The Buried (The Apostles)
Page 32
Parker cupped the side of her head, his thumb running along the scar dissecting her eyebrow. “I hand-chose you, Evie, because you are you, and I want you to keep doing what you do so well, and do it so everyone is safe.”
“Then let me go to Bar Harbor. It’s not like I’m asking to join the First Friday Bomber investigation in Los Angeles.” Not yet. She desperately wanted to be in on the hunt for the serial bomber who strapped bombs to live victims and had already killed seven people, but first she needed to prove to Parker that she was ready to get back in the field.
Parker let loose a long sigh, so long she was surprised it didn’t fog the glass. At last he waved the back of his hand at her. “Get out of here, Evie. Go. Go to Bar Harbor.”
She jammed the heavy waves of hair on either side of her head behind her ears. During her Army days she’d been an ordnance disposal specialist, and she’d suffered a hearing loss in her left ear. “You’re allowing me back in the field? Now?”
A wry smile curved his lips. “With a bomb ticking, now would be a good time.”
She threw both arms around his neck, landing a noisy kiss on his cheek before running to her office.
“And Evie,” Parker called out.
Her cowboy boots skidded to a halt. “Yeah?”
“Your job is to preserve life, all life, including yours.”
* * *
Evie hauled her emergency response duffel from the back of her truck and rushed past the hazardous devices unit parked in front of the gym.
“Hold up there, young lady.” A uniformed officer grabbed her arm. “You can’t go back there. We have a bomb on the premises.”
Evie reached for her creds, but the officer snagged her other arm. Having long ago resolved to life at five-foot-two, she craned her neck so he could see every inch of her face. “I’m not young, and I’m not feeling very ladylike, so get your fucking hands off me so I can disrupt that bomb.”
The officer dropped her arms as if she were on fire. At the inner perimeter she found the lieutenant in charge of the scene, a silver-haired man who scrubbed a thumb across his chin after she introduced herself.
“You’re Parker Lord’s guy?” the lieutenant asked.
“Yes, sir. Has the bomb robot been unloaded?”
“Five minutes ago.”
“Excellent.” Evie pulled her hair into a knot on top of her head, securing it with a rubber band, and dug into the duffel for her bomb suit.
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—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“4½ stars! Top pick! Coriell’s latest grips the reader from the first page. An engaging, intriguing plot…a definite must-read.”
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Contents
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Epilogue
About the Author
A Preview of The Blind
Also by Shelley Coriell
Acclaim for The Broken
Fall in Love with Forever Romance
Newsletters
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 by Shelley Coriell
Excerpt from The Blind copyright © 2014 by Shelley Coriell
Cover design by Elizabeth Turner
Cover copyright © 2014 by Hachette Book Group
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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First Edition: October 2014
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ISBN: 978-1-4555-2852-3
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