“Surely,” she said, “he’ll be back for your wedding.” The words came out before she could stop them.
“Yes, he’ll be back for the wedding,” Quinn said.
It shouldn’t have hurt her to say it or to hear it.
“No,” Quinn sighed. “He’s not coming back for the wedding because there isn’t going to be one.”
Madison leaned back against the table. She didn’t want to speak, to ask. She only leaned back against the edge of the table and waited for Nathan Quinn’s next words.
“Erica told me that she believes some people are made for each other, that there is one person and everyone else is an adjustment. And she said that, for me, she was the adjustment. She went back to Boston the day after Thanksgiving.” Quinn’s dark gaze traveled around the room and finally came to rest on Madison. “She was right,” he said.
John Cameron could have put the knife in the mail. Hell, he could have broken into her home and left it on the table—he had done that before. Instead, he had asked Nathan Quinn to deliver it in person.
There was tension in the line of Quinn’s shoulders and uncertainty in his bearing. So much time had already been wasted, the dusk and the dawn of too many days.
“Stay for dinner, Counselor,” Madison said.
As she replaced the knife in the black velvet, the blade caught the light.
Ashes and gold.
Acknowledgments
Some of the locations in the story are fictitious because I’m reluctant to set dark deeds in a real house on a real street. Also, the various precincts and jurisdictions of the Seattle Police Department have been slightly adjusted.
I’d like to thank my partners in crime . . .
My family in Italy and my family in Atlanta, for loving, reckless support.
Corinna, Francesca, and Claudia Giambanco, for cheerleading and prompt Spanish language assistance.
Kezia Martin and Anita Phillips, the early readers, for their enthusiasm in the face of unedited chapters, and Clair Chamberlain, for sanity and white wine.
The Berglund family in Seattle, for giving Madison their home.
My mother—always.
Gerald, for all his support while I disappeared for months into the writing cave.
Stef Bierwerth, my editor, because she knows how to nurture murder and mayhem, and the amazing team at Quercus UK, including Kathryn Taussig and Hannah Robinson.
The wonderful team at Quercus US: Nathaniel Marunas, Amelia Ayrelan Iuvino, Elyse Gregov, and Alex Knight, for asking all the right questions and giving Madison her accent.
Finally, there would be no book at all without Teresa Chris, my agent, who is a passionate and fearless champion.
Blood and Bone Page 34