Though it had a nice, sad sort of rhythm, considering the fact that the story of my life had recently pretty much become a narcocorrido, I didn’t think I’d be adding it to my iPod playlist anytime soon.
Finally standing in the street out in front of the safe house thirty minutes later, paying the driver, I heard a sudden shriek of rubber. Just south down the curving slope of Kirkwood, I stood and watched as a white Euro-style work van fishtailed off the shoulder and barreled straight toward me.
No, was my weary thought as I watched it come. This couldn’t be happening. The van shrieked again as it came around the closest curve and hit its brakes.
Forgetting the cabdriver, I palmed the stippled grip of my Glock and drew as I hit the driveway. I racked the slide, chambering a round, as I ducked my head down and ran up the steps of the house two at a time.
“Mary Catherine! Seamus!” I yelled as I pounded on the screen door with the pistol barrel.
My shocked-looking nanny, Mary Catherine, had just opened the front door when I heard the rattling metal roll of the van door opening from the bottom of the stairs.
“Mike, Mike! It’s OK! Stand down! It’s OK. It’s me!” came a yell.
I turned. Down the stairs, a large bald guy with a gun was standing over my taxi driver, now lying facedown on the street. Also standing now in the open side doors of the white van was a woman. A very pretty woman in blue fatigues with brown—almost red—hair.
“Agent Parker. Long time no see. Are you out of your mind?” I screamed.
I should have known, I thought. It was a friend of mine. Emily Parker, special agent of the FBI. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. Emily and I had taken down Perrine together less than a month before, and I knew she was still working in LA. I just didn’t know I was her work.
I racked my weapon to make it safe as I came back down the stairs.
“I mean, Emily, you of all people should understand how paranoid I am these days about things like, I don’t know, mysterious vans racing up on me. Is this some kind of practical joke? Why didn’t you tell me you and the FBI were watching my house?”
“It was just a precaution for your court appearance today,” she said as three drab-fatigue-clad FBI agents with large guns suddenly emerged from the foliage along the side of our house.
“Additional security was ordered,” she said. “I kept it low key because you guys have been through enough. I didn’t want to get you upset.”
“In that case, I guess I’m not having a heart attack,” I said.
“Listen, you should be the last one to talk about jokes, Mike,” Emily said. “You know how many people are looking for you? Ditching the marshals after that verdict was beyond childish. We thought the bad guys got you. We’ve been worried sick.”
“Ditched? I texted Joe. Besides, I’m a grown man, Parker,” I said. “A grown man who needed some fresh air.”
“During a gang riot?”
I shrugged.
“Taking my life back needs to start somewhere. I’m tired, Emily, of the death threats, all the worrying. I came out here because of Perrine, and now he’s in the ground, and I’m done hiding. You and I both know the cartels are too busy killing each other for Perrine’s turf to bother coming after me. Perrine was a monster. They don’t get avenged, last time I checked. Judge Barnett has seen to that. What was it that BP oil spill CEO guy said? ‘I want my life back.’”
I walked over and knelt down and finally paid my cabdriver, still facedown on the asphalt.
“What’s the quote, Emily? Those who would sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither and will lose both?”
“What’s that other quote about a well-balanced Irishman?” Emily said, hopping from the van. “They have a chip on both shoulders?”
Then she surprised me for the second time in two minutes. She walked up and wrapped her arms around me and pressed her face hard against my neck.
“I going to miss you, Mike…working with you. Just working. Don’t get the wrong idea,” she whispered in my ear.
“Good-bye yourself, Parker. It was fun strictly and platonically working with you as well,” I whispered back as she broke it up.
She hopped back into the fed van with the rest of the agents. As they pulled away, I looked up to see Mary Catherine standing at the top of the stairs by the iron railing of the porch.
I immediately gave her my brightest smile. The on-again, off-again relationship I had with Mary Catherine had most definitely become on-again during our close-quarters California exile. She’d actually had to kill a cartel hit woman to protect the kids. We’d talked about it, cried about it. I don’t think I’d ever been closer to this incredible young woman. Or more attracted.
I thought her dander might be up a little at seeing me share a hug with Parker, who I’d once or twice almost had a romantic relationship with, but to my happy surprise, Mary Catherine’s slim hand slid easily into mine as I got to the top of the stairs.
“Time to go home, Detective Bennett,” Mary Catherine said in her musical brogue as she suddenly broke my grip and playfully pushed me toward the door.
About the Authors
JAMES PATTERSON has created more enduring fictional characters than any other novelist writing today. He is the author of the Alex Cross novels, the most popular detective series of the past twenty-five years, including Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider. Mr. Patterson also writes the bestselling Women’s Murder Club novels, set in San Francisco, and the top-selling New York detective series of all time, featuring Detective Michael Bennett. James Patterson has had more New York Times bestsellers than any other writer, ever, according to Guinness World Records. Since his first novel won the Edgar Award in 1977, James Patterson’s books have sold more than 280 million copies.
James Patterson has also written numerous number-one bestsellers for young readers, including the Maximum Ride, Witch & Wizard, and Middle School series. In total, these books have spent more than 220 weeks on national bestseller lists. In 2010, James Patterson was named author of the year at the Children’s Choice Book Awards.
His lifelong passion for books and reading led James Patterson to create the innovative website ReadKiddoRead.com, giving adults an invaluable tool to find the books that get kids reading for life. He writes full time and lives in Florida with his family.
DAVID ELLIS is a Chicago attorney and the author of nine novels, including Line of Vision, for which he won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author, and The Hidden Men, which earned him a 2009 Los Angeles Times Book Prize nomination.
jamespatterson.com
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Books by James Patterson
Featuring Alex Cross
Cross My Heart
Alex Cross, Run
Kill Alex Cross
Cross Fire
I, Alex Cross
Alex Cross’s Trial (with Richard DiLallo)
Cross Country
Double Cross
Cross
Mary, Mary
London Bridges
The Big Bad Wolf
Four Blind Mice
Violets Are Blue
Roses Are Red
Pop Goes the Weasel
Cat & Mouse
Jack & Jill
Kiss the Girls
Along Came a Spider
The Women’s Murder Club
Unlucky 13 ( with Maxine Paetro)
12th of Never (with Maxine Paetro)
11th Hour (with Maxine Paetro)
10th Anniversary (with Maxine Paetro)
The 9th Judgment (with Maxine Paetro)
The 8th Confession (with Maxine Paetro)
7th Heaven (with Maxine Paetro)
The 6th Target (with Maxine Paetro)
The 5th Horseman (with Maxine Paetro)
4th of July (with Maxine Paetro)
3rd Degree (with Andrew Gross)
2nd Chan
ce (with Andrew Gross)
1st to Die
Featuring Michael Bennett
Gone (with Michale Ledwidge)
I, Michael Bennett (with Michael Ledwidge)
Tick Tock (with Michael Ledwidge)
Worst Case (with Michael Ledwidge)
Run for Your Life (with Michael Ledwidge)
Step on a Crack (with Michael Ledwidge)
The Private Novels
Private Berlin (with Mark Sullivan)
Private Games (with Mark Sullivan)
Private: #1 Suspect (with Maxine Paetro)
Private (with Maxine Paetro)
NYPD Red Novels
NYPD Red 2 (with Marshall Karp)
NYPD Red (with Marshall Karp)
Summer Novels
Second Honeymoon (with Howard Roughan)
Now You See Her (with Michael Ledwidge)
Swimsuit (with Maxine Paetro)
Sail (with Howard Roughan)
Beach Road (with Peter de Jonge)
Lifeguard (with Andrew Gross)
Honeymoon (with Howard Roughan)
Beach House (with Peter de Jonge)
Stand-alone Books
First Love (with Emily Raymond)
Mistress (with David Ellis)
Zoo (with Michael Ledwidge)
Guilty Wives (with David Ellis)
The Christmas Wedding (with Richard DiLallo)
Kill Me If You Can (with Marshall Karp)
Toys (with Neil McMahon)
Don’t Blink (with Howard Roughan)
The Postcard Killers (with Liza Marklund)
The Murder of King Tut (with Martin Dugard)
Against Medical Advice (with Hal Friedman)
Sundays at Tiffany’s (with Gabrielle Charbonnet)
You’ve Been Warned (with Howard Roughan)
The Quickie (with Michael Ledwidge)
Judge & Jury (with Andrew Gross)
Sam’s Letters to Jennifer
The Lake House
The Jester (with Andrew Gross)
Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas
Cradle and All
When the Wind Blows
Miracle on the 17th Green (with Peter de Jonge)
Hide & Seek
The Midnight Club
Black Friday (originally published as Black Market)
See How They Run (originally published as The Jericho Commandment)
Season of the Machete
The Thomas Berryman Number
For Readers of All Ages
Maximum Ride
Nevermore: The Final Maximum Ride Adventure
Angel: A Maximum Ride Novel
Fang: A Maximum Ride Novel
Max: A Maximum Ride Novel
The Final Warning: A Maximum Ride Novel
Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports: A Maximum Ride Novel
School’s Out—Forever: A Maximum Rude Novel
The Angel Experiment: A Maximum Ride Novel
Daniel X
Daniel X: Armageddon (with Chris Grabenstein)
Daniel X: Game Over (with Ned Rust)
Daniel X: The Manga, Vol. 2 (with SeungHui Kye)
Daniel X: The Manga, Vol. 1 (with SeungHui Kye)
Daniel X: Demons and Druids (with Adam Sadler)
Daniel X: Watch the Skies (with Ned Rust)
Daniel X: Alien Hunter (graphic novel; with Leopoldo Gout)
The Dangerous Days of Daniel X (with Michael Ledwidge)
Witch & Wizard
Witch & Wizard: The Kiss (with Jill Dembowski)
Witch & Wizard: The Fire (with Jill Dembowski)
Witch & Wizard: The Manga, Vol. 1 (with Svetlana Chmakova)
Witch & Wizard: The Gift (with Ned Rust)
Witch & Wizard (with Gabrielle Charbonnet)
Middle School
Middle School: Save Rafe! (with Chris Tebbetts, illustrated by Laura Park)
Middle School: Ultimate Showdown (with Julia Bergen, illustrated by Alec Longstreth)
Middle School: How I Survived Bullies, Broccoli, and Snake Hill (with Chris Tebbetts, illustrated by Laura Park)
Middle School: My Brother is a Big, Fat liar (with Lisa Papademtriou, illustrated by Neil Swaab)
Middle School: Get Me Out of Here (with Chris Tebbetts, illustrated by Laura Park)
Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life (with Chris Tebbetts, illustrated by Laura Park)
Other Books for Readers of All Ages
I Even Funnier: A Middle School Story (with Chris Grabenstein, illustrated by Laura Park)
Confessions: The Private School Murders (with Maxine Paetro)
Treasure Hunters (with Chris Grabenstein, illustrated by Juliana Neufeld)
I, Funny: A Middle School Story (with Chris Tebbetts, illustrated by Laura Park)
Confessions of a Murder Suspect (with Maxine Paetro)
Med Head [Against Medical Advice teen edition] (with Hal Friedman)
santaKid (illustrated by Michael Garland)
For previews and information about the author, visit JamesPatterson.com or find him on Facebook or at your app store.
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Contents
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
Dedication
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Acknowledgments
An Excerpt from BURN
About the Authors
Books by James Patterson
&
nbsp; Newsletters
Copyright
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Copyright © 2014 by James Patterson
Excerpt from Burn copyright © 2014 by James Patterson
Cover design by Kapo Ng
Cover photograph by Carmen Winant/Getty Images
Author photograph by David Burnett
Cover copyright © 2014 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Little, Brown and Company
Hachette Book Group
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First ebook edition: June 2014
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