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was about to drown. My eyes popped open as my vision grew darker. He suddenly pulled back after several seconds to let me breathe.
    “Please, no more,” I managed to get out through my gasps.
    “Oh, how I love it when girls beg.” He laughed. Then he picked up the drill and turned it on. The sound of the motor and metal grinding together was too much to handle. I could barely hold up my head, but when my eyes met the drill, I blacked out.
    ***

Seth
     
    I lunged at the computer screen just as Riggs and Campbell hauled me back.
    Garrett stepped in my view to block Emily from me. “Seth, stop. Look at me,” he said calmly, but there was an edge to his voice. “Look at Lasko’s pattern.”
    I finally made eye contact with him.
    “He doesn’t touch her when she’s passed out, only when she’s awake. The fact that she just passed out was pure luck on her part. Look.”
    I watched Crew’s computer from the last thirty seconds. As soon as Emily passed out, Lasko lost all interest. He chucked the drill on the floor and cursed, then walked up the stairs. I nodded at the guys, and they both let me go. Campbell squeezed my arm.
    “We’re going to find her.”
    “Yeah,” I said, but wished I could believe it. Because, in all honesty, I felt like we were chasing a ghost.
    ***

Emily
     
    I forced my eyes open and moved my hand to my face. I wiggled my legs. I needed to pee. I was back in the room on the bed. Even though the bed terrified me, anything was better than being fastened to that chair. I felt around in the dark and rolled off the bed to the floor. I crawled around until I found my makeshift toilet.
    After I searched some more, my finger ran over a button on the wall. I pushed it and a tiny light came on over my bed. It was just enough to spot a large plastic pitcher of water and, dear god, some almonds in a dish. I stumbled over, drank deeply, and then consumed every almond. I had only a few moments of clarity before I began to feel dizzy.
    As my vision started to blur, I dragged myself back to the bed before I passed out once again.
    ***

Seth
     
    I’m not sure how many times I re-watched the tape as Lasko freed Emily from the chair and carried her to the bedroom. He made sure to put on a show for us as he kissed her head and felt up her chest.
    I rubbed my face hard as I stood up, feeling like I was hanging on by a badly frayed thread. I knew it was only a matter of time before I would completely fall apart. I bit the inside of my cheek hard enough to hurt.
    I pressed my palms against my dry, scratchy eyes that begged for sleep, then moved to the table where the maps were laid out. I scanned the area where the laptop was found.
    “If she could hear the horn, and the sun was in her face.” I whispered. My finger traveled across the grid. “and I was roughly seven minutes away from where the laptop was found…there’s no way he could have known she was there. So how did he get to her so fast? How did he get her out of the woods so quickly?”
    “He had help,” Avery answered as he came up to my side. I swallowed back the pain and concentrated on the red outline that marked off how far he could have walked with her.
    “Maybe he used a boat?” Avery pointed to the lake several miles away.
    “That far?”
    Avery studied the map a moment longer. “If he knew the woods, he may know where the thicker parts are and how to avoid them. How much does McPhee weigh? A hundred pounds?”
    “Give or take a little.”
    Avery shrugged. “When you want something bad enough, you can pull off the impossible.”
    “It’s possible.”
    Avery called the sergeant and went over his theory.
    I studied the forest line. Something didn’t add up. He would have had to have known what direction to go so he didn’t run into us. How in the hell did he pull it off?

 
    CHAPTER TWO
     
    Day 5 In The Basement
     

Emily
     
    I walked into my living room and saw his smile touch his eyes. “You look beautiful.” Seth gave my