Silence: The Faces of Evil Christmas Prequel Read Online Free

mused.
    Lil’s voice dragged her attention back to the phone. “You need what?” Her weary shoulders sagged as her sister lamented the fact that she’d forgotten to pick up carrots for Santa’s reindeer.
    For Pete’s sake. How old were kids these days before they figured out Santa was just leverage their parents used to make them behave. She heaved a sigh. Oh well, it was Christmas. She should be thankful her sister wasn’t ranting at her for holding up dinner.
    “No problem. I’ll get carrots for Rudolph and Dasher and the rest. Be there in a few.” Jess shoved her phone into her purse and took a long look around the store without moving from her spot in the ever-shortening line.
    Where the heck was the produce department?
    “It’s that way,” the meddlesome lady in front of her said.
    Jess forced a happy holidays smile. “Thank you.”
    Oh well, surely the line would be even shorter five minutes from now. The store was closing. Yeah, right. Hordes of shoppers were hastily maneuvering their carts toward the front of the store.
    At the produce section, she surveyed the long tables mounded with fruits and vegetables. The cooler displays were arranged with sparkly snowflakes hanging above the apples, oranges, lettuce, tomatoes and... carrots .
    She passed over the generic bags of baby carrots for a bunch of long carrots with the greens still attached.
    “Looks like reindeer food to me.” She added those to her basket.
    “Jess?”
    A shiver, followed immediately by a flash of heat, swept through her. Her heart thumped hard as she turned toward the man who had spoken.
    Dan .
    When her gaze landed on him some part of her psyche surrendered just a little bit to the weight of the past few days, as if just seeing him had pushed the load beyond what she could bear.
    Good sense promptly took a hiatus and her brain immediately went into inventory mode. First of her own unkempt appearance as if she were hovering overhead, staring at her travel worn self. Her slacks were wrinkled from all those hours behind the wheel. The matching black sweater had a speck of mustard on the front from the burger she’d gotten at a drive through just this side of Roanoke. At least her coat covered that unsightly mess. The burn in her cheeks warned her face had just gone bright red.
    More disconcerting than all that combined, she hadn’t bothered with makeup and her hair, which hadn’t seen a brush since sometime after midnight, was in a ponytail.
    She looked like hell.
    He, on the other hand, looked amazing.
    Before her brain could kick back into gear and organize the proper verbal response, he hugged her. Her lungs filled with the scent of him... he smelled like rain... fresh and clean with a hint of that same sexy aftershave he’d worn when they were together.
    He released her. She swayed before she could recapture her equilibrium. “Dan.” She gave a nervous laugh as she glanced around, hoping against hope this was some sort of delusion brought on by the stress she’d come here to escape. “Of all things... running into you here .”
    There had to be a hundred supermarkets in the Birmingham area. What were the odds?
    There was only one possible answer. God was getting back at her for leaving Him behind along with Santa Claus at the ripe old age of ten. Who wanted to believe in anything when your parents suddenly died on you and a foster home became your new address?
    Not Jessie Lee Harris. She hadn’t believed in anything but work since.
    Maybe she hadn’t believed sufficiently in the man staring at her right now to salvage their relationship as it fell apart ten years ago.
    No . He was the one who walked out. He left her .
    As if ten years hadn’t passed, the compulsion to slap his face abruptly expanded inside her. Just as suddenly, the impulse to cry washed it away.
    What in the world had she been thinking coming here?
    It wasn’t bad enough that the preacher’s son waited for her at Lil’s house, she’d just run into