“No.”
“What do you mean, no?” Joaquin snapped. “We’re wasting time.”
“Hear her out,” Tristan said.
Joaquin exhaled loudly through his nose but sat back, the springs under his ancient vinyl car seat squealing.
“This guy is a genius,” I told them. “He traveled the country killing girls and managed to elude the authorities for ten years. He baited me into coming here. Going inside could be a trap.”
“So what do you want to do?” Krista asked quietly.
I pressed my lips together. I could just see the top of the roof over the reeds.
“We make him come to us,” I said determinedly.
I gestured for Joaquin to get out of the truck. I slid out after him, and my knees almost buckled when my feet hit the dirt. I took a breath to steel myself and walked to the front of the car, the crowd of locals parting around me. My feet crunched on pebbles, sand, and broken shells as I tromped down the lane toward the house. I stopped ten feet from the door, Tristan behind my right shoulder, Joaquin behind my left, the rest of them gathered aro
und like a small army.
In my mind’s eye, I saw Steven Nell’s dry hands as they grabbed me. Felt his breath against my face. Saw the watery film in his eyes. Every inch of me was shaking, but I curled my fingers into fists. I had to do this. I had to save my sister.
“Steven Nell!” I shouted at the top of my lungs.
Dead silence. There was no wind, no waves, nothing.
“I’m here! I did what you wanted!” I screamed, my voice breaking. “Now let me see my sister!”
We waited. I breathed in and out, counting the beats of my heart. Onetwothreefourfivesixseveneightnineteneleventwelve—
The door creaked open. My breath stopped. Tristan took a step closer to me. I felt his chest against the back of my shoulder. The shaft of light grew wider. Wider.
“Rory Miller!” Steven Nell’s reedy voice called out. “Won’t you come inside and play?”
Bile rose up in the back of my throat. Tristan took my hand, his warm fingers lacing around mine. “No! I want to see my sister first.”
“You’ll only see your sister if you come inside,” he taunted, still hovering out of sight.
My heart slammed in my chest. My pulse pounded in my temples. Never in my life had I felt this terrified, this cold, this unsure. But I had to save Darcy. I’d come here to save Darcy. I took one step forward.
“What’re you doing?” Joaquin whispered. “You said yourself going inside could be a trap.”
“Let her go,” Tristan said, releasing my hand.
“I don’t know about this, dude,” Joaquin said. “I don’t like it.”
Something inside of me snapped. I was sick of them talking about me like I wasn’t there. Deciding what to tell me and when to keep me in the dark. This had nothing to do with them. This was about me and my sister. “I don’t care if you like it or not,” I said sharply. “Darcy’s in that house, and I’m going in there to get her.”
Joaquin and Tristan looked at each other. Neither one said another word. A light breeze kicked up as I approached the squat white building. Light shone through one cracked window. The roof sagged at the center, and the whole front porch leaned to the right. The boards let out a loud wail as I stepped up toward the front door, and the wind lifted my hair off my neck. I glanced back once at Tristan and Joaquin. They were as still as statues. Then I turned and stepped over the threshold. Darcy jumped up from the floor and lunged at me.
“Rory! Oh my god! Rory!”
I pushed her tangled hair back from her face, tears streaming down my cheeks. “Are you okay?” I whispered. “What did he do to you?”
She shook her head. There was dirt all over her pink tank top and blood on her shoulder, but otherwise she looked okay. Terrified, but okay.
“Nothing. He said he wanted you,” she sobbed. “He said we were just waiting for you.”
“Where is he?” I asked, shaking as my eyes darted around the small room. There was a tiny wooden table with two broken chairs around it. A hot pot sat on the floor in the corner, and there was a blue couch by the wall with a huge hole torn into the back of it. Slowly, Darcy’s eyes shifted to the right. I started to turn, just as Steven Nell emerged from behind the open door. He grabbed Darcy’s arm and yanked her out of my grasp, flinging her outside like a rag doll. She was still screaming when the door slammed in her face.