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ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-EIGHT

FEATHERWOOD FARM

Ellie’s head throbbed so badly she could barely open her eyes. All she wanted to do was sleep and disappear into the peaceful silence.

But muffled cries seeped through that peace.

She tried to move and felt a hand rubbing her arm. “Wake up and help us.”

Reality struck her. She’d been working a case, searching for two missing little girls.

Adrenaline suddenly flooded her, and she jerked her eyes open. A groan escaped her and for a moment she had to close her eyes again. The headache was blinding but the hand kept rubbing her arm, then she felt it against her cheek. She breathed in and out, the child’s voice murmuring against her ear.

“We’re scared. Please wake up and help us.”

She pushed past the pain and opened her eyes. “Mazie,” she whispered.

“Yeah, Ivy’s here, too.”

Relieved they were alive, she tried to sit up. The room spun and for a moment, she thought she might hurl. But Ivy’s tear-filled face appeared in her vision, her lip trembling.

“I want my mama.”

The tiny voice and big frightened eyes brought Ellie out of her stupor, and she dragged herself up. Both girls were shivering, their eyes red rimmed from crying.

The image of Derrick lying face down in the dirt, barely breathing, taunted her. Thankfully she’d called an ERT before she found him. Was he alive?

“Lady,” one of the girls said. “Are you all right?”

“If you have a phone, I can call 9-1-1,” Ivy said. “Mama showed me.”

God help them. She was the police.

She patted her body but her phone was missing. And so was her weapon.

“It’s okay, I’m the police,” Ellie murmured. “I don’t have my phone, but I’m going to get us out of here.” These girls were not going to die on her watch.

They were looking at her in such horror that she raised her hand and felt her cheek. Sticky blood and mud clung to her face, and she felt the jagged line of a cut where she’d hit a rock. Hurriedly she tried to wipe the mud and blood away but her face stung and she might have made it worse. She reached for her shirt tail to wipe her face but looked down at the clothes. Muddy and torn.

“Are you okay?” Mazie murmured.

No, hell, no she wasn’t. “I will be,” she said, determination kicking her butt into gear. “And you will be, too, as soon as I get us out of here.”

She glanced around the space, her body shivering with cold and shock. The pungent odor of farm animals filled the space although she didn’t see any. But she realized they were in an old chicken house.

“Is my mama okay?” Mazie asked in a pained whisper.

Ellie’s heart squeezed and she hugged the little girl to her. “She’s in the hospital, honey, and the doctors are taking good care of her.”

Mazie breathed out in relief. Ellie scanned the room again for a tool or something to help open that door but saw nothing. She kissed both girls on the forehead, then crawled toward the door. She ran her hand up and down the wall, searching for a lock or keyhole… some way out. But she didn’t feel a door handle.

She pushed and banged at the door, and the wood rattled but he’d obviously locked it.

Dammit, she could not give up.

If Huller returned, she had to be prepared to fight.

A noise sounded outside. A car engine. The van he’d brought her here in?

Where was he going now?