30. Cole Armstrong
29. Richmond Summit
28. Stewart Lausanne
27. Victor Glasgow
26. Prescott Bowser
25. Michael Klondike
A job this size would take money to get up and running, and that’s where he came in. His family had made a fortune in candy, but he saw himself as something else, something tougher, even if no one else did. But maybe now they would.
24. Morris Rutz
23. Terry Bank
22. Clinton Temple
21. Ferguson Pasteur
Whatever you wanted — a fake ID, a place to move a bundle of copper wire, maybe a card game at 3 a.m. — he was your guy. He never graduated high school, but with his wire-rim glasses and the tweed blazer he wore even in the middle of the summer, he had a professorial air that made people think he was smarter than he was, and, for whatever reason, more trustworthy.
20. Matilda Ross
19. Garrett Fuqua
18. Davis Jester
17. Homer McCommas
The first few days in prison are different, a new experience every day, a new danger lurking around a new corner. But every one after that is the same. Same goes with every trip back — nothing changes, even if it’s a different cage with different birds.
16. Evangeline Easton
15, Hubert Hoskins
14. Jade Lambert
The entire time she danced, everyone thought her name was a fake. Customers would beg to know who she really was, maybe Molly or Holly or Polly, and they’d get ticked when she’d smile and say, “Jade.” Oh, well, she’d think. Some guys, the sweetest ones, she’d give them what they wanted to hear, just so they’d feel a little special — and tip more, of course. She wasn’t as cynical as the other girls, but it was still a business.
13. Shiloh Lockhart
12. Willis Worcola
11. Lou Ann Motley
10. Anita Concho
9. Samuell Cinnabar
8. Arturo Lakeland
He cut their grass and trimmed their hedges and whatever else, all the while keeping his eyes and ears open. Everyone assumed he didn’t speak English and he did nothing to dissuade them. People would say anything around him, especially the richest ones, because he was only the help. He wasn’t sure yet what exactly to do with the secrets he’d gathered like leaves in the fall, but he was getting a few ideas.
7. Jupiter Sinclair
6. Delmar Ravendale
5. Norris St. Albans
4. Joaquin Mayhew
3. Sandra Lynn Antilles
Does she have a past? Sure. We all do. You can run from it, but you can’t erase it. But that’s just what it was — the past. She was trying to do it right this time. And then he came back. He always did.
2. Wyatt Rockcraft
1. Knox Henderson
