Free Ultimate Fear (Book 2 Ultimate CORE) (CORE Series) by Kristine Mason

had ended with the death of her marriage.
    At this point, nothing could help her sleep tonight.

Chapter 3

    “THIS IS COOL,” the young, tattooed Walmart cashier said when he finished scanning the dissecting kit. “My older brother used to have one like it.” He grinned and looked at her. “Until our mom caught him getting ready to dissect his hamster.”
    She finished unloading the rest of the items from her shopping cart onto the belt. “Why would your brother want to do such a terrible thing?”
    The cashier shrugged. “To see what was inside the hamster, I guess,” he replied, scanning the box of latex gloves. “What are you dissecting?”
    If only you knew.
    “Not a hamster, that’s for sure.” Why on earth anyone would want to hurt an animal, she couldn’t understand. A shiver chased through her. With what the cashier’s brother had planned to attempt, according to the true crime shows she and Wayne liked to watch, he had the makings of a serial killer. Just last week they’d caught a documentary on Jeffery Dahmer and learned he used to like to dismember animals. Sicko. “My son needs the kit for school. They’re dissecting frogs,” she lied, and pulled her wallet from her purse. “This brother of yours, did he ever find something else to dissect?”
    Serial killers scared her. In her opinion, they were pure evil and did the devil’s work. The thought of one lurking around St. Joseph, Missouri, didn’t settle well with her, even if she and Wayne were leaving tonight. There were too many innocent and unsuspecting people around here. Of that, she knew too well.
    The cashier grinned. “He’s a surgeon now, so, in a way, yeah, he’s still dissecting.” He finished ringing up her items—newborn diapers, formula and baby wipes. “That’ll be ninety-two dollars and forty-seven cents.”
    A surgeon? Impressive. While she was no surgeon and had no medical training whatsoever, she had God on her side. And the dissecting kit would help her with what she needed.
    A baby boy.
    After paying with cash, she loaded her bags into the shopping cart, then headed for the exit. Instead of allowing herself to become caught up in fantasizing about the new baby God would grace her with tomorrow, she forced herself to focus on what needed to be done today. Wayne wouldn’t be home for several hours, and without Elton running under foot, she’d wind up finished with the rest of their packing well ahead of schedule.
    Poor Elton. She sighed as sadness crept in and had her thinking back to when they’d brought him home. He’d been a cute baby—too bad he’d grown up so fast. But, better that he’d been with her and Wayne than his real parents, even if it had only been for a short time. Like with the other boys they’d brought into their home, Elton’s parents had been no good. They’d spent more time working than with their son and constantly left him with a babysitter. She’d done that boy a favor the day they’d taken him. His natural mom was one of those career-driven women who was more concerned about climbing the corporate ladder than raising her child. The father was no better, and would work twelve-hour days. If he’d stayed with his real family, without proper, parental supervision, he would have probably grown into a horrible, unchristian-like person, and would have been either dead, on drugs or in prison by the time he was sixteen.
    She finished unloading her shopping cart and closed the trunk of her car. Knowing in her heart she’d—at some level—done right by the boy, she let the memory of him slip into the back of her mind and concentrated on the future.
    She looked forward to moving to Chicago. Growing up in Wauchula, Florida, she’d always dreamed of living in a big city like Chicago or New York. While she certainly couldn’t afford shopping at expensive stores or living in a fancy brownstone, with the cost of living, Wayne should make more than he ever would have in St. Joseph, Wauchula,