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terrifying, but right now, it would be a welcome explanation. She feared that the reality was much, much worse.
    Gooseflesh prickled on her arms, left bare by the flimsy cami she’d donned earlier in the evening. Wherever she was, it was cold. Too cold, considering how hot it had been lately. And musty. It smelled like the crawl space under her dad’s house. Swallowing convulsively, she tried to wrap her arms around herself to coax warmth back into her icy skin, only to discover that her wrists were tied.
    A spike of adrenaline crashed through her, and sweat bloomed on her skin in spite of the chill air. She scrambled to her knees and surged to her feet, running though she couldn’t see even an inch in front of her.
    She barely got two steps before she was jerked off her feet by a line of rope securing her bound wrists to the wall. Her knees hit the hard floor with bruising force and her startled cry broke the dead silence of the room.
    Sobbing now, she yanked against the rope. The cord binding her wrists bit into the tender flesh, dug against delicate bones. Warm liquid trickled down her arm and she knew she was bleeding. Defeated, she lay on the floor, struggling not to throw up as the throbbing in her head threatened to split her skull.
    After several moments, Kara struggled back to her feet and followed the line of rope to where it secured her to the wall. She fumbled at the knot with clumsy, cold fingers.
    “You can’t escape, so you may as well stop trying.”
    Kara’s whole body jerked as she searched frantically, futilely, for the source of the low, raspy voice.
    “Who’s there? What do you want?” The words struggled past her dry lips, intensified the throbbing in her skull.
    The disembodied laugh made her stomach pitch with dread. “Cooperation,” he said finally. “And as long as I get it, you and I will get along just fine.”

C HAPTER 3
    E THAN WATCHED TONI’S little Honda pull out of the driveway, half tempted to follow her. And not just because Jerry had told him he expected Ethan to keep tabs on Toni Crawford and any information she uncovered. His interest in Toni had already crossed the line from professional curiosity to personal interest, and his brain was cooking up scenarios where Toni slipped off those nerd-chic glasses while Ethan skimmed her tight jeans off her tight ass.
    But finding a missing teen—even one who had probably just overslept after spending the night with her boyfriend—pulled rank over chasing tail. He flipped open his phone and dialed Derek as he pulled out of Kramer’s driveway.
    “What’s the sitch?” Derek asked, not bothering with a greeting.
    “Kramer’s daughter snuck out last night and hasn’t come back yet.”
    “That’s why you needed the logs? I figured they had a break-in.”
    “Nope. More like a breakout staged by a pissed-off seventeen-year-old.”
    “And they needed you? Why not do a calldown on her friends?”
    “No kidding. But the parents say she’s a good kid, never does this kind of thing.”
    “Every parent thinks their kids are good kids,” Derek interjected. “For fuck’s sake, Dad thought we were good kids. Shit, he thought Danny was a good kid.”
    “Speaking of, is he at the office today?”
    “On a Saturday? That lazy sack?”
    “Right.” At this hour, Danny was no doubt clocking twenty or so miles, a typical training run for the psycho ultra-marathons he liked to do.
    “I need you to pull some info and text it to me.” He rattled off the names of several of Kara’s friends and told Derek to see if he could find a last name for Sean the boyfriend. And before he thought better of it, “And find out everything you can about Toni Crawford.”
    “I bet I already know. Blond hair, spray-on tan? Head the size of an orange and double D’s out to here?”
    “C’mon, their heads are always at least the size of grapefruits. Seriously though, this isn’t someone I’m sleeping with.” Yet.
    “Good, ’cause you know I