Get smart, Avery. Play along. Give him what he wants.

There was always a chance. Always.

"Yes," she whispered, voice quaking. "I remember."

"How did we come to this?" he whispered. "You left me. Why?"

"I was young. Stupid." She looked up at him in what she hoped he would take as adoration. "I didn't

know how strong you were. I didn't see your power."

His mouth thinned in fury. "Don't bullshit me. You left. You fucked my brother. You-"

"I'm not!" she cried, cutting him off, trying another tack, using his own words against him. "I see it now, I understand why I left. I thought you were like...that you were going to be like your dad. I love him but he's not...not strong like you."

Matt stilled. His gaze bored into hers. She pressed on. "You were so brilliant. You sailed through school. Your SAT scores were perfect and yet...you chose to stay in Cypress Springs and go into law enforcement. Like your dad. You see why I thought that, Matt?"

He studied her a moment more, then inclined his head in agreement. "I needed to lead. I had a mission."

"I understand that now."

"Dad's weak. He's been a disappointment."

"Unwilling to do what's necessary," she said, making a guess.

"Exactly." He looked at her as if he was the proud parent, she his gifted child. "Too often, his emotions

rule. His heart."

He shook his head sadly. "A leader can't be swayed by emotion. A leader must always keep his focus on the big picture."

"The cause. In this case, the good of the community."

"Yes." Matt searched her gaze. "Dad was the leader of the original Seven. Did you know that?"

She shook her head.

"He proved too weak to lead. He bowed to pressure from others in the group. Mostly your father."

"My dad?" She struggled to inject just the right amount of surprise and disappointment into her tone.

"Oh yeah, your dad. The great Dr. Phillip Chauvin." Dislike dripped from each word. "He threatened to

go to the Feds. They had crossed the line, he'd claimed."

Matt leaned closer. "There is no line when it comes to war. Do you understand, Avery? Life and death.

Black or white. Win or lose."

"No compromise."

"Exactly." He trailed a finger tenderly over the curve of her cheek. "Some are sacrificed for the good of

the many. Individual rights lost...but quality of life maintained."

"My father wouldn't go along with that?"

"A do-gooder pussy. He nearly ruined it for everyone."

She bit down on her lip to keep from defending her father. From cheering him aloud.

"Tonight, did Buddy tell you everything? About that night, about Sallie Waguespack?" He answered his

own question. "Of course he didn't. He wouldn't."

Matt laughed. "That night, Hunter and I had fought about that new kid, Mike Horn. Remember him? His dad was the plant manager over at the canning factory."

He didn't wait for her reply but went on. "I didn't like the way Mike was acting, like he owned the place. Like he was going to take my place. I figured we should give him a little lesson in humility, me, Hunter and a couple of the other guys. Hunter refused to back me up. Told me he liked Mike. And that what I wanted to do was wrong."

Mart's face twisted. "He'd been pulling that shit a lot that summer, refusing to go with the program. I called him on that. And on his feelings for you. He wanted to fuck you. I saw that, too. Everybody saw it. I accused him of doing it. We came to blows," he finished simply, "and he left the house. Went over to Karl's."

"Karl Wright's?"

"Yes. I couldn't sleep. I heard the front door. I thought Hunter had changed his mind, come home to apologize."

"But it wasn't Hunter?"

"No. It was Mother. She was sobbing, hysterical. Covered with blood. It was splattered on her hands and face. Her clothes."

"At first I panicked. I thought she was hurt. Then I realized what she was saying. She had killed someone. Dad's girlfriend. His lover. It was an accident, she didn't know what to do."

Avery pictured the scenario. Lilah covered with blood, hysterical. Matt sixteen and terrified. Reeling with all his mother was telling him.

"I didn't either. Dad was out. I didn't know for sure where. I couldn't call the department. So I went.

"It was just as Mom had said. With one exception-the woman wasn't dead. She must have lost consciousness. By the trail of blood, I saw that sometime between when Mom left and I arrived, she had tried to pull herself to the door. She didn't make it, she couldn't pull herself up to get it open.

"At first I meant to help her. To convince her to be quiet, not to tell anyone about the affair or about Mom.

"She laughed at us," Matt continued. "She laughed at me. How was I going to like seeing his father's bastard take his place in their home? Seeing all of them made a laughingstock. She called me stupid, Avery. Me. Can you imagine that? And the whole time she's bleeding all over the place. Struggling not to pass out." He made a sound of disgust. "Like she's the one in charge.

"She wouldn't shut up," he went on. "I begged her to. I was crying. She laughed at me...the things she said were so ugly. So...vile.

"So I shut her up. I put my hands over her nose and mouth and pressed and pressed until she didn't say anything anymore."

Avery shuddered, recalling her image of earlier, of Matt choking the life out of her.

"It felt good," he murmured, a small smile tipping the corners of his mouth. "I felt powerful. Unbeatable."

He leaned toward her. "Power, Avery. My hands. I always knew I was special. I saw things, understood

things others didn't. Things regular people couldn't. As I watched her die, I knew that I was meant to

lead. That I had the power over life and death."

Avery stared at him, mouth dry, heart hammering. Horrified. That summer...they had been together back then. They had seen each other every day-had been physically intimate. She had considered spending her life with him.

She would have sworn she knew everything about him.

She hadn 't known him at all.

She found her voice. It shook. "So my dad knew you-"

"Killed her? No." He shook his head. "Dad found me there. He promised to protect me. To take care of

everything. Told me to get out of there, to keep it to myself."

"He never told anyone, did he? Not even Lilah."

He grinned. She found something about the way his lips stretched over his teeth more terrifying than if he

had growled. "He was going to save me. That's a hoot, isn't it? He was going to save

me ? But over the years he has served his purpose. In a limited way, he shared my vision."

In a lightning-quick change of mood, his eyes filled with tears. "We could have been a family," he said.

"We could have had children together, grown old together."

The thought that she had imagined that very thing, not long ago, made her ill. She hid her true feelings as

best she could. "It's not too late, Matt. Let me go. I won't make any trouble, we can be together."

He looked away, then back. "I'm really sorry, Avery. I didn't want this to happen. None of it. But in a conflict one must sacrifice individual wants and needs for the good of the many."

She caught her breath at his meaning. "It's not too late, I can change. I see now. I understand what you're

fighting for."

He bent and pressed his mouth to hers in a hard kiss. One that smacked of finality. "It's not about me, Avery. Not about what I feel or what I want. The generals have called for action. They've voted."

"But you're their leader. They'll do what you-"

"I can't take my eyes off the big picture." He cradled her face in his palms. "No matter how much I want to."

"What are you going to do to me? Kill me? The way you killed Elaine St. Claire and Trudy Pruitt?" Her