Lyra held the girls tight as the van rocked into a turn. They’d been moving along a rutted road for the past few minutes. She knew that meant they were headed someplace remote, and the feeling didn’t offer her any comfort at all. Murphy had suddenly entered the room and shoved them out the door and into a van without telling her what they were doing or why they were being moved.

The girls seemed to be shut down. They had to be exhausted and terrified, but both of their faces held an almost blank look that worried her more than when they were crying.

They were in the back of a cargo van with no seats or anything to keep them off the cold dirty metal floor. A few times, the van turned a corner at such high speed, they be dumped into one side or the other of the van. Lyra had hoped Murphy might be pulled over by the police for his driving, leading to the chance for them to get help, but that hadn’t happened.

The van came to a stop and Lyra heard the driver’s door open and shut, followed a moment later by the van door opening.

“Get out.” Murphy barked the order and Lyra expected the girls to jump in fright. They didn’t and she didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. They slid out and so did she. They were in the woods. An old cabin stood nearby, but there seemed to be nothing else around them. It was dark, with little light breaking through the woods, so she supposed it was possible there was another cabin right next door.

Somehow, she doubted it. The place felt isolated, lonely.

Murphy walked behind them as they moved toward the small building. Lyra held the girls’ hands and barely processed the small squeeze Prentiss gave her hand. She felt the squeeze one minute, and the next Prentiss broke free and was running straight toward the edge of the woods.

Murphy cursed and raised his gun toward the fleeing figure. Lyra didn’t have time to think. She screamed and launched herself, shoving as hard as she could, but he was too strong for her. He stumbled rather than falling, but turned the weapon on her and Alyssa, who had scrambled to clutch Lyra’s arm.

Lyra backed up and turned to shield Alyssa, waiting for a blow, a shot, something to hit her. It never came. She turned to see Murphy swing his weapon back to where Prentiss had disappeared into the woods and Lyra grabbed for him again. This time, he struck her with a back-handed crack to the side of her head and her head swam as she went down.

“Fuck! Fuck!” Murphy watched the woods where Prentiss had disappeared and looked back at Lyra and cursed again. “You better pray she doesn’t go far. Move it.” He shoved Lyra toward the cabin.

Lyra’s heart pounded and dread swamped her again. Everything in her wanted to race after Prentiss, to hold her tight and protect her. She was four years old and she was running blindly through strange woods in the dark. She looked down and saw Alyssa looking up at her.

Alyssa squeezed Lyra’s hand just as Prentiss had done immediately before she ran. Lyra knew then the girls had somehow planned the move. She forced a shaky smile for Alyssa as Murphy pushed them through the front door of the cabin, but her heart was cracking and she’d never felt such a strong urge to fall to her knees and weep. She wouldn’t, couldn’t in front of her daughter.

Murphy continued to push and shove her as he moved through the cabin. She only realized as they entered the building that he’d grabbed a bag from the cab of the van when they got out. A backpack he now hung over his shoulders, switching the gun from one hand to the other as he did so.

“Up.” He growled the words and Lyra saw the ladder in front of them leading to a loft.

“You go first, baby.” Lyra moved to let Alyssa up the ladder, but Murphy grabbed Alyssa’s arm and her daughter cried out in pain, before clamping down on the sound.

“Hell no. She’ll climb with me. You first.” His eyes were hard and the rage at losing Prentiss was apparent. But beneath it was something else. Fear. He was afraid.

Lyra guessed he was afraid of Damon. She climbed the ladder to find a small loft, hearing Alyssa and Murphy making their way up behind her.

“Try anything else and I’ll shoot you both. I’ll make sure I don’t shoot you dead, though. I’ll make it hurt and I’ll make you suffer.” His threats came at her the entire time he worked his way with Alyssa up the ladder.

Lyra thought fleetingly of trying to hit him and knock him down the ladder, but the thought left as soon as it came. She couldn’t risk that with Alyssa so close to him.

The pair crested the top of the ladder and Murphy thrust Alyssa to one corner of the room, pointing his weapon at Lyra. “Stay where you are.”

Lyra raised her hands up and nodded, but her eyes flew to Alyssa. “Stay there, baby.”

Murphy opened the bag and pulled out ropes and duct tape. “You better hope like hell I can find your other brat.” He didn’t say what would happen if he didn’t, but he seemed to be unravelling a bit at a time. Each time he spoke, she sensed more tension in his tone wasn’t. Maybe he’d screw up and she’d find an opening to get them out of there.

She winced as he pulled the ropes tight around her wrists, then bound the ropes to the leg of a low bed in the loft. The bed was anchored right to the floor. She guessed that was a safety measure and almost wanted to laugh. It wasn’t turning out to be safe for her.

Murphy finished tying her up, put duct tape over her mouth, then went for Alyssa. Lyra couldn’t stop the automatic response to seeing him near her child. She wrenched at the ropes, but he’d tied her to the leg of the bed without any slack in the rope. As she tried fruitlessly to pull free, she did nothing more than make her wrists raw.

Murphy pulled Alyssa over to the bed and Lyra’s heart slammed in her chest. God, if he hurt Alyssa. Tears broke loose and streamed down her face, but he gave her a look that told her to sit still, and she did.

To her relief, he tied Alyssa to another leg of the bed and turned back toward the ladder.

“Don’t try to get out of here. I’m going after your brat. You’d better pray I find her before Damon gets here. He’ll do a lot more than tie you up if he finds out she ran.”