"I'm as good as it gets," he continued relentlessly.

"Without me, Mandy, you'll be lost."

"I know, I know."

"Your own father left you. Now I'm doing the same. The weekend visits will stop, then the phone calls. And then it will just be you, Mandy, all alone night after night after night."

She shook her head as if to block out his words. She ended up nodding instead.

Salt on her cheeks, champagne on her lips.

So alone.

"Face it, Mandy," he said gently.

"You're not good enough to keep a man. You're nothing but a drunk.

Christ, woman, I'm breaking up with you, and all you can do is think about that third bottle of champagne. And that's the truth, isn't it?

Isn't if?"

She sobbed harder. She had no answer, and the darkness was closing in on her.

"Mandy," he whispered.

"Speed up."

Fill me up. Make me whole.

So alone ... "You hurt, Mandy. I know you hurt. But I'll help you, baby. Speed up."

Salt on her cheeks. Champagne on her lips.

Her foot settling on the gas .. .

"One little press of the accelerator, and you'll never be lonely again.

You'll never have to miss me."

Her foot .. . the approaching curve in the road .. . I'm tired.

"Come on Mandy. Speed up."

Oh G.o.d .. . No!

At the last minute, she saw him. A man on the narrowshoulder of the country road. Walking his dog, startled to see a vehicle at this time, then even more surprised to have it bearing down on him.

Turn! Turn! Must turn!

Amanda Jane Quincy jerked frantically at the wheel.

And the SUV remained pointed straight ahead. Her lover still gripped the wheel, and he held it tight.

Time suspended. Mandy looked up without comprehension at the face she had grown to love. She saw the rushing dark through the window behind him. She saw the seat belt strapped tight across his strong, broad chest.

And she heard him say, "Bye-bye, Mandy. When you get to h.e.l.l, be sure to give your father my regards."

The Explorer hit the man. Thump, b.u.mp. A short-circuited cry. The vehicle plowed ahead. And just as she was thinking it would be okay, she was still in one piece, they were still in one piece, the telephone pole reared out of the shadows.

Mandy never had time to scream. The Explorer hit the telephone pole at thirty-five mph. The airbags didn't inflate. Her unsecured body vaulted from the driver's seat into the top of the windshield and her skull drove straight into the metal frame.

The man had no such problems. The seatbelt caught his chest, pushing him back into his seat even as the front end of the Explorer collapsed.

He felt his neck snap forward. His internal organs rushed up in his chest and momentarily cut off his air. He gasped, blinked his eyes, and seconds later, the pressure was gone. The SUV settled in. He settled in. He was fine.

He unfastened his seat belt with his bare hands. He had done his homework and he wasn't worried about prints. Nor was he concerned about time. A rural road in the early hours of dawn. It would be ten, twenty, thirty minutes before someone happened by.

He inspected beautiful, s.e.xy Mandy. She still had a faint pulse, but she was now missing most of the top of her head. Even though her body

was putting up a last-ditch fight, her brain would never recover.A year and a half of planning later, he was satisfied. Amanda Jane Quincy had died scared, died confused, died heartbroken.

He and Pierce Quincy were still not even, the man thought, but it was a start.