A Dark Mind Read Free Page A

why did she spend six weeks in Italy with him when you were involved in covert operations overseas?”
    He refused to let the crazy driver get the best of him. “She went to Italy with her girlfriends,” Charles stated calmly. “I’ve seen pictures. I know what you’re trying to do.”
    “What am I trying to do, Charles?”
    “You’re just one more crazy who likes to spend his free time putting doubt in people’s heads.”
    “And why would I do that?”
    “Because putting doubt in people’s minds makes you feel powerful in some way. You have low self-esteem, but you want to feel superior. I hate to break it to you, pal, but you’re nothing more than pond scum.” Charles eyed the champagne bottle and slid across the leather seat until he was closer to the bottle. “What’s the plan?” Charles asked. “You do have a plan, don’t you?”
    Before the driver could answer, Charles took hold of the neck of the bottle and slammed it against the glass partition. The bottle broke in half. Champagne sprayed across his face, but the tinted glass didn’t even crack.
    “Your wife has been fucking Harry for fifty years,” the voice said.
    A kick of adrenaline soared through Charles’s body, making his hands shake. He leaned back on the seat, and with all thestrength he could muster he kicked both feet through the glass, shattering the partition to pieces.
    The limo swerved and Charles fell hard to the floor. His wife’s limp body rolled on top of him. Charles wiggled his way out from beneath her. On his knees, he caught a glimpse of the driver’s eyes in the rearview mirror right before Charles shoved a hand through the frame of broken glass and wrapped his fingers around the scrawny man’s neck. He might be in his seventies, he thought, but he was in tip-top shape. Back in the day, he could kill a man with one hand. He’d done it before and he’d do it again.
    The driver yanked the wheel hard to the left, sending Charles flying. Charles used his forearms to protect his face from hitting the door. His gaze locked onto the broken champagne bottle, which had become lodged beneath the leather seat. Crawling that way, he grabbed hold of the neck of the bottle once more, came to his knees, shoved his hand through the broken window, and stabbed the jagged edge of glass into the driver’s ear.
    The limo swerved across the road, to the left and then to the right, before it careened down an uneven embankment. Charles was violently thrown around, his teeth biting into his tongue as he did his best to protect his wife from injury. At the same instant at which the vehicle made contact with something rigid and inflexible, he felt a jolt as his head made contact with the door. A searing pain jabbed through his skull and all went black.

CHAPTER 4
    I thought, “God, what have I done?”…I realized I would be in serious trouble. I thought the best way out of the mess was to make sure she could not tell anybody.
    —Peter Sutcliffe
    Davis
    Monday, April 30, 2012
    After a long day at the office, Lizzy returned home, jumped in and out of the shower, combed the tangles out of her hair, and slid on a V-neck T-shirt and a pair of soft gray sweatpants that hung low on her hips.
    A noise at the bedroom window caused a prickling down her spine.
    She stood there for a moment…staring…watching…waiting.
    She took a step toward the window. Her legs felt like heavy weights, her heart racing and her palms clammy and shaky as she reached for the blinds. Fear could be such a subtle yet sinister emotion. It clogged her throat and scraped its tiny fingernails across the back of her neck.
    “Dinner’s ready,” Jared said, stepping into the room.
    She put a hand to her chest and let out the breath she’d been holding.
    She’d hoped that moving in with Jared would help in some way, but she’d been wrong.
    The fear she’d been working so hard to control was back with a vengeance, eagerly spreading terror with every noise, and pumping