CARLY WATCHED with wide eyes as Bobby leapt down from the roof of the car and dashed across the street like a madman. He disappeared down one driveway, came back seconds later, and vanished down the next without returning.

Minutes ticked by.

Long, nerve-racking minutes.

Somewhere close, dogs were barking. The sound of it turned Carly’s stomach.

“I don’t like this,” Lupe said, her face pale.

“Me neither.”

“I can’t stand not knowing what’s going on.” Lupe’s eyes glistened. “I’m going to call Randy.” She pulled out her phone and tapped in the numbers, then held it to her ear and waited.

After several seconds she let out a curse in Spanish.

This wasn’t good at all. “I’ll try Bobby,” Carly said, but he didn’t answer, either.

Lupe bit her lip. “We need to call the police.”

“What are we going to say to them? That Bobby was trespassing on someone’s property and never came back?”

“We could report a…how do you say? Disturbance.”

“But then they’d ask for details, and we don’t have any of those.”

“Those dogs were barking. That is a detail.”

Lupe was right, and it bothered Carly. What if there were attack dogs somewhere behind the house? They could have been penned in by an invisible fence.

“Fine,” Carly said. “I’ll make it anonymous.” She did a quick search on her phone for the local dispatch and dialed that number instead of 911, then tried to compose herself while she waited for someone to pick up.

A woman’s voice came on the line. “Cascade County Sheriff’s Dispatch.”

“Um, yeah. I’m calling to report a disturbance on, um…” She held the phone away from her ear. “What street is this?”

“Locust,” Lupe said without hesitation.

“Locust Street in Autumn Ridge,” Carly said to the dispatcher. “At…” She squinted at the fortress of hedges across from her. “Well, I don’t know the house number because there isn’t a mailbox and there’s all these hedges out front, but it’s the third house with hedges on the left.”

“Ma’am, what type of disturbance was there?”

“Tell them we heard screaming,” Lupe whispered. “Like someone was being attacked.”

Carly cringed. Her parents would kill her if they ever caught wind of the fact that she’d fibbed to the police. “Well, there was all this barking, and I think maybe someone was screaming back there, too, like dogs were attacking them.”

“Ma’am, could you please give me your name and number? We’ll need to—”

Carly ended the call before the woman could proceed. “I’m getting in the front,” she said.

Lupe nodded, and they each climbed out of the back of the Nissan. Carly sat in the driver’s seat and Lupe took the seat beside her.

Carly was thankful that Bobby had left his key in the ignition. “You think they went in together,” she said.

“There’s no other reason Randy wouldn’t have answered. He would have climbed over the fence if he heard that Bobby was…” Lupe scrunched her eyes shut and shook her head.

“They’ll be okay,” Carly said, though a hollow feeling inside of her told her she was lying to Lupe and to herself.

Ten more minutes passed. Carly tried calling Bobby three additional times, with no success.

Lupe leaned her head back, closed her eyes, and was praying softly in Spanish.

Just as Carly was thinking that at least the Thane-creature hadn’t yet shown up to complicate things further, an Autumn Ridge police cruiser turned onto Locust Street and slowed to a crawl.

“Lupe, look.”

Lupe shifted and leaned to see out the driver side window. “I hope they don’t try to talk to us.”

As far as Carly could see, the individual driving the cruiser wasn’t even glancing their way. The cruiser paused in front of the place where Bobby disappeared; then swung into the driveway and around the corner of hedges so they could no longer see it.

“Why didn’t he park out front?” Lupe asked.

“Probably so he has easier access to his car if something goes wrong.” Carly gave an inward cringe. “I hope he doesn’t run into any attack dogs.”

She shifted positions and kept her gaze trained on the driveway entrance. She itched so badly to go back there and learn what, if anything, was happening. If only those blasted hedges weren’t in the way!

Ten more minutes came and went with cold indifference. Lupe let out a little gasp. “He’s coming back!”

Sure enough, the police cruiser emerged from the sort-of hedge maze and departed the driveway at a leisurely speed.

No backup had been called. No ambulance. Not even a fire truck, which always seemed to show up at emergency scenes whether one was needed or not.

If Bobby and Randy weren’t injured, why weren’t they picking up the phone?

“That’s it,” Carly said. “I’m walking back there to see what’s going on.”

Lupe gaped at her. “Do you want to be eaten by a dog?”

“For all we know, the dogs were somewhere else and it only sounded like they were back there.”

Lupe’s eyes lit up. “And maybe Randy and Bobby went into someone else’s yard.” Her face fell again. “And got attacked by dogs there.”

“There’s only one way to find out. Let’s go.”

“Wait.” Lupe popped open the glove box and rummaged around in Bobby’s insurance papers and roadmaps.

“What are you doing?”

“Looking to see if he has a gun.”

“If he did, he would have taken it with him.”

Lupe slapped the glove box closed. “I’m an idiot.”

“If you’re an idiot, I’m a moron. Come on.” Completely weaponless, Carly stepped out onto the street, her mind firmly set on the task before her.

“What if something comes after us?” Lupe asked as they crossed over to the opposite sidewalk. She had taken a flashlight from Bobby’s car and gripped it like a club.

“We run like heck back to the car.” And then we pray that Bobby and Randy show up all in one piece.

Carly estimated the paved driveway to be about forty yards long before it turned sharply to the left. The thought that she was making a huge mistake intensified with each footfall, but she refused to turn back until she’d learned something or was chased away.

Lupe had straightened her shoulders and held her head up high. Carly noticed she was making a point to stay as close to her side as possible.

They both stopped by unspoken agreement a few feet before the driveway turned. Fear lined Lupe’s face. “It is now or never,” she said.

Carly nodded, and before she took the step that could very well be one of the dumbest things she’d ever done, her mind conjured an image of her and Lupe rounding the corner only to see the lifeless bodies of Bobby and Randy lying spread-eagled on the ground.

Which was stupid, because if that had been the case the cop who’d shown up would have called in reinforcements.

She took a deep breath and stepped forward.

The paved driveway ended at a leaning carport stationed behind the shabby two-story house. White aluminum siding was stained with spots of gray, and a tired wind chime hanging by the back door made sad clinking sounds in the light breeze.

A kennel sat at one end of the yard, which was speckled with days’ worth of dog doo, but there were no dogs in sight.

There weren’t any people, either.

The next thing Carly noted was that the walls of hedges completely blocked this yard off from the neighbors on either side. The privacy fence that divided this property from the back parking lot at St. Paul’s lined the rear of the yard.

Lupe stepped toward a picnic table sitting in the grass, which hadn’t been mowed in weeks.

She halted and gasped. “Sangre.”

“What?”

“Blood. In the grass.”

Fear seized Carly’s heart as she rushed to Lupe’s side. She crouched down and swallowed back bile. Sure enough, something dark and sticky glistened on the uncut blades of grass.

Lupe folded her arms across her chest and glared at the blood as if it had caused her some sort of grievance. “That stupid cop didn’t even look at this. He must have stayed in his car the whole time he was back here.”

“Maybe he’s afraid of dogs,” Carly said, only half-jokingly. Her own mother had severe panic attacks if she even came into contact with a breed as innocuous as a basset hound.

“Hmm.” Lupe put a hand on her chin, forehead creased. “We don’t know that it’s human blood. Maybe we should…” She broke off the same instant a muffled sound issued from a shed sitting beside the carport. “What was that?”

Carly was already creeping through the high grass over to the shed door. It appeared latched but not locked. She held an ear against it and listened.

Something inside let out a plaintive whimper that sent goosebumps cascading over her arms. “Something’s alive in there.” Like an injured Bobby.

“Are you sure?”

Carly nodded. “Step back. I’m going to open the door.”

Lupe moved back several paces. Carly saw her grip tighten on the flashlight.

Carly tensed her muscles, preparing to run at a moment’s notice in case whatever lurked in the shed wasn’t human. Okay, she told herself. Go.

She slid the metal latch away from the loop and swung the door open.

Four dogs with coats of varying colors bounded straight out at her, and she instinctively brought her arms over her face to protect herself. Please don’t hurt me please don’t hurt me oh please…

All four ran past her toward the driveway and started pacing back and forth at what had to be the edge of the invisible fence.

Carly lowered her arms. What the heck?

Two of the dogs had minor lacerations as if someone had tried to fight them off with a knife. Yet if these dogs had truly tried to attack Bobby and Randy, why weren’t they attacking Carly and Lupe? Had they only been trained to attack men?

And how had they gotten in the shed?

That question could wait.

Carly pushed the shed door closed and wiped away the sweat running down her forehead. “I have another idea,” she said, unable to remove her gaze from the pacing dogs. One had laid down on the edge of the driveway with its ears perked up. All seemed oblivious to her and Lupe.

“What is that?” Lupe asked.

“I’m going to see if anyone’s home.”

Lupe whirled around and gaped as if Carly had just suggested they both go dancing naked in the street. “Why?”

“Why not? Bobby and Randy have to be somewhere close. They could have gone in the house.”

Lupe’s face took on a sickly hue. “I’m going to wait out here.”

“Holler if you need me.” Trying to stifle the jitters, Carly strode to the back door and knocked. When nobody came to answer it, she turned the knob and pulled it open.

Uncertainty prodded at her. If this house was a waystation where human traffickers imprisoned women, shouldn’t there have been better security?

Unless Bobby had been wrong about where his mother was being kept.

Or maybe the dogs had been the extent of the house’s security system.

Carly said a quick prayer and stepped over the threshold into a dim room that smelled of stale cigarette smoke. Her hand found a light switch and flicked it on.

A dingy couch looked as though someone had spilled drinks on it repeatedly and never bothered to clean it up, an ashtray sitting on the dusty coffee table overflowed with cigarette butts, and dozens of empty Mountain Dew bottles lay heaped beside the couch.

All the comforts of home.

“Bobby?” she whispered. “Randy? Is anyone here?” She scanned the carpet for signs of blood, and even though it was so dirty she couldn’t determine the original color, it didn’t look like anything red and wet had dripped on it in recent minutes.

She proceeded to the next room through an open archway and passed a dining room table and chairs. Next she entered the kitchen and learned that whoever stayed here wasn’t fond of doing the dishes or taking out the garbage, either, as waste overflowed from a can in the corner. Fat flies buzzed around a bag of apples on the counter. One tried landing on her arm.

“Is anybody home?” Wrinkling her nose, Carly moved on from the kitchen and found flights of stairs going down and up.

She chose up and arrived at a landing off of which lay a single bedroom and a bathroom. No sooner had she done so when a scratching-fluttering-flapping sound issued from somewhere above the ceiling. Oh, yuck. Something’s alive up in the attic.

Ignoring the sound, Carly stuck her head through the bedroom doorway. “Hello?”

No reply. She stepped further into the room and switched on the light.

A four-poster bed had been neatly made and covered in hot pink blankets and pillows. To the left sat a dresser, and on top of it sat a white jewel box and a sort of metal tree on which hung a bunch of necklaces.

Could Bobby’s mother have been staying in this room? Perhaps the woman’s kidnapping had all been a ruse to kidnap Bobby, which seemed farfetched but not impossible. Adrian may very well have traveled all the way across the country to see Bobby, stayed at the campground, and met up with Jack Willard at that nasty bar in Hillsdale for the sole purpose of finding someone to help orchestrate Bobby’s capture.

Heck, Adrian and Jack might even be friends.

Her lip curling at the thought of anyone befriending the man who’d helped hurt Randy, Carly yanked the top dresser drawer open only to see a collection of Victoria’s Secret’s finest. After making a vow to scrub her hands when she got the chance, she moved the lingerie aside and found an expired driver’s license that had been issued to Rayna Vasquez Robles in the Mexican state of Sonora.

Rayna had dark hair, a deep brown complexion, and a conceited smile—or maybe Carly was just seeing things based on her own assumptions.

“Don’t you know what these people do here?”

Carly froze at the sound of Thane’s voice. He was here. Right behind her. Trying to make her doubt her sanity once more.

She wasn’t going to fall for it.

She dropped the license and slid the drawer closed before opening the next one. If she continued to ignore Thane, maybe he would go away.

“Come on,” Thane said. “I know you can hear me. You want to know what these people do here. I know you do.”

Carly steadied her shaking hands as she went through more of Rayna’s things. She didn’t need a demon to tell her what all went on within the walls of this hovel. She could use her own wits and figure it out herself.

The next drawer contained an amethyst geode that sparkled from purple facets. Next to it sat a small soapstone box, and shoved in the back of the drawer was a framed photograph of Rayna and four other Hispanic women sitting at a table in a restaurant.

“Nothing to see here, is there?” Thane went on. “That’s because they hide it well. They’ll tell you one thing when the truth is something else, but I suppose that’s the way of humanity. We all wear a mask, though some wear it better than others. Graham wore a mask. Jack still wears it. And you do, too, even though you won’t admit it.”

Carly took a deep breath, straightened her shoulders, and turned. Thane, dressed all in white this time, was sitting at the end of the four-poster bed with his legs dangling over the side. His weight made no impression in the bedspread.

She walked out the door without even giving him a nod of acknowledgment.

Her next stop was the basement. She swallowed a knot of fear. As she descended the stairs and took the next flight down to the basement, she realized that deep down she’d known she wouldn’t find Bobby or Randy here at all.

Carly clapped a hand over her mouth as the basement steps terminated at a gray cement floor. A dark-haired woman who could only be Rayna Vasquez Robles lay crumpled just feet away, a pool of dark red congealing beneath her.

The smell of blood made Carly gag. How long had the woman been lying here? Was she alive when Carly called the police or had someone dropped by earlier in the day to end her life?

“Help…”

Carly’s heart fluttered at the sound of the heavily accented voice. She approached the woman on light feet and crouched down beside her.

Rayna’s eyes were open in a hollow stare, but something in them sparked to life when Carly entered her field of vision.

“What happened here?” Carly asked. “Where are Bobby and Randy?” And Adrian?

Confusion entered Rayna’s eyes. “Compromised.”

“What?”

“This…location.” Rayna winced, and sudden anger filled her eyes. “It must be you. The reason I have to die.”

“Did you trap women here?”

“It is…none of your business.” Her eyes closed. She said something in Spanish before becoming still.

Carly felt a pang of sorrow despite Rayna’s apparent association with the network of traffickers.

Thane appeared on the staircase. “You still don’t know everything. Pity that.”

If only there was a way to shut him up!

Continuing to pretend Thane didn’t exist, Carly moved past the dead woman down a bare hallway. A thick metal door sat ajar on the left. Carly peered inside and saw a collection of dirty cots and a bucket that might have doubled as a toilet. One of the cots was overturned as if some struggle had occurred there, and a coil of rope lay beside it like a dead snake.

She went back into the hallway. Further down on the right was another door, this one closed.

She gulped and stepped forward.

Behind her, Thane snickered.

Her mind filled with the image of her holding a gun and standing over Rayna’s lifeless body. You killed her, Carly! It’s your fault she’s dead!

She gritted her teeth. No it’s not.

The image dissolved, and she was back in the basement hallway. Thane was just trying to screw around in her head again. He couldn’t hurt her unless she let him, and she wasn’t about to give in now that she knew Thane was just a demon who had chosen to manifest as a man.

“I’m not a demon!” Thane called. “I’m your worst nightmare.”

“I doubt it,” Carly muttered as she opened the door.

And she was right. Thane was just an unpleasant dream. The real nightmare lay in the room before her.