Free Dead But Not Forgotten by Charlaine Harris Page A

very well for your services.”
    Frannie had been brought along as a reminder of what would happen if he did not fulfill his promise. Teague’s employers had not tried to recruit Quinn initially because they did not believe they could count on his cooperation even if he agreed, but that was before they had learned of the existence of his son. This assignment would be a test run. If he made one wrong move, disobeyed a single order, they would kill Frannie on the spot and begin anew the search for Tij and the baby. The guard in the row ahead of Frannie’s had a massive tranquilizer gun—they would kill his sister but keep Quinn alive, drugged and enslaved.
    â€œIn the future,” Teague had said, “I don’t think we’ll need your sister to go along. But this first time, having her with us might help you focus.”
    The future,
Quinn thought, jaw tight as he hung his head and clenched his fists.
I am their killer, forever.
He studied the curls of his sister’s hair that stuck out beside her seat.
    So be it,
he thought, sighing deeply.
Whatever it takes.
    â€œJohn?” Frannie said quietly, turning again in her seat so she could see him.
    The guards all glanced warily at her. The one across from Quinn kept watching, but the other two looked away.
    â€œIt’s getting dark,” Frannie rasped. It sounded as if her voice were full of emotion. “Whatever they’re going to have you do, it’ll be soon.”
    â€œI guess.”
    â€œThere’s something I need to tell you.”
    Quinn frowned. “I’m not going to die tonight, Fran. I’ll be back. Tell me then.”
    â€œIt has to be now. There’s a reason I haven’t visited Mama in a while. A reason I haven’t seen you in months. Something I’ve been dealing with.”
    The guard across from Quinn glanced away, apparently sensing a moment of intimacy between brother and sister. It seemed he had decided to allow it.
    â€œGo on,” he said.
    â€œHer mind . . . You know how she gets,” Frannie said, an angry furrow on her brow. Her chest rose and fell and she gritted her teeth as she tried to keep that anger in. “I tried to visit her regularly, tried to lift her spirits, but sometimes she would barely know me. She’d be lost in some awful memory or just confused, and if I tried to touch her, she’d lash out.”
    â€œI’m sorry,” Quinn said thoughtfully, studying her, wondering at the source of the anger he saw. “I know I should have visited more. It’s been a complicated year.”
    Her left hand gripped the side of her seat as she peered back at him. Her hair hung down, veiling part of her face, but her eyes glinted with dark light.
    â€œYou saw that she’d knocked out some of her teeth?” Frannie rasped, voice hitching, lowering her gaze.
    Quinn frowned. They had told him that Mama had knocked out the rest of her teeth, but that she’d been missing many of them before that.
    â€œYes.”
    â€œShe started that because when she was lucid, when the madness and the growing dementia retreated, she would realize what she’d done.”
    â€œWhat
had
she done?”
    Frannie’s upper lip curled back and she practically snarled the next sentence.
    â€œSometimes,” his sister said, “Mama would bite me.”
    Quinn went cold. His breath caught in his chest. “How many times did this happen?”
    Outside the plane, it had grown dark. The full moon shone brightly through the oval windows.
    His sister glanced up at him with tiger’s eyes.
    â€œEnough,” she growled, as her teeth began to lengthen and sharpen and elegantly striped fur began to push slowly through her skin.
    The thug in Quinn’s row noticed first.
    â€œSon of a bitch,” he muttered, raising his gun as his eyes went wide.
    He aimed at Frannie, and that was his mistake—taking his focus off the man he was supposed