17

Meg paced the confines of her cell. She had come to the realization that there was nothing she could do until her kidnapper came back. Her stomach rumbled. She’d had nothing since the apple and had a feeling she wasn’t going to get anything else. She had no way to track time, no windows to know if it was day or night.

Her mind raced, her fear threatened to boil out of control. She whispered prayers, had long conversations with God while she paced. She made deals. If he got her out of here, she’d never disobey her parents again. If God—

The door slammed open.

Meg whirled and let out a cry as her mother stumbled into the cell.

Colton raced to Dominic, who stood questioning one of the other patrons. “Never mind, I know who’s got them. I know where they are.”

“Who? Where?” He waved Hunter over and Colton told them what he’d discovered.

Excitement pumped adrenaline through him. “Let’s go.”

“We need to get a team together. There’s no telling if she has weapons or someone helping her.”

“She killed her help, remember?” Colton snapped. He headed for the door. “I’m going to find my family.”

“We all want to find them, but we need to be smart about it,” Dominic fired back. “You go off all hotheaded and without a plan and your family could wind up dead.”

Colton stopped. The words were harsh. But true. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fine. What do you have in mind?”

Jillian ripped the blindfold from her eyes and spun to stop the door from closing, but the woman was faster. She brought the barrel of the weapon down on the side of Jillian’s face.

Pain radiated through her skull. Meg screamed. The door slammed,

It hadn’t been a hard hit, just enough to distract her and keep her from escaping. But it hadn’t stopped her from seeing who her kidnapper was.

“Carmen?” she said, momentarily stunned. And then she pulled her daughter into her arms, shoving aside the pain and confusion for the moment. She focused on her child. “Are you okay?”

“Oh Mom, I’ve never been so scared in my life. Not even seven years ago.”

Meg clung to her and Jillian inhaled her daughter’s smell. Sweat and fear emanated from her and Jillian relished it. She was alive. Her baby was still breathing, still in one piece. She gave her one last hard squeeze, then set a protesting, clinging Meg from her. “We have to think. We have to find a way out and we need to find it fast.”

Tears trailed from Meg’s eyes. “I’ve looked. Trust me on that one. There’s no way out. And there’s a camera. She’s watching everything we do.”

But Jillian had to find out for herself. Thirty minutes later, she slumped to the floor in defeat. Despair gripped her. If there was a way to escape, she couldn’t find it.

Meg sniffled and sank next to her. Jillian wrapped her arms around Meg and held on tight.

“What do we do now, Mom?”

Jillian sighed. “We pray, honey. We pray.” She paused. “And come up with a plan.”

“What kind of plan.”

“You said she can see us?”

“Yes.”

Jillian had the vague idea of what might work. She pulled Meg closer. “Look defeated,” she whispered in her daughter’s ear. “Look like we have no hope and are scared to death.”

Meg gave a soft snort. “I can do that easy. Then what?”

Returning footsteps brought their heads up. “I haven’t gotten that far yet. Now we wing it.”