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Noelle pulled her coat tighter as she faced Max outside the mobile command unit. She felt as if she were a half step outside of reality, watching what was occurring from a distance, struggling to believe that this was truly happening.

Lucia kidnapped.

Savannah shot.

Her vehicle blown up.

Adam’s attempted murder. And now he’d taken more hostages.

What’s next?

And what can I do?

“We’ll catch him,” said Max, his gaze tough but sympathetic. “He’ll answer for this—for all of this. These negotiators know what they’re doing.”

“Adam isn’t easy,” said Noelle. “He’s stubborn. And I think he’s past caring about anyone or anything. That makes him dangerous.”

“He’s got to care about his wife,” said Max. “Everyone says they’re close, a perfect couple. Those feelings can’t vanish overnight.”

“You’d think so. But now I don’t know. Why would he do this to Lucia?” Noelle paced in a small circle. “Fuck. Eve is beside herself. She says she doesn’t recognize who he is. None of us do.”

“When did you last talk to Eve?”

“On the way here. She’s still at Daisy’s.”

“And Savannah?”

“I got ahold of a nurse friend of mine at the hospital this morning since no one here would return my texts.” She shot a glare at Evan, who was thirty feet away, talking to Shults and a deputy.

Evan hadn’t approached her yet. No doubt he could tell she was pissed about the lack of communication. “Savannah’s stable. Prognosis is good.”

“I think Evan and Lori didn’t want to worry you when they found the empty 4Runner.”

“He kidnapped my sister!”

“Do you know why he did that?”

“No.” Noelle rubbed her eyes. “I’ve asked myself a million times, but I assume it has something to do with Derrick’s murder.”

Voices suddenly rose in the RV. Noelle spun around, pulled open the door, and bounded up the short flight of steps. The negotiators were now watching the cameras with the rest of the inside crew. “What happened?”

“Blue-six. She’s running toward the barn.” A voice crackled through the speakers.

Noelle scanned the cameras, seeing only the officers in the BearCat, the sniper, and the other observer. The sniper’s mouth moved. “She’s twenty feet from the barn.”

“ Who? ” Noelle’s heart was in her throat.

Is it Lucia?

“They’re not sure who it is,” Squires told her. “They saw her crawl out of a basement window and start sprinting toward the barn.”

“Blue-four. Get to the barn,” ordered the commander. One of the body cam views from the BearCat suddenly jerked and bobbled as the wearer went out the back of the vehicle. The camera view shakily showed the barn rapidly getting closer as he ran.

“Let me see your hands!” Blue-four hollered.

Noelle tensed. Lucia wouldn’t be armed, but there was no way for the officer to know that. He had to protect himself. A hand squeezed her shoulder. Max.

“Get them up, up, up!” the officer shouted.

Do what he says!

Noelle couldn’t breathe. The situation could go sideways in a split second.

A woman’s boots and jeans came into the officer’s camera view, and she halted, the wood walls of the barn behind her. “Turn away from me and get on your knees,” ordered Blue-four.

“There’s someone in the house! He’s got a gun!” gasped the woman.

Noelle closed her eyes at the voice. “It’s not Lucia,” she whispered, disappointment flooding her.

Where is Lucia?

“On your knees!”

The woman dropped to her knees, her long, dark hair contrasting with the back of her white shirt.

“What’s your name?”

“Katie. Katie Amidon.” She was crying.

“Has to be one of the daughters,” said Squires. “The caller said she had two of her daughters with her, along with a son-in-law. We know the owner of the property is Janet Amidon.”

“Blue-four, get her over here,” ordered the commander.

“I’m going to handcuff you until I can confirm you’re not armed, all right?” The officer’s voice had gentled.

“Okay,” she sobbed.

Even though she’d said a name, her identity had not been confirmed.

They knew not to take chances.

Minutes later Katie Amidon had her cuffs removed and was led to one of the county SUVs to be questioned by Evan because the RV was too crowded.

Noelle poured a cup of coffee in the RV and stepped outside.

She slid into the SUV’s back seat with Katie and handed her the cup as Evan took the front passenger seat and turned awkwardly to address the women.

“This is Detective Marshall,” said Evan with a tentative glance at Noelle.

He wants forgiveness for avoiding my messages.

“Who else is inside the house?” asked Noelle, letting go of her annoyance with the detective and studying the young woman. She looked about sixteen.

“My mom. My two sisters and my brother-in-law.” Katie shuddered and clung to the paper cup of coffee but didn’t take a sip.

“On an earlier phone call your mom said she had two daughters in the house,” said Evan. “Not three of you.”

Katie wiped at a tear. “My bedroom is in the basement. She probably didn’t want him to know I was down there, so she only told him about my sisters.

When I woke up this morning, I heard a strange voice upstairs.

I was halfway up my steps when I realized he was threatening them.

I tiptoed back down, and I didn’t know what to do at first, but I finally decided I needed to get out, so I got dressed and slipped out the window.

I was going to call 911 when I got to the barn, but then that army man yelled at me. ”

“They’re police officers, but I understand how they look like soldiers in their SWAT gear,” said Noelle. “Was the man threatening your family all by himself?”

“I only heard one man asking questions,” said Katie. “My mom replied, and I could hear both my sisters crying. I could tell everyone was in the family room.”

“How old are your sisters?” asked Bolton.

“Twenty-eight and twenty-two. I heard Drew trying to calm Kendall. They’re married but live here too.” Katie sniffled and struggled to hold herself together.

“How old is Drew?” asked Bolton.

“I think he’s thirty-two.”

“You have your phone?” Evan asked, and the girl nodded. “Can you send me photos of everyone? The most current ones you have. We’ll need a good one of Drew that shows how he looks right now. Does he have a beard or any facial hair?”

Katie frowned but started going through photos on her phone. “No. Why?”

“We need to be able to identify everyone,” said Noelle.

She didn’t tell Katie that the sniper needed to clearly distinguish Drew from Adam in case he needed to shoot.

The men were close in age, and Adam didn’t have facial hair either.

She glanced at Katie’s photos and saw that her brother-in-law’s hair was the same color and length as Adam’s.

I can tell them apart, but the sniper needs to know who is who.

Just in case.

“Is he dangerous?” Katie’s voice cracked. “Is he going to hurt them? I know he has a gun.”

“We don’t know anything yet,” Noelle said, keeping her answer vague. “We’re trying to find out what he wants. Trust me, everyone wants to get him out of your house.”

Katie AirDropped the images to Evan, who immediately sent them to the SWAT commander, who would get them to his team.

“Katie, did you hear any other voices you didn’t recognize?” Noelle knew she was essentially repeating a previous question.

“No.”

We still don’t know if Lucia is with him.

Evan’s face turned grim as he met Noelle’s gaze.

“Katie, I need you to draw me a floor plan of the house,” he said.

“And then draw where the furniture is in the family room, okay?” He handed her his little notebook and a pen.

“We’re going to have a lot of questions.

Just answer the best you can. We also need the numbers to your sisters’ and Drew’s phones. ”

“Okay.”

Noelle took back the cup of coffee the girl hadn’t sipped. Katie bent over the notebook on her knee and started to draw. She seemed calmer. Having something to do kept her focused, and the maps would be vital to the SWAT team.

“I’m going back inside,” said Noelle to Evan.

He nodded. “Thank you, Noelle.” His eyes transmitted the same message.

Yes, we’re good.

There was a heightened air of tension as Noelle stepped back in the RV, and Max immediately put his finger to his lips as she realized Adam’s voice was coming over the speakers.

“I don’t need to show you proof that they’re okay. You can take my word for it,” he said. “Everyone is fine.”

“We appreciate that, Adam,” said Hillyer. “Right now your situation isn’t too bad since no one has been hurt. This is fixable. Can you tell me the names of who’s there with you?” Hillyer glanced at Noelle.

He’s trying to feel out if Lucia is there.

They heard Adam turn away from the phone and ask for names. Noelle listened hard, hoping to hear Lucia speak.

“Janet,” said Adam into the phone. “Drew, Kendall, and Kristine.”

They must all be sick with worry that Adam will eventually discover Katie.

Noelle wrote on the yellow pad, How can we let them know Katie is out of the house and safe?

Squires nodded slowly, pondering the question.

“How about you let one of the hostages go?” said Hillyer into his headset. “Do you need that many people in there? It’d go a long way in letting us know you don’t want to hurt them.”

“Who said I didn’t want to hurt them?” snapped Adam. “I’ll hurt whoever I need to get my ass out of here.”

Gasps from the family sounded through the speakers.

Noelle was stunned.

Is this the type of person Adam has been all along? Did he fool us all?

“The safer that family is, the better your situation is,” said Hillyer. “Let’s not do anything you can’t come back from.”

“Maybe I already did,” mumbled Adam.

Noelle froze, terrified he was about to admit he’d hurt Lucia.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” said Hillyer, purposefully easing past Adam’s comment. “Right now let’s figure out how to end this. What do you want from us?”

Adam cut the connection.

Hillyer wiped his damp forehead and slumped back in his chair. “Jesus.”

“You’re doing great,” said Squires, patting his shoulder. “Your tone is perfect. You kept him talking a long time and planted the seed that we might give him what he wants. That’ll make him want to talk more with us.”

“But what can we give him?” asked Noelle. “The only thing he’ll want is to walk away with no repercussions at all.”

“We’ll help him see that’s truly not an option,” said Squires. “Maybe offer a reduced charge of some sort. Play everything down.”

“He’ll see through that bullshit,” said Noelle, knowing they didn’t have to stand behind anything they told Adam.

“You’ll be surprised. After a while they want out of the situation so bad, they’ll start to believe us.” Hillyer took a sip from his water bottle. Both he and Squires had water instead of coffee. “We’ll give him a bit of time to think, and then I’ll call again.”

Noelle scanned the monitors. The SWAT team members in the BearCat were quiet as they waited until they were needed.

She’d never been on the site of an active negotiation before.

Several years ago, as a patrol officer, she’d had to do her own negotiating when she came across a man about to jump off a bridge.

She barely recalled what she’d said to him, but she remembered how terrified she’d felt and how willing she’d been to say whatever he wanted to hear. Anything to get him to safety.

It’d been a delicate dance of give and take.

This was a similar dance but with more lives at stake.

The SWAT commander tapped his phone’s screen and enlarged Katie’s sketches of the home’s layout.

“She says it sounded like everyone was sitting on the sofa in the family room when she left. Makes sense. He’d want them in one place where he could watch them.

The family room is on the east side of the home, which is why Katie was able to run west to the barn without being seen.

Adam would have had to be in one of the bedrooms to have seen her through a window.

But it also means my sniper in the barn won’t see much unless Adam or the hostages move outside.

The spotter on the east side said window blinds are closed on the first-floor windows—which includes the family room.

I don’t think Adam will move to a different room, because he’d have to take his eyes off someone.

” He glanced up, meeting several gazes. “The front of the home and the west side are blind spots for Adam if he stays in the family room.”

“He won’t sit there being blind,” said Noelle. “He’ll want to know what’s going on outside.”

“Most likely he’s checking the east side and south side windows since they’re in the family room,” said the commander.

“But to look north, in our direction, he’d have to move down a long hallway to the foyer at the front of the house.

I can’t see him leaving his hostages to do that.

” He met the negotiators’ gazes. “He might be willing to let some hostages go so he has fewer people to watch.”

The commander headed toward the RV door. “Sending Katie’s sketches of the layout to everyone. Gonna talk over a plan with my team.”

“How can we find out about Detective Marshall’s sister?” asked Max.

Noelle shot him a look of gratitude. She was worried about all the hostages, but not knowing Lucia’s status was eating at her.

“We’re still figuring out a way to bring that up,” said Squires with deep concentration on her face. “Somehow get him to volunteer the information.”

A phone rang, and the negotiators swung back into position.

“Hillyer here,” he answered.

“I want to talk to Noelle,” announced Adam.

All eyes turned to her as her muscles froze.

What if I say the wrong thing?