Quotes from Meg Gardiner

Was it hard to watch people go? No. Breathing afterward, every day, was harder.

Running cured almost anything. It eased pain; it exhilarated; it served as penance and validation. It turned lone wolf into a compliment. Running was objective – the stop-watch never lied. Races judged competitors on how long and hard they could run fast, not on a coach's decision to play favorites with the starting lineup. Running was pure.

I've been an investigator longer than you've been playing Vulcan Mind Meld with dead people - Tang

But fate was a myth constructed by fools—people who gamble or follow horoscopes, who believe the stars rule their lives.

Fight or flight. when you have to jump, do it.

God save us from people who think they know what's best for us.

But Keyes had told her what he thought of PhDs who demanded to be addressed as Doctor: they were hopeless narcissists

The hills of southern Oklahoma slow-rolled across the winter-gold prairie, dipping to rivers and creeks, thick with leafless trees. The road curved through farmland and past a Chickasaw resort and casino.

They pulled off a twisting country road and bumped along a rutted gravel driveway. Rocky promontories barred their view until they topped a rise and found a half-are property where the cabin faced south, toward the red clay river that lazed across the horizon.

Intimidation was a drug. But control was an illusion.

The thing was, Zero liked breaking things. He saw no reason why the world should be allowed to stay hole.

IK." When they didn't respond, she expanded. "On my profile? IK. Impact kink." She looked at them like they were naive. "Slapping, scratching, biting, hitting with a crop. Tamakeri if the guy asks. You know—the Japanese fetish? For getting kicked in the balls?

Woman," Michele said. "You look like you're calling from a cave. Tell me Texas hasn't retreated to the dark ages." "It's ahead of California, if you ask the sun, and everybody in the state," Caitlin said.

She didn't want to wait. Didn't want caution, or care, or tender exploration. She needed touch, sensation, raw blank sex to overwhelm her circuits. She held on to him, and they were all arms and elbows and grasping hands...She didn't want to talk-to talk would be to break the spell, the new thing that was happening, herself coming back into the world, with another damaged person as her guide.

But she also saddened easily, and hungered for clarity, security, and purpose.

Winchester 30.06 shotgun

The chill of the rain disappeared. The rain itself seemed to evaporate. The fatigue vanished. The night. Everything distilled to the brilliant pulsing bead of glass pain she herself had given rise to. She felt exhilaration and relief. She felt soothed and punished. She felt control.

You were young," Rainey said. "Of course you expected to escape. That kind of luck can convince you you're immortal." Caitlin touched her right arm, where the tattoo read, the whole sky. Rainey didn't know about its meaning to her. It was a line from Rita Dove's poem "Dawn Revisited." The whole sky is yours to write on, blown open

Grief wasn't a feeling. It was a thing that visited. It was a weight, a lead wall, and it pressed on her lungs and settled a shadow across her mind, until the only way she could inhale was through a gasp of anger.

He was beautiful, and careful, and had a smile that could make the devil spit with envy.

The Christmas tree was a dark pyramid in the living room corner. Presents hid beneath it, wrapping paper quicksilver in the moonlight. He absorbed the stillness. An electric hiss seemed to saturate the air.

Coming, baby,' Shana murmured. She tossed back the covers, brushed her sleep-tangled hair from her face, and slogged out of the bedroom. The hardwood floor creaked beneath her bare feet. Jaydee's cries grew clearer.

She felt a pang, a deep wish for the bay, the soaring towers of the bridge, the sunlight skipping across ten thousand whitecaps between the Golden Gate and Alcatraz. She wanted the scent of the Pacific and the beauty of the cities and the mountains, and her man. She closed her eyes. She opened them and felt small, surrounded by the sweep of the continent. The sky was vast. It was glorious and terrifying.

Did you join the Bureau to get as far from that case as possible?' Rainey said. 'I took this job to make a difference.' 'Honey.' The tries rang on the concrete. 'Course you did. We all did. You can say you love it. You're scared of it. You're proud. You're a badass bitch. Girl Scout with a twelve gauge. Reading psychopaths' minds is your superpower.' She cut a glance Caitlin's way. 'you can dig it.