Girl in Trouble (Alex Mercer Thriller, #1)

by Stacy Claflin

“Mimi! Papi! Dad is here!” Ariana called her grandparents ‘Mimi and Papi’ and she called Zoey and Alex ‘Mom and Dad.’ It was how she’d always differentiated her adoptive parents from her birth parents.

Their gazes locked.

Only for her. Alex took a deep breath and bent down. He tried to bite into an apple without getting his face wet, but it didn’t work. He tried again, just as unsuccessfully. The story of his life.

Her heart sank and crashed onto the floor.

“Well, we still have your favorite coat,” he said. “I don’t see how going out back for just a little bit will hurt anything. You’re probably itching to run around, aren’t you?”

“Come to the vigil. For Ari.” His sister knew how to hit where it hurt.

Ariana stared, jaw dropped, at the open door in front of her.

“Macy was in an accident.”

His name was blacked out, but hers wasn’t: Janet Vassman.

“Have you forgotten the first bad Halloween?”