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Prologue

Saturday, April 1, Midnight

Duct tape ure stoked the glowing egling, hoping to get her captor’s attention since she’d started awake … was it an hour ago? Two hours? Down in this cellar prison, time leaked away like the drip, drip of water from an overhead pipe

No aainst the stone floor diverted the shadowy figure’s attention fros in the ancient hearth Twig by twig, her jailer tenderly fed the fla her a moment’s attention In this dank place, she was invisible, of no greater consequence than the three-legged chair leaning in the shadowy corner or the trash bags piled by the rickety staircase

The hard, uneven stone floor dug into her back, cra ho to die

She closed her eyes, the thud of her heartwith the crackle of the fire and the clink of the andiron against the blackened grate cradling the logs Since childhood, she’d been told she didn’t deserve happiness or a full life Bad girl You are a bad girl All her life, she railed against thosewhat she could to not only survive but also to prevail Maybe the dark ht Bad girls always came to a bad end

Despair rose up in her like a black stor her to relent It would be so easy to give in to her predestined fate So easy just to close her eyes and let the darkness slide over her

As she eased toward the mental abyss, ready to surrender to fate, a prie

No! You want to live! You deserve to live!

She opened her eyes and stared at her captor He wasn’t so large He didn’t look so strong Or so evil Perhaps she could wedge a bit of reason under his icy exterior and get him to take pity

Drawing on what little energy remained in her liaze from the fire

God, as he planning? What could he ith her? As hervicious scenarios, fear and panic reignited her struggles

Please, God, get me out of this A thousand proh her mind as she bartered with God

And then a miracle came in the forh the stream of I swears She craned her neck toward the rickety staircase that led to the upper floor Someone had arrived! Her heart pounded faster, harder and her sto

She studied her captor’s posture, searching for a sign Was the upstairs arrival good or bad? Did this creep have some sick friend who’d come to enjoy this party? Or did she have a savior?

His narrow shoulders stiffened and an abrupt jerk of his head toward the door told her that the guest was uninvited

Hope exploded Maybe soured out that she’d been kidnapped

Oh, God Oh, God Please send someone to save me!

She jerked against her bindings and screa her voice beyond the tape

Sunglasses and a hood hid a great deal, but she caught traces of a scraggly beard as he carefully laid down his iron and climbed the stairs to the first floor He unlocked a shiny new padlock on the basement door, opened it and vanished

Her heart thundered in her chest as she strained to listen Above, the ceiling creaked as her jailer crossed the first floor in search of the intruder

Someone, please, save me

Floorboards creaked with light tentative footsteps of the newcomer who moved about the upstairs freely As the seconds passed, the footsteps grewcompany

Be careful! He’s waiting for you!

She screamed until her throat burned, but the duct tape s

The intruderin wait, like a snake ready to strike

And then a loud scream, “Shit!”

A scuffle followed Bodies slaainst walls Glass hit the floor and shattered A subdued groan and soe slaht And then silence

The woht bones would crack as she frantically twisted her hands and stared at the door, hoping for a ainst her bindings, willing the hemp to snap even as it cut into her flesh

Oh, God, save me!

Herinto the base tones that she was now safe They’d ask her what had happened and she’d calmly explain

“The last thing I re at the bar in Moood place to hang out Normal people, like doctors, lawyers and bankers, drink at Moments It’s not the kind of place crazy people visit It’s safe”

She’d be sure to le white wine and had spenttiht routine for over a year

Toward the end of the evening, a guy had settled beside her on a bar stool He’d worn sunglasses, had a neatly trie still man who could hardly be classified as overly masculine Her stepfather would have called him a “Girlie-man” He’d ordered vodka in a quiet raspy voice that had sent a chill whispering down her spine But his drink had arrived and he’d sipped it without fanfare as if content to be alone Ignoring him had been easy

She re someone needed to fix her flat tire The shrill voice knifed through the hum of conversation and soft jazz

Distracted, she had turned to see asso much noise She’d classified the woman as unimportant … soetting the woman even before she’d sed her next sip

And then … then she’d woken up here—a dank, dark basement, tied to the floor

Oh, God, how she desperately wanted to tell that story To be saved

Seconds passed—then minutes and then the steady sound of footsteps Steady Not rushed Cautious like a rescuer or unhurried like a madman? Impossible to tell

And still she hoped What if her savior was just being cautious? He didn’t knoas downstairs He had to be careful so he didn’t get hurt himself

Please hurry

The door at the top of the stairs opened and a silhouetted form appeared Who was there? He descended the steps, carefully and deliberately enerated by the fire

Her captor

No savior

No rescue

Fresh tears welled and strea in her knotted blond hair

As if she were invisible, he passed her, his attention transfixed by the fire He stoked the ely coaxed more life from the flames

Tears ran down her face Look at irl She was froirl didn’t? She’d told a terrible lie years ago, but it had haunted her aliveness She’d donated to an animal shelter at Christmas She went to church at Easter She laid flowers on her stepfather’s grave even though the bastard had never deserved respect Christ, she’d just turned thirty

Good people didn’t die this way

She didn’t deserve this!

Her head slumped back as she tried to block out the panic and focus on what et her out of this horror

Oh, Holy Mother of God, this had to be a nightirls It just didn’t

But the raw skin on her wrists and pain in her spine said otherwise This wasn’t a nightmare

Fear fisted in the wout as she stared at the man Was he the one from the bar who’d sat down beside her? She couldn’t tell, but sensed he had to be the one Who else would do this to her? The one o

“Finding you was easy, you know” His voice sounded like sandpaper rubbing against wood “You didn’t move more than five blocks from your parents’ house”