“You master it. You take back control of your life. You dictate the terms of how you will live and where you will live, not anyone else. And certainly not the person who hurt you.”

“But what if he’s still out there?”

“I’m sure he is still out there,” Devine said. “It’s my job to stop him. And I’m really good at my job, Alex.”

He put his arms around her and held her tightly.

“Do you really think I can... master this?”

“I would not have suggested it if I didn’t believe you could. You’re a lot stronger than you think you are.”

“I’m not as strong as Jenny was,” she replied.

He moved her to arm’s length so he could stare into her eyes. “You don’t need to compare yourself to Jenny, not ever again. She loved you. She came up here to help you, to end this misery you were trapped in. And it cost your sister her life. The best way to honor that sacrifice is to cast off the devil that’s in you right now and move on with your life. It’s what Jenny would have wanted. And it’s what you should want, which is what really matters.”

Alex, who had begun quietly sobbing, stopped, and her expression firmed. She looked up at him. “I do want that. And I want something else, Travis.”

She kissed him.

And Devine, hesitant at first, kissed her back.

The two were so focused on one another that they never saw the person who had been watching them move slowly away from the window.

Chapter 65

Hours later Devine let himself out the front door of Jocelyn Point and made sure it securely locked behind him. A light drizzle had started, which the wind kicked around him as he walked to the truck.

He looked for Dak’s motorcycle but didn’t see it. He hadn’t heard anyone come into the house when he’d been up in Alex’s bedroom.

He sat in the truck and stared out the windshield at the house. His first night here he had seen Alex standing naked in her bedroom window. He had seen it as an act of defiance, or at least her feeling of sanctity in her old family home.

He had just seen her naked again, in the most intimate situation two people could experience.

Being with Alex at that moment in time had been the right thing to do, the thing he had wanted to do. They had taken it slow, with physical and emotional revelations by degrees, rather than all of a sudden. Their lovemaking had been assured but controlled. It was as though they somehow already knew the contours and rhythms of each other’s bodies and desires, the instinctual sensations that had delivered them to an ending point that had persisted long beyond the sexual climaxes. They had lain in each other’s arms talking quietly between kisses and caresses, for far longer than their physical lovemaking had endured.

Devine hadn’t known the woman a full week, and yet he felt like he understood her better than he did his own brother and sister. Quantity of time together meant nothing if the desire wasn’t there to learn and relate to someone, the need to understand them. It had been there between him and Alex like nothing he’d really experienced before.

As he fired up the truck his phone buzzed. It wasn’t a call.

His surveillance monitor on the outbuilding had just gone off.

Someone was there.

He drove toward the outbuildings and then parked behind a stand of evergreen bushes, making sure his truck was out of sight. He was going to make the rest of the way to the building on foot. The noise of the waves crashing against the burly Maine substrata followed him with each footfall.

He kept his exposure over open ground to a minimum, just like the Army had trained him. And then he’d gotten a PhD in that same subject out in the field of combat, where mistakes didn’t mean a failing grade but rather a burial plot and white grave marker at Arlington National.

He surveyed all compass points in front of him. It didn’t take long to reach the vicinity of the building. Devine took up position behind a bulky overgrown hedge. Peering around it he observed a Toyota pickup parked in front of the building, its lights and motor on. The door to the building was open and a light was on inside. This gave Devine a clear sight line into the space, which he enhanced using his optics.

A man was standing just inside the doorway with his back to Devine. Over his shoulder Devine could see large green plastic tubs set on tables, and he heard once more the hum of machinery, this time more distinctly with the door open.

He crouched down when he heard another vehicle approaching. He recognized the throaty purr of the Harley before he saw it. Dak pulled up next to the truck, and climbed off his bike after shutting it down.

Devine turned on the video recording feature on his phone and started filming.

Dak said, “Hey, Hal.”

The man turned around, and Devine could see he was in his thirties with a trim beard and glasses. He had on jean overalls and a ski cap pulled down over his ears. Their comingled breaths rose above them in the frigid air.

“I thought you’d be here ahead of me,” said Hal.

“I got tied up.”

“Really? What gal did the tying?”