The Surviving Girls Read online

  PRAISE FOR KATEE ROBERT

  “Thriller fans will enjoy the action and suspense.”

  —Publishers Weekly, on The Devil’s Daughter

  “This cross-genre mystery/romance is fast-paced and suspenseful, with zesty dialogue and likable characters.”

  —Kirkus Reviews, on The Devil’s Daughter

  “Robert shows off her impressive versatility in this fast-paced and inventive new Hidden Sins series.”

  —RT Book Reviews, on The Devil’s Daughter

  “Robert combines strong chemistry, snappy plotting, and imperfect yet appealing characters . . . This installment is easily readable as a stand-alone, and it’s a worthy addition to a sexy series.”

  —Publishers Weekly, on Undercover Attraction

  “Robert easily pulls off the modern marriage-of-convenience trope . . . This is a compulsively readable book! It’s more than just sexy times, too, though those are plentiful and hot! . . . An excellent start to a new series.”

  —RT Book Reviews, on The Marriage Contract

  “The Marriage Contract by Katee Robert is dark, dirty, and dead sexy. I want a Teague O’Malley of my very own!”

  —Tiffany Reisz, author of the Original Sinners series

  “A definite roller coaster of intrigue, drama, pain, heartache, romance, and more. The steamy parts were super steamy, the dramatic parts delivered with a perfect amount of flair.”

  —A Love Affair With Books, on The Marriage Contract

  “The series is a hit all around, and I’m already loving it.”

  —The Book Cellar, on The Marriage Contract

  “If you like angsty reads, this book is right up your wheelhouse.”

  —Heroes & Heartbreakers, on The Wedding Pact

  “I loved every second.”

  —All About Romance, on The Wedding Pact

  ALSO BY KATEE ROBERT

  The Hidden Sins Series

  The Devil’s Daughter

  The Hunting Grounds

  The O’Malleys Series

  The Marriage Contract

  The Wedding Pact

  An Indecent Proposal

  Forbidden Promises

  Undercover Attraction

  The Bastard’s Bargain

  The Foolproof Love Series

  A Foolproof Love

  Fool Me Once

  A Fool for You

  Out of Uniform Series

  In Bed with Mr. Wrong

  His to Keep

  Falling for His Best Friend

  His Lover to Protect

  His to Take

  Serve Series

  Mistaken by Fate

  Betting on Fate

  Protecting Fate

  Come Undone Series

  Wrong Bed, Right Guy

  Chasing Mrs. Right

  Two Wrongs, One Right

  Seducing Mr. Right

  Seducing the Bridesmaid

  Meeting His Match

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Text copyright © 2018 by Katee Hird

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  Published by Montlake Romance, Seattle

  www.apub.com

  Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Montlake Romance are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.

  ISBN-13: 9781503902442

  ISBN-10: 1503902447

  Cover design by Mark Ecob

  To the survivors

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CHAPTER ONE

  Lei Zhang had never trusted the woods. Not from the first time her parents dragged her on a camping trip when she was seven in an effort to do what normal people did. Certainly not now, when she knew all too well what the evil forests were capable of hiding. The trees had a way of closing a person off from the rest of the world, even a few hundred yards from a well-traveled road. Out here, one could almost believe their actions didn’t have consequences—that nothing they did would ever be discovered.

  Secrets. The forest is full of secrets.

  It was her job to help uncover those secrets.

  Penance, some called it. Lei just called it her job—her purpose.

  She forced herself to drag her attention away from the lake her German Shepherd–Great Pyrenees mix, Saul, had led her to. He’d found something, which meant it was time for his reward. Saul was smarter than any dog had a right to be, but that didn’t mean he cared about the conflicting feelings that rose in her with every search they did.

  A successful search meant there was a body at the end of it.

  She crouched down and stroked Saul’s dark fur. “You did good, boy.” Because of him and Lei, there would be a family who got closure. She didn’t have to wait to see what the divers would find to know that. Saul was never wrong.

  Lei, on the other hand, was wrong far too often.

  Not this time.

  She threw the ball for him; the joyous wiggle his big body gave lightened her mood a little bit. It didn’t quite make her forget the divers slipping into the water or the uneasy murmur of the cops gathered on the shoreline, but her search was over. Right now, her only priority was rewarding her dog for a job well done. He didn’t care that a successful hunt meant someone had been brutally murdered and had their body dumped. For Saul, the joy was the search—and playing with his ball afterward.

  He dropped the bright-red globe at her feet and turned in a quick circle, a doggy grin on his face. Lei picked it up and tossed it again, careful to aim well away from the lake and the path she and Saul had taken here.

  Evidence.

  Technically, she could leave at any time—her report would be filed later—but she needed to confirm they brought up a body. Needed to know the job was fulfilled. Needed to bear witness.

  Sometimes it felt like she’d been bearing witness for twelve long years, ever since she opened that window . . .

  Saul whined, and Lei gave herself a sharp shake. “You’re right. No use thinking about that. Not now.” Not when they had a hike back down the trail ahead of them. It would take less time to hike out than it had to hike in because Saul wasn’t tracking.

  The sheriff strode over, looking ten years older than when he’d initially contacted Lei for her help. He yanked off his wide-brimmed hat and scrubbed a hand over his thinning gray hair. “That girl deserved better than this.”

  “They always do.”

  He frowned at her, as if trying to decide if she was joking. Seeming satisfied she wasn’t out of line, he hooked his fingers int
o a belt almost hidden by his overflowing stomach and huffed out a strained laugh. “Figure you’re used to it by now, huh?”

  Lei tensed. It never failed; someone always brought up her past during these searches. Cops had long memories, longer by far than the even more dogged media cycle or true-crime fan. She worked hard to ensure that the legacy she left behind wasn’t that of a victim. It seemed like every time she turned around, she faced down some mention of the night her life had taken a hard right turn into a nightmare there was no escaping.

  But she had escaped.

  She hadn’t let that bastard win. She hadn’t curled up in a ball and let life go on without her, or slipped into a drugged haze and become a living zombie. She’d lived.

  She was a goddamn survivor.

  But then the sheriff’s words processed, and she forced herself to relax. He’s not talking about that past. He’s talking about Saul. “It is what we do.” Find the lost ones. Give closure. Do their part to battle the evil that seemed to crop up in the most unexpected places.

  Like a cute fraternity boy . . .

  Stop it.

  He replaced his hat, still looking uneasy. “You’re going to want to head back to the road. It’ll be dark before long.”

  She ignored that. Cops usually fell into two camps when it came to cadaver dogs: they saw the search team as a tool to be used, or they considered the dog damn near a miracle worker. Sheriff Joffrey fell into the latter category, though he’d probably label it witchcraft before he went with something as benign as a miracle.

  Lei picked up the ball Saul dropped and threw it again, though not as far this time. “How long will the divers take?”

  “Hard to say.” He cast a sorrowful look at the lake. “It’s not particularly deep, but the currents run a little funny—or so my men say. The search area is a little wider than they expected.”

  The unnamed little lake sat smack-dab in the middle of Colville National Forest. Murderers always thought they were so clever, hauling bodies into national forests and burying them or tossing them into lakes like this one. And sometimes that was even true.

  There weren’t that many cadaver dogs out there, when all was said and done. Not nearly enough to make up for the sheer number of bodies. Especially when some police departments weren’t keen on bringing them in.

  Saul came bounding back with his ball, and Lei slipped it into her pack and patted his head. “We’ll wait.”

  He hesitated. “Suit yourself.”

  It took longer than she would have liked. Several hours passed before the signal went up that they’d found something.

  She forced her body to relax, banishing the tension from her fingertips to her tight shoulders. This was always the hardest part, though water searches were the worst by far because they took longer. There was something invariably terrifying about death rising from the deep.

  She and Saul moved closer, staying well outside the circle of activity. The body was wrapped in tarp and tied with thick rope. Weights had been attached to the rope—more than enough to keep it submerged indefinitely. With the tarp, even as the body decomposed, it would remain in its final resting place.

  Not final.

  You’re going home.

  My job’s done.

  Exhaustion pulled at her, the aftereffects of her adrenaline high. “Come, Saul.”

  He trotted at her heels, ears up and alert as they hiked slowly back to the road. Lei’s truck sat at the makeshift trailhead—the same place Mark Jones’s truck had been spotted after the disappearance of Shelly Jones. For all his apparent preparation, he hadn’t realized he’d been seen, or expected the cops to call in someone who could track where he’d dumped his wife.

  She still had almost a three-hour drive ahead of her. It was tempting to plan to stop off somewhere and take a nap, but Emma would worry.

  It was easier to put her friend and roommate’s worry at the forefront, but the truth was that Lei didn’t sleep any place but in their little fortress of a house. She’d tried. Even twelve years later, when a job forced her to stay overnight in a hotel, fear kept bolting her awake hour after hour, and even Saul’s presence wasn’t enough to change that. She’d tried pills and therapy—she was the child of a psychologist, after all—and she’d even gone so far as to attempt to numb the memories with whiskey. None of it ever truly got her past her own frequent personal nightmare.

  Once they reached her truck, she took a few minutes to set out Saul’s food and water in a pair of bowls. He could eat on the go, but they weren’t so pressed for time that she had to rush him.

  Lei checked to make sure he was good and then dug out her cell phone. There was only one text from Emma. Call when you’re done.

  She dialed from memory. The phone barely rang before her friend picked up. “How’d it go?”

  “We found her.”

  Emma hissed out a breath. “Good. That’s good. I was tracking your location. Why is it always a lake?”

  “Because CSI doesn’t cover the fact that dogs like Saul can track a scent even over running water. And how many books did we read in school, and after, where a person crosses a river to confuse a trail?” It might confuse some dogs, but cadaver dogs’ training meant it would take a whole hell of a lot more than that to lose a trail. It also meant that strange things like underground streams or inclement weather could lead to an unfollowable trail. Life is never boring.

  “Good point. I guess I shouldn’t complain. It makes our job that much easier.”

  “Yep.” Saul had finished eating, so she wiped down his bowls, tossed the remaining water, and tucked them back into her pack. “How are things going?”

  “Nothing catastrophic happened while you were gone. We got a few more requests for searches—the springtime surge is in full effect—and Isaac offered us a job. Again.”

  Isaac Bamford being the sheriff of their small town, Stillwater. Lei smiled despite the absurdity of it. “He does realize that cadaver dogs aren’t very useful in a town where the last murder was fifty years ago, right?”

  It was glaringly clear to anyone with eyes that Isaac cared less about having Lei and Emma on staff and more about spending time around Emma. He’d held a flame for her for years, ever since she and Lei bought the house. The only person in Stillwater who didn’t know that was Emma herself.

  “He’s persistent. I’ll give him that.”

  “That he is.” Though if he’d just ask Emma out, they could be done with all the nonsense of him offering them a job. Again. They were independent contractors for a reason. It gave them the freedom to do the most good possible—and to turn down jobs that didn’t measure up. They had an excellent system. Lei and Saul traveled, while Emma worked remotely using her technical skills to do everything from finagle grids to researching to hacking—though that last skill was one they left off their résumé.

  They were a good team. One of the best.

  “When will you be home?” Emma’s question snapped her out of her musing.

  “I’m leaving right now. Two and a half, maybe three hours.” She glanced at Saul and held her phone out. “Saul, say hello to Prince.” Saul barked, and almost instantly a tinny bark responded. Lei originally got the Golden Retriever to act as backup to Saul, but he’d bonded with Emma instantly. He had basic training for simple searches, but in practice he functioned more as a therapy dog. Lei was just grateful her friend had bonded with something not connected to the trauma they’d survived. Someone beyond me. Dogs were better than people most of the time anyway.

  “Prince is missing Saul. Drive safe.”

  “I will.”

  “I’ll keep the light on.”

  “You always do.”

  That was the other reason she couldn’t stay out overnight. Lei had done it before—and would again—and both she and Emma had survived just fine, but neither of them had handled it well. After hours of sleeping like shit, she would come home and find Emma curled up with Prince on the couch by the front door. Waiting to see for
herself that Lei was alive and well.

  A shrink would have a field day with their friendship. Lei’s parents had thrown the best therapists in the country at her—and at Emma by association—in the years since the Sorority Row Murders. It never failed to disappoint them when psychologist after psychologist failed to fix their damaged daughter. They were happy she’d survived, of course, but every strained phone call reinforced the fact that she’d never be their darling daughter again.

  Even for all that, at least they tried.

  They were a far cry better than Emma’s parents, though that wasn’t saying much.

  She put her broken pieces back together in a way they didn’t recognize—couldn’t recognize, because then they’d have to face the depth of the terror she’d lived through. Easier for everyone if they kept their distance, aside from the expected monthly phone calls.

  That monster . . . No. She was stronger than that. Refusing to name him gave him power and turned him into a bogeyman. Hadn’t Lei learned that through watching Emma over the years?

  Travis Berkley. The Sorority Row killer.

  Even if Lei and Emma had technically survived that night, Travis had killed the innocent girls they’d been in the same way he’d cut down twenty-one of their sorority sisters.

  And Lei was the one who’d unwittingly given him access to the house.

  Saul nudged her leg, a clear sign to get her ass in gear and stop wallowing in guilt over something that happened more than a decade ago. For all her claims about being as well adjusted as someone who’d gone through that level of trauma could be, and her lack of fear in facing the world after she’d seen the worst it could offer, Lei’s life had jumped the rails that night, and she’d never quite reclaimed her path.

  She’d made her peace with that.

  Mostly.

  “Up, Saul.” She waited for him to jump into the truck and then shut the door firmly. It was time to go home.

  Dante Young knew it would be bad the second he saw the officers’ grim expressions. To a man, they were trying to tough it out, but they all looked green around the gills. Seattle might not have the highest crime rates in the country, but it saw its fair share of murders. For something to affect the cops this thoroughly, it was going to be a rough one.