the wheel of his Mercedes, a cold flash of fear shot through Jackson Kade, tying his stomach in knots as he peered through the windshield. INTERMIX® and the “IM” design are registered trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) LLC InterMix Books are published by The Berkley Publishing GroupĪnd New American Library, divisions of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, Purchase only authorized editions.įor information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,ģ75 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

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Whatever It Takes by J.M. Stewart