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A humming sound pulled her out of the cottony darkness she didn’t want to leave. Did she have the strength to face what lay beyond her closed eyes?

The humming continued. Her eyes slowly opened to a light that blinded her. She closed them quickly.

“You’re alive.”

The voice made her sick. Henry. This wasn’t a bad dream.

Reality faded along with his voice. The darkness beckoned.

“Sierra, wake up.”

His voice sounded so far away. No. The words slipped through her thoughts. She wanted to stay here. Zeke’s smiling face appeared before the darkness. “You have to wake up, babe. You have to fight.”

Someone shook her. “Open your eyes.”

Not Zeke. The voice of a monster. One monster. Where was the other?

Babe, keep fighting. I’m coming.

“I will.” The response sounded muddled. She wondered if she’d spoken aloud until Henry answered.

“You will what?”

Her eyes flitted open. The light hurt her eyes and so she closed them again. But it was as if Zeke were standing beside her urging her to fight.

She opened her eyes again. Slowly, the blurred images began to clear.

“I’ve been worried about you, Sierra. I never intended for that to happen. You shouldn’t have tried to escape.”

She focused on his face. Eventually she could make it out. Henry actually appeared concerned. She frowned. Was he crazy? Of course, she would try to escape.

The world came into sharper focus. Henry was seated next to her, wearing a smile. She’d read about and been exposed to some strange killers in her time with the BAU, but Henry’s kindly grandfather persona was something to top the odd chart.

Sierra tried to lift her hand. It was restrained. She glanced down and noticed that Henry wasn’t taking any chances. At least she wasn’t gagged.

“What’d you do with her?” She wanted to know what happened to Dawn.

Henry grew wary. “That’s not your concern.”

She craned her neck. Dawn’s barrel was still empty. “You haven’t killed her yet. Is she with your partner?”

Henry recoiled. “I have no partner.”

Sierra had hit a sensitive spot. “You do. I met him before he almost killed me.” She recalled the tall figure who had been waiting for her. The man had wanted to keep his identity hidden. Had she run into him in town? Would she recognize him without the mask?

Henry glanced up at the corner of the room. Sierra saw the camera. “Someone else is watching.” That’s how Sierra had been found out before she escaped.

She felt weak and woozy. Sierra fought the nausea.

“Who’s really calling the shots?” She kept goading him, hoping for something. Maybe a chance to get closer to Henry to disable him. If she had the strength.

She glanced down at her doubly secured wrists and ankles. Then what?

One step at a time.

“I’m calling the shots.” Henry bristled. “No one else is in charge. This is all mine.” His hand swept across the room.

“I don’t buy it, Henry,” she murmured. “You’re not the “in charge” kind of person.”

His cheeks flushed with anger. “Shut up. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“But you let your partner do the killing.”

He recoiled as if she’d hit him.

She’d struck pay dirt. Her strength buoyed with the small victory. Sierra knew she was on the right track and went in for the final blow. “What do you do? Abduct the victims and then turn them over to the real killer? Is that what you did with the others? What did you do with Dawn?”

“Never!” Henry stood up and yelled. “I would never let them take my Dawn.”

His Dawn. What was going on here?

Henry headed toward the camera that was positioned above one of the chairs in his “sitting area.” He grabbed a baseball bat from the corner and stood on the chair.

Sierra knew what he planned, and yet it was still a shock to see Henry pound the camera until it hung by a single wire. He yanked it free and tossed it to the floor. Once he was off the chair, he stomped it to oblivion.

Well, all right. At least they were no longer monitored.

Henry moved past the stack of boxes. He stood in front of a wall and pressed a certain spot. A portion of the wall opened, revealing a dark room.

Henry searched along the interior wall and flipped on the light switch. From her limited vantage point, Sierra could only see a sliver of space.

It looked like a small bedroom. What on earth?

Sierra continued to watch as Henry went inside. She could hear him talking to someone. And then he returned with a woman in a wheelchair.

Even though Sierra’s eyes were foggy, as they neared she recognized Dawn.

“Sierra, meet Dawn Collins.”

Dawn’s wrists were bound to the chair as were her ankles. She didn’t wear a gag.

Dawn’s frightened eyes latched onto Sierra’s.

“It’s going to be okay.” Sierra did her best to reassure her of what she had no idea was true.

Sierra turned her attention to Henry. “You saved her. Why?”

Henry shook his head and returned to his seat. “I couldn’t let them hurt Dawn. She reminds me of . . .”

He’d formed a connection with Dawn because she reminded him of someone he cared for. Sierra wondered about her own fate. Would she be spared, or would Henry turn her over to the mastermind behind it all?

“She looks just like her.” Henry was saying. “And she’s from the same state as my Maggie. Every time I looked into that face, I could feel Maggie’s disappointment. I couldn’t go through with it.”

“Maggie’s your wife?” Sierra asked quietly while studying Dawn’s restraints. They were much like what she’d had before. If she could find a way to get Henry out of the way, then perhaps she could walk Dawn through the steps of freeing herself and Sierra.

“Yes,” he said wearily. “I loved her so much.”

“Loved?” Sierra felt the need to keep him talking. She wanted to know more about Henry. Maybe he’d slip up and reveal something useful.

“She died recently. My poor Maggie.” He shook his head. “I thought I could go back to being the person I was before with . . .”

He didn’t say it but Sierra believed Henry had been part of a serial killer team operating in the area. He’d helped kill those women in the barrels. Something happened to stop them. She believed it was marrying Maggie. But Maggie hadn’t really changed Henry. Though she wondered how much of the killing process was on Henry. He seemed to be the docile one. Taking orders from the person in the mask. Finding victims for them.

“She didn’t know about your past.” Sierra choked over those words. Henry had lived a lie for the duration of his marriage.

“No. Maggie made me a better person. I never told her about it, you know.” He shrugged. “She and I married, and she moved in here. She didn’t know about this place. What it was used for before her. What was stored down here.” His attention went to the barrels.

“You went straight for twenty-five years, Henry. What changed? Was it Maggie’s death?” Sierra glanced Dawn’s way. She wept softly. Probably in a state of hysteria from what she’d gone through. There were marks visible on her body. She’d been hurt. Not just by Henry.

“I had nothing to live for after Maggie passed. Nothing kept me from returning to my old self.”

“Maggie. Do you think she would approve of what you’ve returned to?”

His eyes flashed anger. “You don’t know her. You know nothing about her. Don’t pretend to know what she would think.”

Sierra, you’ve gone too far. Back up a bit. She assumed Henry had met and married Maggie shortly after the last victim from twenty-five years earlier had been murdered.

“What was Maggie like?” She tempered her tone to keep Henry cooperating.

“She was a wonderful woman. I met her later in life. I was in my early fifties. I wished that she and I knew each other earlier. Maybe things would have been different. For me and for . . .”

“For who?” Sierra believed the name of his accomplice was on the tip of Henry’s tongue.

His phone buzzed. Then it buzzed again and again as text messages poured through.

Henry pulled out his phone and read through the messages as they kept coming. “I have to go.” He shoved the phone into his pocket without looking at Sierra, and her heart leapt to her throat.

“Wait, Henry, you don’t have to do this.”

Henry ignored her and went over to Dawn. “I’ve got to get you out of sight now, my girl.”

“No, please,” Dawn pleaded.

Henry patted her arm. “It will be okay. I’ll leave the light on this time.” He rolled her into the room and shut the door.

“Henry, wait.” Sierra called after him, but he ignored her completely. He slammed the door shut. The sound reverberated through her body.

She listened as his footsteps headed up the stairs into the house.

Soon, the noise of the door opening and closing was followed by a car’s engine starting. She waited until she could no longer hear the sound before calling out to Dawn.

“Can you hear me, Dawn?”

She waited through every panicked beat of her heart while wondering if the walls to Dawn’s room would prove to be too thick.

“I hear you.” Came the faintest reply. It sounded like the best thing ever.

“My name is Sierra. I know we weren’t properly introduced. I’m an FBI agent. Dawn, people are looking for you. And they’ll be looking for me as well.”

“How will they find us?” This time Dawn’s voice was much stronger. “No one knows where we are.”

Sierra tried not to give into self-pity. “Not yet. My team is here in Pinedale now. I can feel it.” She needed to believe her lack of response to Zeke would have sent him looking for her. “We have to stay alive until they find us. I need your help.”

“What can I do? I’m handcuffed to a chair.”

“Look around the room you’re in, Dawn. Is there anything that might be used to smash your restraint.”

“Noooo.” Dawn sobbed. “I don’t think so. I’m scared. They hurt me. Before Henry stepped in and saved me, they hurt me.”

“Who is they?”

“I–I don’t know. He wore an awful Halloween mask.”

“Was more than one person helping Henry?”

“No, just one.”

The same person who had taken Sierra down.

“Look for anything that you can smash against your restraints. You’re our only chance, Dawn. I’m double-secured to this table. I can’t go anywhere.”

“A–alright. Let me see.”

Sierra searched around her limited space. The tray holding the tools was close to her table. If she could stretch out her foot, she might be able to inch it closer.

She raised herself up and tried extending her foot a little farther. He’d taken her shoes and socks. Her feet were bare. Why? She was still fully clothed except for her feet.

She glanced at the floor and spotted her shoes. Thank You, God . She wouldn’t be forced to escape barefooted.

Sierra almost touched her foot to the table. She forced herself to take a breath and try again.

“How’s it coming in there, Dawn?” She slunk down as far as she could and tried again. Her foot touched the tray. It moved slightly closer.

Slow down. Don’t make a mistake. She could almost hear Zeke telling her.

“I found something,” Dawn shouted. “A brick. I don’t know if I can reach it, though. It’s on the floor.”

They didn’t have an option. “Can you turn your chair over? You have to get free. I’m not sure I can get loose by myself.”

“I’ll try.” Dawn didn’t sound anywhere close to being positive.

Sierra’s heart beat every second that ticked by, seeming to shout time was almost up. If she and Dawn didn’t get out of there soon, they’d both end up in a barrel like the other girls in Henry’s past.