Pray for Death (A Gunn Brothers Thriller)
CONTENTS
Cover
Available from James Hilton and Titan Books
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
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Acknowledgements
About the Author
Available from James Hilton and Titan Books
Search and Destroy
Fight or Die
Pray for Death
Pray for Death
Print edition ISBN: 9781783294909
E-book edition ISBN: 9781783294916
Published by Titan Books
A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd
144 Southwark Street, London SE1 0UP
First edition: October 2018
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Names, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead (except for satirical purposes), is entirely coincidental.
© 2018 James Hilton. All Rights Reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
This one is for my Wendy, as always
1
She passed him by without so much as a second glance.
Stuck-up bitch.
The corners of Frank Bradshaw’s mouth twitched into a smile of cruel anticipation. He had been watching Chrissie Haims for weeks, each day moving closer to this point. It was inevitable. She was his.
He had tried to be nice.
Yet where had that got him?
Nowhere.
She’d flashed him the briefest of smiles two days earlier as he held open the door to Starbucks, her face showing not the faintest glimmer of recognition. She had not even paused for a second in the flow of conversation, cell phone nestled on her shoulder. A slight nod of her head as she hurried past him, leaving the coffee shop with an extra-large skinny latte. She bought the same coffee from the same shop every day on her way to work. Walked the same route. Caught the same bus home. She never noticed him. But he noticed her, oh yes, and then some.
Chrissie Haims was beautiful—her skin the colour of milky coffee, her face a perfect oval, her body toned and tight from the hours of Pilates she taught at the gym. Frank was sure the skintight exercise suits she wore in the classes were for his benefit alone.
She knew exactly what she was doing. Teasing him, taunting him.
Look at what I’ve got…
You want it, don’t you?
Don’t you?
“Yes!” Frank’s voice was barely above a dry whisper.
She lived in a modest single-storey clapperboard house, just three blocks over from Frank’s own Coral Gables home. An easy journey. He had followed her home several times, always just out of the line of her haughty gaze. He’d watched her through the windows as she pottered around her house. The clothes she wore indoors were a stark contrast to her teasing Lycra bodysuits. Big and baggy sweats, shapeless and dull. Further proof to Frank that the revealing gym gear was all for show.
Look at me, I’m perfect. Too good for the likes of you!
Did she even know he existed?
Yes, she knew. She teased him, thrusting and gyrating her ass at him through the plate-glass windows of the gym every day. Frank knew exactly what she was doing. He knew exactly why she was doing it.
“You can look but you can’t touch.” Frank startled himself by voicing his thoughts out loud. A nervous giggle escaped his throat. He pulled his backpack open, slow and smooth. “But today I will touch.”
A shape moved past one of the side windows. There she was. Mooching around the apartment.
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