Free As Good as Dead by Beverly Barton Page A

Sally? Has she been lying to me all my life?"
    "No, I don't believe it's Sally."
    "Then who?"
    The gray mist within Genny's mind turned black. Black swirls of malevolence. "I sense a strong combination of love and hatred, of desire and rage." Genny tried to see who emitted such powerful emotions, but she could not pin them down, couldn't even discern if the person was male or female. But she did know-without a doubt-that these disturbing feelings were connected with Jazzy. And with Reve. The twins. "There's danger. Great danger."
    "Stop. Please, stop. Don't do this." Reve jumped up from the rocking chair.
    "Who's in danger?" Jazzy asked. "Reve and me?"
    "Yes, both of you. But-Oh, God! Jazzy, I sense the greatest danger for you." Genny gasped, then slumped over, her head dropping to the table, cushioned by her cupped hands.

CHAPTER 6
    He stood alone in the shadows of autumn twilight, the sky overcast with gold, and thought about Dinah. In the beginning, after she'd gone away that first time, it had been years before she came back to him. Years he'd been able to live in relative peace. And then she had reappeared unexpectedly, still as beautiful and alluring as ever. He had stupidly thought they had been given a second chance to be together and that this time she would really love him. She had pretended not to know him, but he'd understood that she was simply playing a game. Being the whore she was, she'd made him pay her for her favors.
    He'd paid her handsomely those first few times, but unfortunately found the sex less than satisfactory. That was when he came to understand what he had to do. Only by repeating the past could he achieve the fulfillment he craved, the pleasure only Dinah could give him. So they had played out the same scenario that time and then again and again with every return visit, both of them acting out their parts from memory.
    After half a dozen recurrences, he had considered keeping a diary, marking down the dates and places But he'd thought better of the idea, and the only record he kept was in his head. If anyone had ever accidently come across such a diary, they might not have understood. The police wouldn't understand. They would think he had killed numerous women-over twenty in all-when he'd actually killed only one woman. Dinah. The authorities wouldn't care that he'd been justified in killing her. They wouldn't believe that it really hadn't been murder. No one would understand that he had to keep killing her over and over again because she wouldn't stay dead.
    For the past few hours, he had been unable to get Becky Olmstead out of his mind, despite his best efforts to forget her. He always went with his heart in these matters, because his heart always knew when the woman he desired was Dinah. But allowing his mind to rule his emotions when it came to protecting himself was what had kept him safe all these years. No one had ever connected him with any of the bodies found in the river.
    Thankfully, Dinah had never come back to him in Cherokee Pointe, and he'd never sought her out in his home area. But he feared that things had changed, that Dinah had chosen to tempt him beyond all reason in his own backyard. He had hoped Becky wouldn't turn out to be Dinah, but he was beginning to believe she was. Dared he risk going to her and confronting her?
    What choice did he have? Once Dinah came back to him, she wouldn't leave him alone. What he didn't understand was why she'd returned so quickly, only a matter of days since they'd last been together.
    Soon-very soon-he would have to seek Becky out. Once he'd fucked her, he'd know for sure whether or not she was Dinah.
    Reba Upton parked her black Mercedes at the back of the mountaintop chalet so that anyone who happened to drive past wouldn't see it. As nervous butterflies jittered in her stomach, she flipped down the sun visor and inspected her face in the mirror. She had taken special care with her hair and makeup and had worn her pink cashmere sweater