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  It didn’t matter what I wanted. What mattered was protecting the people I loved from the curse that I was.

  Chapter 119

  SYDNEY DOGS AND Cats Home was on a quiet suburban street lined with pretty little houses with neat yards. I followed Pops and his trio of small, fluffy dogs up the stairs and into the foyer, which was crowded with people. Three families were standing in the little space between the high counter and the wall covered in posters and photographs, huddled together, faces lit with anticipation as my friend and his brood of hounds arrived. I stood in the corner and watched as an Asian family with two excited little boys, a young couple, and an older couple with their adult daughter took their dog from Pops, signed their paperwork, and carried their hairy bundle off, cooing and laughing with joy.

  When it was all done Pops went to the counter and a group of three women stood chatting with him as he signed the paperwork reporting on the foster experience with the dogs he’d just seen adopted.

  “Is this your daughter?” one of the ladies asked, spying me standing by with my hands in my pockets. Pops didn’t lift his eyes from the paper.

  “She’s not far off,” he said.

  “Can we tempt you into becoming one of our kitten foster mums?” one of them asked me. She took a small black kitten from the floor beneath the counter. “We’re overrun at the moment.”

  “I would,” I said. “But I’m technically homeless.”

  The women didn’t know whether to laugh at that or not. Pops finished up his forms and spread his big, hard hands on the counter.

  “All right, ladies,” he said with a resigned sigh. “What have you got for me this time? Let me guess. A toy poodle in a little pink tutu.”

  “Actually, we’ve got something a little different for you today,” one of them said. They were trying to keep straight faces, but I spied the lady at the back cracking a big grin as she walked off toward an office at the rear of the room. Someone handed Pops a key. “She’s in row three, enclosure twenty-one.”

  There was furious barking as we entered the yard. Dogs of all shapes and colors and sizes were housed in separate enclosures, watching us as we entered, pawing at the gates and turning excited laps. Volunteers were hosing out empty enclosures and filling buckets with dog food. On every cage a laminated card gave the dog’s name and a little slogan about their temperament. Boston—I’m a rambunctious boy! Miffy—I’m a little nervous but full of love! Damon—I like naps on the couch! Pops directed me to the third aisle and I followed, watching the dogs as I went.

  “They think they’re funny, those girls,” Pops said as we turned down the aisle. “You watch. It’ll be a pack of Chihuahua puppies wearing onesies.”

  Pops looked into enclosure twenty-one before I did. He stiffened, and smacked a hand against his heart.

  I looked in and saw a glossy Doberman staring at us, sitting at attention with her paws perfectly aligned on the damp concrete and her eyes big and attentive. The dog examined us with an almost human air of dignity, like a princess looking over the crowd huddled in the rain outside her palace, aloof yet curious. The laminated card zip-tied to her cage said Antoinette—I’m pretty and I know it!

  “Oh,” Pops said, his hand still on his chest. He looked over Antoinette the way some men look at sports cars. “Oh wow. Wow. Wow. She’s so…She’s so…”

  “Beautiful?” I chipped in.

  “Glamorous!” he corrected.

  Pops led Antoinette from her cage with a proud, straight-backed gait. I followed. The dog was playing it cool up front.

  But in the back, her little stumpy tail was wagging.

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  About the Authors

  James Patterson is the world’s bestselling author and most trusted storyteller. He has created many enduring fictional characters and series, including Alex Cross, the Women’s Murder Club, Michael Bennett, Maximum Ride, Middle School, and I Funny. Among his notable literary collaborations are The President Is Missing, with President Bill Clinton, and the Max Einstein series, produced in partnership with the Albert Einstein Estate. Patterson’s writing career is characterized by a single mission: to prove that there is no such thing as a person who “doesn’t like to read,” only people who haven’t found the right book. He’s given over three million books to schoolkids and the military, donated more than seventy million dollars to support education, and endowed over five thousand college scholarships for teachers. For his prodigious imagination and championship of literacy in America, Patterson was awarded the 2019 National Humanities Medal.The National Book Foundation presented him with the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community, and he is also the recipient of an Edgar Award and nine Emmy Awards. He lives in Florida with his family.

  Candice Fox is the coauthor of the New York Times and Sunday Times number one bestseller Never Never, the first novel in the Detective Harriet Blue series, which was followed by Fifty Fifty and Liar Liar. She won back-to-back Ned Kelly Awards for her first two novels, Hades and Eden, and is also the author of the critically acclaimed Fall, Crimson Lake, and Redemption Point. She lives in Sydney, Australia.

  NEVER NEVER

  Alex Cross. Michael Bennett. Jack Morgan. They are among my greatest characters. Now I’m proud to present my newest detective—a tough woman who can hunt down any man on a hardscrabble continent half a world away. Meet Detective Harriet Blue of the Sydney Police Department.

  Harry is her department’s top Sex Crimes investigator. But she never thought she’d see her own brother arrested for the grisly murders of three beautiful young women. Shocked and in denial, Harry transfers to a makeshift town in a desolate area to avoid the media circus. Looking into a seemingly simple missing-persons case, Harry is assigned a new “partner.” But is he actually meant to be a watchdog?

  Far from the world she knows and desperate to clear her brother’s name, Harry has to mine the dark secrets of her strange new home for answers to a deepening mystery—before she vanishes in a place where no one would ever think to look for her.

  18TH ABDUCTION

  I’ve never put Lindsay Boxer under more pressure than when a trio of colleagues go out one night after class and their innocent fun ends in a deadly torture session. They vanish without a clue—until a body turns up. Now the safety of San Francisco’s entire school system is at stake.

  As the chief of police and the press clamor for an arrest, Lindsay turns to her best friend, investigative journalist Cindy Thomas. Together they discover facts about the victims that leave them stunned. As another woman goes missing, Lindsay and the entire Women’s Murder Club must pull together to protect their city and one another—not from a ghost but from a true monster.

  THE FIRST LADY

  The U.S. government is at the forefront of everyone’s mind these days, and I’ve become incredibly fascinated by the idea that one secret can bring it all down. What if that secret is a U.S. president’s affair that results in a nightmarish outcome?

  Sally Grissom, leader of the Presidential Protection Division, is summoned to a private meeting with the President and his chief of staff to discuss the disappearance of the First Lady. What at first seemed an escape to a safe haven turns into a kidnapping when a ransom note arrives along with what could be the First Lady’s finger.

  It’s a race against the clock to collect the evidence that all leads to one troubling question: Could the kidnappers be from inside the White House?

  THE CORNWALLS VANISH

  There’s nothing more terrifying than coming home and knowing that something is wrong. Army intelligence officer Amy Cornwall experiences that when she finishes a tour filled with haunting sights and walks in the front door to find her home empty. She receives a phone call with very specific instructions. Failure to complete them will mean the death of her husband and ten-year-old daughte
r.

  Now Amy has to defy Army Command and use every lethal skill they’ve taught her to save her family. There’s no boundary that she won’t cross in order to find them, because without her family, she might as well be dead.

  Raves for James Patterson

  “Books not to miss…Patterson and Fox’s Harriet Blue thrillers.”

  —USA Today

  “James Patterson and Candice Fox combine to produce thrillers.”

  —Sydney Morning Herald

  “The Detective Harriet Blue series is…wildly addictive…fast-paced, action-packed, tightly plotted, and bursting with crazy, explosive charm.”

  —Booktopia

  “When it comes to constructing a harrowing plot, author James Patterson can turn a screw all right.”

  —New York Daily News

  “James Patterson knows how to sell thrills and suspense in clear, unwavering prose.”

  —People

  “Patterson has mastered the art of writing page-turning bestsellers.”

  —Chicago Sun-Times

  “Patterson knows where our deepest fears are buried…There’s no stopping his imagination.”

  —New York Times Book Review

  “James Patterson writes his thrillers as if he were building roller coasters. He grounds the stories with a bare-bones plot, then builds them over the top and tries to throw readers for a loop a few times along the way.”

  —Associated Press

  ALSO BY JAMES PATTERSON

  THE DETECTIVE HARRIET BLUE SERIES

  Never Never (with Candice Fox)

  Fifty Fifty (with Candice Fox)

  Liar Liar (with Candice Fox)

  For a complete list of books, visit JamesPatterson.com.