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

or the three other cities they’d lived in over the past thirteen years. Between the little inheritance she’d received after her mama had died, and the money they’d managed to save renting cheap but cozy homes, they had no debt and close to twenty grand stashed in their house. If everything went to plan, in another couple of years, they could leave Chicago with even more money, and maybe actually lay down some roots and become homeowners.
    They hadn’t owned a house of their own since Wauchula. She smiled as she climbed into her Honda Civic. While she hadn’t necessarily considered their mobile home much of a house, they’d had some fun there and had made do with what they’d had. Her smile slipped and the sadness returned. Wayne had done such a good job of making up their baby’s room, but after she’d lost her precious little Elton and she’d fully recovered from the embolism, she’d refused to go back to the mobile home. There’d been too many memories, and besides, with the exception of her aunt and cousin, she and Wayne had no other family in Wauchula.
    Now she had none.
    A few years after they’d moved away from Wauchula and rented themselves a small house in Little Rock, Hurricane Charley had bulldozed its way through Florida and devastated their home town. Her aunt and cousin had lost everything and also ended up moving. She could’ve kept in touch with them, maybe on Facebook or some such thing, but Wayne hadn’t thought that was a good idea. Her aunt and cousin, along with the few friends she’d left in Florida, had known her situation and that she couldn’t carry a baby. If she so much as posted a picture of one of her Eltons, there’d be questions she couldn’t answer, unless she wanted trouble.
    Although she missed having family and friends around her, Wayne and a baby were all she’d ever needed. Looking back, her husband had always been the one constant in her life. She’d known him since kindergarten and had been in love with him since the fourth grade. She knew everything about him—good and bad. Not that he’d ever done anything bad.
    Wayne didn’t see it her way, though. Each time she’d been ready to send one of her Eltons into God’s arms, she knew it tore at her husband’s sweet soul. He hadn’t wanted to hurt those boys. After she’d handed him a shovel and garbage bag, and had sent him off with their first Elton, Wayne had come home crying and shaking. He’d said what they were doing was wrong, that their son hadn’t deserved to die. No, the child hadn’t deserved death, but she’d no longer wanted him and it wasn’t as if they could hand him over to an adoption agency. If they’d done that they’d have gone to prison, and she’d no longer have Wayne or any chance for another baby.
    Wayne had understood this, yet fought with his own demons, comparing himself to his ruthless daddy. If serial killers were pure evil out doing the devil’s work, Wayne’s daddy, Bingham Cooke, just might’ve been the devil’s spawn. Old Bing had wronged her Wayne so many times, her mama had finally put an end to it, threatening the man with a sawed-off shotgun and taking Wayne into their home when he was just fourteen. People around town had thought it strange that Mama had had no qualms about her and Wayne living like husband and wife, or that Mama had given her consent and allowed them to marry when they were sixteen.
    Twenty years later…they were still happily married.
    With a baby on the way.
    Giddy anticipation had her stomach filling with butterflies. She was gonna give Wayne a son who would top the others. And, if all went well, this time around she might let Wayne keep him.
    The butterflies scattered and her stomach cramped. Could she actually deal with a child past the age of two and a half? The older the boy grew, the less he’d need her. Plus kids became mouthy and expensive. She supposed if she filled their boy with God’s teachings, he’d turn out just fine. Plus,