Friday, June 7, 2019

Do No Harm: Viable Hostage by @audreyjcole

The purr of the yacht’s idling engines was the only noise on the calm midnight water of Puget Sound. Until the garbage bag filled with Gretchen’s chopped-up body splashed into the sea. 
The man returned to the helm of the fifty-foot motor cruiser. He thrust the throttles forward. The vessel vibrated under his feet as the five-hundred-horsepower dual engines roared to life. He cruised forward before making a wide turn back to the city, careful not to run over the bag full of Gretchen’s remains as they sank to the bottom. 
He had two more bags to dump but thought it best not to sink them all in the same spot.
He sped past the southern tip of Bainbridge Island and veered right toward Elliott Bay. There were faint lights in the distance from the large waterfront estates that bordered the densely wooded island. It would’ve been a tranquil scene if it weren’t for Gretchen’s dismembered corpse that filled the remaining trash bags on board. 
When his depth finder reached five hundred feet, he threw the boat into neutral. He hurried to the stern where two large black garbage bags rested against the side of the vessel. 
He grimaced slightly as he lifted the heavy bag over the edge. Another splash. He looked over the side and waited a moment for it to sink before returning to the helm. 
It wasn’t Gretchen’s death that bothered him. He couldn’t believe it had gone so wrong. After all that planning. All that work. For nothing
Gretchen had been the perfect subject. No one even missed her after she disappeared. He’d already been making plans for this kind of research before he’d learned of Gretchen’s unwanted pregnancy from a one-night stand. 
He had everything in place by the time her fetus got close to viability. Gretchen’s kidnapping had gone to a T. His research was about to begin. Until he screwed everything up. 

Excerpt from Viable Hostage by Audrey J. Cole


No Longer Available
Do No Harm

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