After what seemed like an eternity of driving, Evie’s headlights found the cabin at the end of the road.

It stood alone among the trees, smaller than she had imagined and nearly swallowed by the surrounding woods. Weathered boards covered the windows on the upper floor, and the front porch sagged beneath the weight of years. No vehicle waited outside. No light moved behind the curtains.

For several seconds, Evie remained behind the wheel with O’Hara’s gun resting in her lap.

She had expected Elias to be waiting for her. Instead, the cabin looked abandoned.

That frightened her more.

She checked the rearview mirror. The road behind her had disappeared into darkness, leaving no sign that anyone had followed. Her phone remained inside O’Hara’s patrol car at the hospital. Ortiz would have discovered what she had done by now, but he had no way to know where she had gone.

She was alone.

Evie turned off the engine. The headlights died, and the cabin disappeared.

She immediately turned them back on.

The beams illuminated the porch again, catching the pale trunks of nearby trees and the uneven steps leading to the door. Nothing had moved.

Evie placed the gun inside her coat pocket, keeping one hand wrapped around its grip as she climbed out. Gravel shifted beneath her shoes, obscenely loud in the silence. The cold air carried the smell of damp leaves, pine and distant water.

“Nora?”

Her voice vanished into the trees.

There was no answer.

“Claire?”

Nothing.

Evie left the driver’s door open so the interior light would remain on behind her. It was a small, useless comfort, but she needed something connecting her to the world outside the cabin.

The porch creaked beneath her weight. Up close, she could see fresh scratches surrounding the lock and mud tracked across the boards. Someone had entered recently.

The front door stood open less than an inch.

Evie drew the gun.

Every instinct told her to turn around. Drive back to Ashwick. Find Ortiz and bring every officer in the state to this place.

Then she remembered Elias’s promise.

Nora will die immediately.

Evie pushed the door open with her foot.

A narrow beam of light stretched across the floor from somewhere deeper inside. The cabin smelled of dust, old wood and something chemical she couldn’t identify. She stepped across the threshold, holding the gun in both hands.

The door remained open behind her.

“Elias?”

No response.

The front room contained little more than a couch, a table and an empty fireplace. Dust covered most of the furniture, but a clear path crossed the floor toward the hallway. A glass sat on the table beside a folded piece of paper.

Evie did not touch either.

A floorboard groaned somewhere inside the cabin.

She raised the gun.

“Nora?”

A muffled sound answered.

Evie froze.

It came again—faint, desperate and unmistakably human.

She followed it into the hallway.

The first door opened into a small kitchen. The second revealed an empty bedroom containing a bare mattress and coils of rope. At the end of the hall, light spilled through another partially opened door.

The muffled sound came from inside.

Evie moved toward it slowly, every step feeling like another decision she could not undo. Her heart beat hard enough to shake the gun in her hands.

She reached the doorway and pushed it open.

Nora sat tied to a chair in the center of the room.

Her wrists were secured behind her, and rope bound her ankles to the chair legs. A cloth gag covered her mouth. Her hair was tangled, and dark bruises marked one side of her face, but she was alive.

“Nora.”

Relief nearly dropped Evie to her knees.

Nora jerked against the restraints. Her eyes widened above the gag, but there was no relief in them.

Only terror.

Evie stepped into the room.

“It’s okay. I’m getting you out.”

Nora shook her head violently. A muffled scream forced its way through the gag as her gaze shifted past Evie toward the hallway.

Evie began to turn.

Something sharp pierced the side of her neck.

The gun slipped from her hand. Her knees gave way before she could call Nora’s name.

The last thing Evie saw was Nora fighting against the ropes, staring at her in horror.

Then everything went black.