effectively giving away their escape route. Jillian couldn’t worry about that just now. The whistling grew louder, the man closer. She felt her sister inch backward. Megan’s shoulders straightened imperceptibly.
That she seemed to have pulled it together some encouraged Jillian. But would Megan be able to react fast enough when the time came? And what was Jillian going to do if her sister didn’t? How was she going to protect Megan?
Remembering the cell phone in her pocket, needing the assurance that it was still there, Jillian slipped her hand inside.
The whistling stopped. As she watched, the man reached back and grabbed a shotgun that must have been strapped to his back. He brought it down and into position in a single, fluid motion.
“Get your hands where I can see them.”
She’d already started to obey his command when the sudden blast of the sawed-off shotgun sent a dozen ricocheting pellets into Jillian’s left shin, the pain like that of matches being shoved into her flesh.
“Make one more move, and the next one will cut you both in two.”
He had reached the downed woman, but simply stepped over her as if she were some animal.
Jillian hobbled in place. Even if they made it to the woods, there was no guarantee of escape. They couldn’t outrun a shotgun.
But what other choice did they have?
“Meg?” Jillian kept her voice low. She tightened her hold on her sister’s arm until she felt her wince. “Nothing has changed. Even with the gun. Our best chance is to make a run for it. You understand?”
Megan offered a solemn nod.
The man was close enough now that Jillian could see his face. His lips curved upward as he focused on Megan, as if he found her fear amusing.
When the man’s gaze returned to her, Jillian shifted slightly in front of Megan. For some reason, with his next step, he lowered the weapon to his side.
Jillian didn’t hesitate. “Now!”
As Megan turned to run, Jillian rushed their attacker. As she closed the distance, her vision tunneled down until all she could see was the end of the shotgun barrel as it came up again.
The twin barrels appeared overlarge, like two soulless eyes summoned to witness her death. She’d had a rough start in life, and it looked as if the ending wasn’t going to be much different. But all she could think about was the years that had stretched between. The sister who even now was escaping. She had always wondered how she could repay the Sorensens for everything they had given her.
Now she knew.
A shotgun blast exploded, the sound nearly taking Jillian to her knees. It took her several seconds to realize that she hadn’t been hit. That the gun the man held hadn’t gone off.
Megan!
Comprehension dawning slowly, she lifted her chin and stared at the man in front of her.
He smiled as a third explosion chewed the night.
“No!” Jillian whirled toward the trees on the left—the trees where Megan had disappeared.
As she leaped toward them, the man drove the gunstock into the back of her skull.
Chapter Two
Time unknown
The pain started at the back of Jillian’s head but radiated throughout her body. The floor under her vibrated and swayed. Cold. She was so damned cold. And there was a strong odor of urine in her nostrils. Like a public restroom.
A sour taste filled her mouth. Vomit? Had she gotten drunk? Was that why her head hurt and everything seemed to be moving?
Fighting a surge of nausea, she forced open her eyes and faced total darkness, the kind that had frightened her as a child and at the moment still did.
Where was she? She tried to lift her head, to get her bearings, but nearly passed out as agony radiated through her skull.
Don’t move. She sucked in a shallow breath. Then another. That’s it. Just breathe.
In the process of trying to round up enough saliva to swallow, Jillian realized the vile taste came from some type of pill caught between her lip and her lower front teeth. She spit it out, but, as another wave of pain overtook her, wondered if she’d made a mistake. Maybe it had been an aspirin.
Jillian tried again to clear her head. Had she hit it somehow? Fallen? But why would she be lying in straw that reeked of urine? In what seemed to be some sort of moving vehicle? Some type of truck?
From the way that sound bounced around the space, it seemed to be a fairly large one.
Moving carefully this time, she shifted, looking for a more comfortable position. Her arms felt heavy, weighted down. She shifted her legs but recoiled when her left shin touched the straw. It felt as if someone had stabbed her there repeatedly with an ice pick. And it wasn’t just her shin and head that hurt, either. Her whole body ached.
What in the hell had happened to her? Had she been in some kind of accident?
A gun blast…
Everything came back to her in a horrible rush. She and Megan had been driving down to Charleston. The woman in the road. The man with the shotgun.
Jillian clenched her eyes as the next memory hunted her down there in the dark. The sound of a shot fired in the woods. Dread filled her chest. Megan. She searched her memory but couldn’t recall what happened next.
“Megan?” In her head, she screamed her sister’s name, but she knew in reality her voice had barely been a whisper.
“Jill—Jilly? That…that you?” Megan’s voice came from right behind her.
Ignoring the pain, Jillian reached out. A chain rattled and she realized there truly was weight around her wrist. A single manacle. She was chained up.
“Jilly? Where are you?”
“Here.” Unable to see, she scooted toward her sister’s voice. Was there enough slack in the chain to reach her?
To her surprise, she found her sister lying almost next to her in the straw. Fumbling her way upward along Megan’s arms, Jillian discovered that her sister was chained up, too. Jillian ran her fingers up until she found Megan’s face. Her cheeks were cool to the touch. “Megan? Are you okay? I heard a gunshot. Were you hit?”
“N-no.” Her sister’s voice sounded slurred. “They…they gave me some kind of pill. You, too.”
Turning away, Jillian forced a finger down her own throat. She immediately retched into the straw, but it took several more attempts before she actually vomited. And it wasn’t until she dry heaved that Jillian finally sank back to the floor. How much of the drug had already reached her system, though?
Suddenly recalling her cell phone, Jillian dug into her jacket pockets but didn’t find it. No doubt
