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PROLOGUE

Victoria awakens to complete darkness. Her head is fuzzy and she tries to say, “Where am I?” but the words are muffled by a rough cloth that cuts into the sides of her mouth, and she can barely breathe. A little air comes through the gag but her nose is swollen and her breath whistles.

She’s lost track of time. All she knows is that she hurts all over and is reminded of it every time she awakens. She knows it has been quite a while because she’s lain in her own filth, unable to move, and she’s very thirsty.

Oh dear God! she thinks. What do they want from me? Why are they doing this? She forces herself to calm, to think, try to remember what happened. She recalls being in her room at the resort. She and her daughter drank champagne and talked for a while. They were going to meet in the morning. Rebecca had left the room and there was a knock at the door. She remembers thinking that Rebecca had forgotten something, and she had opened the door.

An object had come at her, and her nose exploded in pain; and some material was pulled over her head and face. The last thing she remembers is a pinch on the side of her neck. Nothing after that until they dragged her into this place and that part is hazy. They must have drugged her.

The next thing she remembers is waking up on the cold floor, maybe hours ago, maybe yesterday, with her arms bound behind her and her ankles bound too. Her clothes have been removed but she doesn’t remember it. The bag was on her head the first time she came to but it must have been removed because now she is blindfolded and gagged.

Her thoughts turn to her daughters. Rebecca will be worried to death. And her youngest: What will happen when she finds out her mother is gone? Taken. There is so much she needs to tell her daughters. If she goes through with her plans, they will find out eventually, but she had wanted them to hear it from her. Not Jack, who would put a spin on it.

It’s hard to breathe around the gag so she has to try harder to calm herself.

Why would someone do this to her? It doesn’t make sense. She has nothing of her own. Some expensive jewelry maybe. An expensive car. Credit cards. A small bank account. But Jack holds the purse strings and doles out the money as he sees fit.

She closes her eyes tight and tries to jog her memory of the last moments before she woke up here. Was there anyone paying attention to them at the resort? Try as she might, she can’t remember who she saw, who she knew, or even what she ate. Her mind was totally on what she was planning to do.

The divorce? Is that what this is about? It’s not possible. Jack would never harm her. At least not physically. And he would never frighten his daughters.

Where is Rebecca?

Dear God, has she been taken too?