No Way Back
The heart-stopping new novel from the co-author of five No. 1 James Patterson bestsellers including Judge and Jury and Lifeguard, and the hit thrillers The Blue Zone and Reckless.A chance encounter with a stranger in a New York hotel ends in a shooting. Wendy Gould was an average mother – now she’s the sole witness to the murder she’s being framed for.YOU CAN RUNWhat she saw makes Wendy the top target for a deadly network of powerful men. They want her silence. They will take no prisoners. How can she clear her name?YOU CAN HIDELauritzia Velez is a suburban nanny with a tragic past – and a terrifying future. After another attempt on her life, she once again leaves everything she loves behind to go on the run.THERE IS NO WAY BACKBoth women know too much – except how to escape from this nightmare alive. To survive, they must find each other fast, or there will be no way back…
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ANDREW GROSS
No Way Back
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Harper
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First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2013
Copyright © Andrew Gross 2013
Andrew Gross asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2013
Cover photographs © Silas Manhood
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780007489572
Ebook Edition © APRIL 2013 ISBN: 9780007489589
Version: 2016-09-20
Table of Contents
If a body is just a body, who will step forward to ask whysomeone is killed and who killed them? If a body hasno name or no history, then who will demand justice?
—A grieving mother of a victim
of Mexico’s drug wars
The trip had been Sam’s idea.
A five-day R and R down in Mexico over spring break. Only a twenty-hour-drive away. Ned’s dad had brought up all the trouble they were having down there, but then things seemed to have quieted down recently. Anyway, where they were going, Aguazula, was just a sleepy town along the coast with not much more than a beach, a thatched-roof cantina, and maybe a little blow-away weed. Sam’s buddy George lived there, teaching English. He said it was paradise.
Aguazula.
Blue waters.
At the last minute, Ned’s girlfriend, Ana, decided to come along, lured by the promise of some first-rate photo ops for her photography project. The three of them were seniors at the University of Denver. And it would probably be the last real fun they’d have, at least for a long time, since they were all graduating in a couple of months and then it was out into the world. The only things he’d have on his résumé: two years of lacrosse, a 3.2 GPA, and a business degree. If there would even be a job out there by the time he graduated. The last two summers Sam had interned back east at this boutique fixed-income shop. But now even Wall Street wasn’t hiring anymore, and in truth, Sam wasn’t even sure finance was his thing. He really didn’t know what he wanted to do. Other than, right now, a swan dive off a rocky ledge into a grotto of warm, blue water.
Ned was sleeping in the passenger seat of the Acura SUV, having driven most of the night once they hit New Mexico, all the way to the Mexican border. Culiacán was only ten minutes ahead, according to the AAA map they had. Aguazula was still a three-hour-drive away.
Paradise.
In the hazy light, Sam saw a car coming up from behind him. Once dawn had broken, Sunday morning, he had begun to enjoy the drive, drinking in the amazing countryside. He’d never been in rural Mexico before. Flat stone houses hugging the hills; farmers with goats and chickens along the side of the road. Spindly jacaranda trees. He’d been to Cabo once, with the family. But that was just about fancy resorts with PGA golf courses and deep-sea fishing. And he’d also been to Cancún once, on spring break, but that was such a party freak show, they hardly left the hotel. This was the real thing. An old woman sat behind a stand on the roadside selling melons and dried chiles. Sam waved to her as they passed by.
