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“ W hat have you done? You should never have taken her.” Henry couldn’t believe T had acted so recklessly by taking a young woman in broad daylight.

“I told you I wanted another girl,” T yelled at him. “You think I don’t know you were deliberately stalling me. It wasn’t my fault you screwed up by taking the federal agent.”

T still believed Dawn had tried to escape through the tunnels connecting the house to the mountains and had died when the tunnel she’d taken collapsed.

Henry carried the unconscious woman from the vehicle inside the house. “I screwed up? You could have been caught.” He recognized the young woman from the climb site before it had been shut down.

“No one saw me. She never suspected a thing.” T smiled momentarily as if reliving the capture. “I want the agent to watch what we’re doing. See this girl’s pain. Know that it’s all because of her. She forced me to take another victim.”

Henry held back his disgust. His partner had been slipping for a while now. Had wanted Henry to go hunting when Maggie was still alive.

“She’s gone.” Henry stared at the empty table and realized he’d made a huge mistake by leaving the FBI agent alone. But he’d had to calm his partner down.

“You let her get away again!” T’s scowl deepened. “Both women got away from you, Henry?” Doubts were clear on T’s face. Did T know the truth?

Henry looked around the space. How long had she been gone?

Dawn. Had she taken his Dawn with her?

T stormed from the room.

Henry went over to the hidden door and pressed. Nothing happened. Another couple of tries proved the same results.

As he stood in the isolated space, the truth became clear. She was inside the room with Dawn.

Did he dare tell his partner? Both girls would be dead if he did.

“Are you coming?” His partner stood in the doorway. “She’s getting away. If she makes it to town, it’s over.”

“I’m coming.” Henry waited until it was just him. “I know you’re in there. I’ll be back for you.”

He followed T into the gathering shadows of late afternoon.

“Where would she go?” T fired the question at him.

“How would I know?” Henry’s patience had reached an end. “Go back to town. I’ll find her.”

“You’d better.” His partner stormed out of the house.

Henry waited until the echo of the engine had disappeared. He returned to the basement and over to the broken door.

“Come out now, Sierra,” Henry said. “There’s no other way. If you come out on your own accord, I’ll make it easy for you. If not, if I have to come after you, it will be difficult.”

Nothing but silence from the other side.

“I can wait. I have nothing but time.”

Henry wondered if they’d found the secret door he’d created leading out to the side of the mountain.

No. There was no way. He’d disguised the opening well. No one would know it was there except for him.

Yet doubts crept in. He quietly left the basement and hurried around to the mountain. The tunnel leading from his secret space exited some distance from his home and was only accessible by foot.

Henry grabbed a flashlight and started walking, huffing along. The cancer treatment had taken its toll on his body. He’d lost weight. His energy was zapped. At times, he wondered why he continued with the treatment.

Because you have more life to live. He could almost hear Maggie telling him. His wife had insisted he stay strong. She’d been his biggest supporter. How else are we going to take that cruise to Alaska? I’m not doing it alone.

Henry had laughed despite being sick to his stomach and unable to get off the bathroom floor. He told her he’d fight for her and for their trip. And then she’d gone and died on him a few weeks before they were scheduled to make the trip.

Henry didn’t have the heart to go alone so he’d canceled.

His feet stumbled over the uneven terrain. He’d messed up badly. He should never have given in to T’s lust for blood. After all these years, they were both older.

He reached the mountains and had to stop for a moment. Nothing could be heard over his labored breaths. What if they’d gotten away? Then it would all be over.

Henry sat down on a nearby rock, almost as if accepting his fate. He had made peace with this, but he worried about T.

He closed his eyes. He’d rest here for a bit. His mind drifted back to the cemetery behind the church. He could almost picture Maggie’s tombstone. The thought of resting beside her for eternity was a welcome reprieve.

I’m not there, Henry. Just a pile of bones. I’m in heaven with Jesus.

Henry smiled and nodded whenever Maggie spoke about heaven and going there one day. He told her that he was a believer, and she never questioned him. But how could he be? He’d seen what true evil looked like every time he saw himself in the mirror. He could reach out and touch it. Feel its presence in his heart. He hadn’t seen God. How could he believe in what he couldn’t see? There wasn’t enough faith in the world to convince him of a God that would allow someone like him and T to walk the earth.