DOCTORS OF DARKNESS BOX SET © 2016, Ellery A. Kane. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher.
ISBN: 978-0-578-41389-1
Book Developmental Editing/Manuscript Evaluation & Line Editing/
Copyediting/Proofing:
AnnCastro Studio with Ann Castro and Emily Dings
Cover Designer:
Giovanni Auriemma
Interior Formatting:
Rock Solid Book Design
Disclaimer: This book is a work of fiction. Places, events, and situations in this book are purely fictional, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. Doctors of Darkness Box Set contains adult themes, including descriptions of sexual abuse, and is recommended for a mature audience.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DOCTORS OF DARKNESS BOX SET
COPYRIGHT
DADDY DARKEST COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX SEPTEMBER 6, 1996
SEPTEMBER 16,1996
SEPTEMBER 24, 1996
SEPTEMBER 30, 1996
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE OCTOBER 10, 1996
OCTOBER 15, 1996
OCTOBER 21, 1996
OCTOBER 22, 1996
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE OCTOBER 28, 1996
OCTOBER 29, 1996
NOVEMBER 6, 1996
NOVEMBER 7, 1996
NOVEMBER 8, 1996
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN NOVEMBER 12, 1996
NOVEMBER 15, 1996
NOVEMBER 18, 1996
NOVEMBER 24, 1996
NOVEMBER 25, 1996
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN NOVEMBER 27, 1996
NOVEMBER 28, 1996
NOVEMBER 29, 1996
DECEMBER 6, 1996
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY DECEMBER 9, 1996
DECEMBER 10, 1996
DECEMBER 11, 1996
DECEMBER 13, 1996
DECEMBER 16, 1996
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE DECEMBER 17, 1996
DECEMBER 18, 1996
DECEMBER 19, 1996
DECEMBER 20, 1996
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE DECEMBER 21, 1996
DECEMBER 22, 1996
DECEMBER 23, 1996
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX DECEMBER 24, 1996
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN DECEMBER 25, 1996
DECEMBER 26, 1996
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT DECEMBER 27, 1996
DECEMBER 28, 1996
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE JANUARY 17, 1997
SEPTEMBER 9, 1997
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE AUGUST 24, 2016
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THE HANGING TREE COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN BUTCH-APRIL 29, 1994
BUTCH-APRIL 30, 1994
CHAPTER TWELVE EVIE-APRIL 30, 1994
CHAPTER THIRTEEN BUTCH-MAY 1, 1994
CHAPTER FOURTEEN EVIE-MAY 1, 1994
CHAPTER FIFTEEN BUTCH-MAY 2, 1994
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY EVIE-MAY 4, 1994
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE BUTCH-MAY 5, 1994
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO EVIE-MAY 6, 1994
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE BUTCH-MAY 7, 1994
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN EVIE-MAY 8, 1994
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY BUTCH-MAY 9, 1994
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE EVIE-MAY 10, 1994
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE BUTCH-MAY 11, 1994
EVIE-MAY 12, 1994
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE EVIE-MAY 13, 1994
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN BUTCH-MAY 13, 1994
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
CHAPTER FORTY
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE BUTCH-MAY 13, 1994
SEBASTIAN-JANUARY 23, 2017
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THE FIRST CUT COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
PROLOGUE THE MONTEREY COUNTY COURIER
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE VALENTINE'S DAY-TEN YEARS EARLIER
THE MONTEREY COUNTY COURIER
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN VALENTINE'S DAY-NINE YEARS EARLIER
THE MONTEREY COUNTY COURIER
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN VALENTINE'S DAY-EIGHT YEARS EARLIER
THE DOWNTOWN STAR
CHAPTER ELEVEN VALENTINE'S DAY-SEVEN YEARS EARLIER
CHAPTER TWELVE THE MONTEREY COUNTY COURIER
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN VALENTINE'S DAY-SIX YEARS EARLIER
THE DOWNTOWN STAR
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN VALENTINE'S DAY-FIVE YEARS EARLIER
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN VALENTINE'S DAY-FOUR YEARS EARLIER
THE DOWNTOWN STAR
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY VALENTINE'S DAY-THREE YEARS EARLIER
THE MONTEREY COUNTY COURIER
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO VALENTINE'S DAY-TWO YEARS EARLIER
THE MONTEREY COUNTY COURIER
THE DOWNTOWN STAR
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE VALENTINE'S DAY-ONE YEAR EARLIER
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR VALENTINE'S DAY-THIS YEAR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE THE MONTEREY COUNTY COURIER
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX LA TIMES
EPILOGUE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ALSO BY ELLERY A. KANE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DADDY
DARKEST
DADDY DEAREST © 2016, Ellery A. Kane. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Book Developmental Editing/Manuscript Evaluation & Line Editing/
Copyediting/Proofing:
AnnCastro Studio with Ann Castro and Emily Dings
Cover Designer:
Giovanni Auriemma
Interior Formatting:
Rock Solid Book Design
Disclaimer: This book is a work of fiction. Places, events, and situations in this book are purely fictional, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or local
es is entirely coincidental. Daddy Darkest contains adult themes, including descriptions of sexual abuse, and is recommended for a mature audience.
For Gar
My partner in crime
“Murder is not about lust and it’s not about violence. It’s about possession.”
—Ted Bundy
Chapter
One
black sock, blue sock
I wish my first plane ride had ended in a crash. An unforeseen plunge to Earth. A few minutes of white-hot terror, followed by a rising ball of fire. And no survivors. Sure, I’d be gone at eighteen. She was so young, they’d say, but at least I would die believing my life was my own. Not a lie somebody else concocted. Then, it was simple. I was still small-town girl, Samantha Bronwyn.
“Sam, easy with the death grip.” Ginny freed her arm from under mine and jiggled it. I watched the color return to the white fingertip marks I’d left behind.
I shrugged. “Sorry. But that noise … ”
“So you can sink a free throw to win state, no problem, but the safest form of travel inspires a full-on meltdown?” Ginny—and Google—had assured me I had one-in-eleven-million odds of death up here. At the time, two feet planted on the ground, it seemed reasonable.
“As far as I know, that sound means we’re plummeting to our deaths right now.”
“Uh, it’s the landing gear, dork.” Ginny exaggerated an eye roll—not for my benefit—then leaned in and whispered. “And you’re blowing the cool college girl thing we’ve got going.”
I offered a polite smile to 4A. Thanks to Ginny and her relentless flirting, I knew his name—Levi Beckett. “We’re not in college,” I reminded her.
“Yet. A minor technicality.” She shook her head at me, then returned to the task at hand. Being cool, obviously. “So, Levi, do you have any recommendations for our first night in the big city? We wanna hit all the hot spots.”
I swallowed a sigh as Ginny tossed her hair from her shoulder. Why did I let her talk me into this trip?
“Hot spots?” He’d told Ginny he was twenty-one, but his tone was my mother’s—a thought that came with a wave of guilt, which I promptly ignored. “You’re eighteen, right?”
Oblivious, Ginny nodded.
“You girls should be careful.”
Ginny leaned around me, pursing her pink-glossed lips at him. “Oooh, sounds dangerous.”
I felt my cheeks warm, but I kept my eyes fixed on the seat back in front of me, watching sidelong as Levi tapped his fingers against his blue jeans, a black backpack he hadn’t opened stanchioned between his leather boots. Since Levi had claimed his spot, I’d avoided his face. Except that once when I bumped his arm from the miniscule rest in between us, my excuse me met with a flash of his green eyes. It seemed strange to sit so close to a total stranger. And the way Ginny acted, I could tell he was freakishly handsome, and therefore hers.
“Seriously,” he said. That word implied he was talking to me. “San Francisco has its share of unsavory characters.” He unfolded the newspaper tucked next to him, turned it toward me, and tapped the familiar headline and picture below it. Notorious San Quentin inmate pulls off unprecedented second escape, manhunt enters 10th day.
The smirk beneath the slate-gray eyes of Clive Evan Cullen leveled me like a double-edged blade. Part menace, part seduction.
Ginny giggled. “Is it wrong to find a murderer attractive?” I elbowed her, and she winced. “Because if it is, I don’t wanna be right.”
“See what I mean?” Levi said. “She’s practically begging to be Cutthroat Cullen’s next girlfriend—I mean, victim.” He pointed to a smaller headline: Female body found floating in the Bay believed to be prison employee who aided Cullen.
“Ha. Ha. Ha.” Ginny narrowed her eyes at him. “As if I would ever work in a prison.”
“Your sister is nuts,” he teased.
“Friend.” It was the typical assumption, with our matching blonde hair and cornflower-blue eyes. But beyond that, Ginny was my complete flipside. “We’re best friends.”
“Well, then, you should watch out for your friend. She’s going to get herself in trouble one day.” My nod felt like a betrayal, but I couldn’t help myself.
“Hmph.” Ginny pulled my letterman jacket closer around her shoulders and turned away from us toward the aisle. She’d warned me the cabin might get cold, but she wore a tank top anyway, pilfering my royal blue Bellwether Bulldogs memento halfway through the flight.
“Gin, c’mon.” I touched her shoulder, but she squirmed away, and I bristled. Annoyed. By him. Levi Beckett. Condescending jerk. Unsavory characters—who talks like that anyway? If his hand wasn’t close enough to hold, his knee a mere fingertip from mine, I would’ve glared at him.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve started our descent into San Francisco. In preparation for landing, please make sure your seat backs and …” I plucked my ticket out of the pocket in front of me, staring at it, committing the details of my first plane ride to memory. Flight: Virgin America 221. Destination: AUS to SFO. Passenger: Bronwyn, Samantha.
“Look. It’s the San Francisco Bay.” Levi lifted the shade, revealing an expanse of blue water. I caught my breath. Almost two thousand miles from Bellwether and my mother, it looked like freedom.
****
Ginny sulked as we lugged our carry-ons up the jet bridge. “How long are you planning to be mad at me?” I teased, holding my watch up to my face. “Ballpark figure, so I can set my stopwatch.”
“Shouldn’t you be getting your boyfriend’s digits anyway? Don’t let me keep you, Mrs. Beckett.”
I groaned. “You were the one who started chatting him up in the first place. He wasn’t even that cute.” It was a blatant lie. When I’d finally freed myself from the seat belt, I snuck a well-deserved glance at Levi as he secured his backpack. Curly chestnut hair, wiry muscles, a shadow of a beard. And those green eyes.
“Ahem.”
Oh God. “Is that … ?” I hissed at Ginny through clenched teeth. She only smiled.
Levi split the middle, fast walking between us. “You were saying?” He didn’t wait for an answer, but I could hear him laughing, even after I lost him in the sea of passengers mingling by the gate.
“Smooth, Sam. Really smooth.”
“Whatever.” I parked my suitcase at the edge of the crowd and turned on my cell phone. The guilt I’d managed to shove down for the duration of a three-and-a-half-hour flight came back with a vengeance. Ten text messages. Three missed calls. All from my mom. “I told you she’d freak out.” When Ginny didn’t answer me, I looked up from the screen and called her name.
“Going to get beautified,” she announced, playfully skirting around a yellow WET FLOOR sign that blocked the bathroom doorway, bag in tow. I watched her ponytail swing the way it always did, brushing across my letterman jacket. My ponytail never did that. Sometimes I wondered if she practiced. Her back—BRONWYN, STATE CHAMPIONSHIP BASKETBALL 2016—disappeared inside.
I dropped my phone into the cavern of my purse. Don’t look, I told myself. You can call her later. Explain everything. I leaned back against the row of seats and took in the crowd rushing past me. I’d never seen so many people—practically the entire population of Bellwether, Texas—packed into one cramped space. Small-town girl meets big city. That’s what Ginny proclaimed this trip when she’d surprised me with the ticket weeks ago, just after we watched our graduation caps land side by side on the football field.
Small-town girl—me, of course—watched the bathroom exit, already aggravated. Big-city was probably blotting, brushing, and lip glossing her way to perfection. A little girl toddled by, dragging a stuffed bear alongside her. Her white booties picked up speed, her tiny arms barely keeping pace. She let out a high-pitched shriek just before she tumbled to the ground, wailing. Her red-faced panic was contagious.
Wi
th urgency, I headed for the bathroom door—the wheels of my suitcase clicking behind me—and navigated around the same yellow sign Ginny ignored, hoping no one saw me.
It was the fanciest public restroom I’d ever seen: marble counters, soft lighting, electric hand dryers. But it smelled exactly like our high school bathroom, post-janitorial visit—its floors slick with a chemical sheen. I measured my steps just in case Ginny hid nearby, messing with me.
A quick glance to my left and right turned up nothing. The stalls stood empty, most of their doors partway open, inviting me inside. The first stall is the cleanest. That’s what Ginny always said, so I pushed my way in, half-expecting to find her there laughing at me. But there was no one. The only sign of life, a curse word etched into the metal. On the freshly scrubbed counter was a tube of uncapped lip gloss. I picked it up gingerly, like it might explode in my hand, and examined it. Cotton Candy. Ginny’s color.
“Hello? Ginny? Are you in here?” My words sank like stones in the silence.
“Excuse me, young lady.” I jumped. Then stumbled backward, steadying myself against the wall. My heart fluttered like an insect in a jar. I let out a long, rattled breath. Something—a roach?—scuttled beneath my foot and across the tile, and I shuddered. A man’s pockmarked face appeared in the mirror.
Doctors of Darkness Boxed Set Page 1
