Moments after Seth left the cabin, Nikki burst into action. The sound of his motorcycle and one more leaving the parking lot and slowly ebbed into the distance. Before he’d left, after they’d had sex—she still couldn’t believe she’d done that—she had feigned no curiosity, acted like she was perfectly content to stay in this godforsaken and stifling hot cabin, not asking for a phone, not begging to leave, nothing. She had pretended weariness and mumbled about sleep. He had offered a few barely comforting words, something about how they would figure out what to do tomorrow, but now, now was her chance.

She hadn’t thought about it before. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of it, but then again, she’d had a lot of things on her mind. She walked to the door and turned the knob. It unlocked. But it was too simple, wasn’t it? Surely somebody was watching the cabin. Was that why the door had been left unlocked? Even when he’d locked her in earlier, she hadn’t even thought about unlocking it from the inside, figuring that there had been someone sitting right on the other side prepared to prevent her from leaving. Standing in the middle of the small living room, she took a deep breath, pushing thoughts of Seth’s body against hers from her thoughts, ignoring the renewed puckering of her nipples at the memory of his touch, the curious connection she had felt with him as they’d . . . 

“Stop it,” she snapped at herself. She took another deep breath, released it, and strode toward the door. Maybe there was someone sitting on the other side, maybe not, but she wouldn’t know until she actually opened it. And if there was? She would come up with some excuse as to why she needed to get outside. She placed her hand on the knob, doing her best to use a firm grip, to pretend that her fingers weren’t trembling and that her heart wasn’t racing. She was so scared it felt as if her knees would give way beneath her any second. She had to find Stacey. That was her singular goal.

Nikki turned the knob, cracked the door open, and peeked outside. Nothing but pitch black out there. She opened it a little wider, wincing as the door protested with a squeak. Not a sound that would ordinarily capture attention, but in the stillness of the night, no sound but a distant burst of laughter from the main building broke the stillness of the night.

She quickly stepped outside and closed the door softly behind her. Now what? She looked over her left shoulder toward the main building. Lights shone from all the windows, both on the first floor, where the sound of laughter could be heard, as well as upstairs, where two of the three windows displayed the glow of light behind a thin film of curtains. The lights from inside on the bottom floor glowed outside, shining off the chrome of the motorcycles lined up out front. She counted ten, maybe twelve, but it was hard to tell in the darkness.

She looked ahead and to her right. Nothing. No movement, no shadows other than those cast by the shrubs. It was too early for her to make out the Big Dipper or the North star, so her orientation would be off. No matter. Her main goal was to get away from the compound. To disappear into the darkness and hide until morning. Then, if she were lucky, she might be able to make her way to a highway to get help. Decide her next move. Without a phone, without money, that would be tricky, but she would manage. Somehow.

She took a deep breath, edged along the front of Seth’s cabin deeper into the darkness, moving to the short side of the structure, putting the cabin between her and the main building. She picked out a path with her eyes, trying to discern the shape of shrubs or rocks, without much success.

Go!

Heart pounding, she started off at a walk, then broke into a slow jog, every muscle in her body tight, her head pounding with every footfall. As she ventured further from the shadows of the structure, she broke into a run, heading toward the darkness away from the northwest corner of Seth’s cabin. Her heart soared with hope and anticipation. She’d get away! She’d get away, and tomorrow she’d find a way to get back home. She didn’t know how, but she had to! She—

She flew through the air, a startled cry escaping her lips. She landed hard on her stomach, like she’d done a belly flop into a swimming pool, only she didn’t fall into water. She landed on hard ground, stunned, not sure what—

“You all right, young lady?”

Heart thundering in her chest, denial roaring in her ears, she scrambled onto her knees, balancing her weight, ignoring bursts of pain that jolted her joints, then finally managed to scramble upward onto her feet. Hell’s bells! She peered down at the shadow of a man sitting casually on the ground, arms balancing his torso, legs sprawled out before him.

She hadn’t seen him, tripped right over his feet. “What—”

“Are you all right?”

He didn’t appear alarmed by her presence, and in fact, his voice sounded almost . . . amused? “Who are you?” she blurted.

“Name’s Padre,” he said, a slight accent in his voice.

She couldn’t place it. Irish, Scottish? The lilt was faint, but she had a good ear.

“Pardon me, Miss, I mean to say that my name is Michael Stephens. They call me Padre. I’m somewhat of the chaplain of our little group.”

“What?” She didn’t understand. What was this guy doing out here in the dark? Padre? Chaplain?

“You must be Seth’s girlfriend,” he said, not moving, his pale features barely discernible in the darkness as he peered up at her. “I saw you riding up with him earlier.”

He didn’t know. He didn’t know she’d been kidnapped, didn’t know that Seth had literally kidnapped her back from the Jokers and taken her to his cabin, where they . . . where they had . . . “Yes,” she lied, stammering an excuse. “It was . . . it was getting a little stuffy in the cabin, and I thought I’d go for a little walk.”

“And then you tripped over my feet. Sorry about that. I like to come out here, just sit and listen to the silence, commune with God, no interruptions.”

Nikki’s heart pounded, every nerve in her body alert . . . fight or flee . . . she frowned, not sure what to do. He made no move to get up.

“Would you like to confess your sins, young lady?”

“My sins . . . ?” What, was this guy nuts? He must be off his rocker. Maybe he had some mental issues, she wasn’t sure, but she wasn’t going to stick around long to find out. “Um . . . maybe later, all right? There’s something I have to do first.”

“The confessional is always open, just remember that,” he said, then leaned forward, hands clasped, head bowed.

Was he praying? She stared at him a moment, then shook her head, slowly backed away, and once again took off into the darkness. He didn’t follow, didn’t shout after her, didn’t . . . anything. How much time would she have before he returned to the main building and perhaps mentioned her to one of the others? How long before someone came after her? She didn’t know, but she kept running, as fast as she dared, sometimes barely avoiding toppling headlong into sagebrush or stumbling over a clump of rocks. After what seemed like an hour or more, she slowed her pace, but only slightly until the moon rose higher, offering a glimmer more of light.

She didn’t know where she was running to, but for now, her only goal was to put distance between herself and the compound. She didn’t know how long Seth would be gone, but when he came back and found her missing . . . finally, a stitch in her side forced her to stop, her head pounding furiously, prompting her to wince every time she took a breath.

She lowered her hands on her knees, breathing heavily, waiting for the ache in her side to subside. She stood just before the lip of a low rise, but as she looked out over the distance, she saw nothing but blackness. No lights from Oklahoma City, no lights from anything to help guide her way to get help.

Then again, from whom would she get help anyway? The cops? She had nothing to report to them other than she believed that both she and her sister had been kidnapped by the Jokers in Albuquerque. She had no proof, and they probably wouldn’t have jurisdiction. Then it might go to the federal level but she cringed at that thought. They’d want proof. She had none. She and her sister were adults, could come and go as they pleased. Without any indication of a crime having been committed, no signs of physical distress or foul play, they would have their hands tied. And what about the Steel Kings? No one had hurt her—yet—and Seth and the others had actually saved her from an unknown fate at the hands of the Jokers.

She couldn’t tell Seth the truth, that she desperately needed to get back to the Jokers so that she could somehow find her sister. He wouldn’t understand. No one would understand her desperation, her willingness to sacrifice herself to save her sister’s life. Stacey was everything to her, a part of her, a perfect carbon copy. They had rarely been separated their entire lives. Sure, they both lived their own lives, but they talked every day, hung out together, often feeling like it was them against the world. Because, as identical twins, they “got” each other. They didn’t have to explain themselves to each other. While they could be different as night and day in certain aspects of their life, in other ways, such as their outlook, their attitudes, and their feelings about certain things, they were identical. They didn’t have to explain anything to each other.

That’s why she knew that Stacey was terrified. She felt that terror because she had experienced some of it, too. She also knew, deep inside, that her sister was still alive. She would feel if she wasn’t, wouldn’t she? Nikki believed that with every part of her being, in her heart and soul. She would know if her sister was dead. But the more time went by without finding her, the farther away she would get. The thought of never seeing her sister again filled her with a deep sense of despair that took her breath away. She had to find Stacey. She had to!

While she had shared a moment with Seth, she didn’t for a moment think that he or his club would be interested in helping her. Why should they? Sure, they seemed to hate the Jokers with a passion, but that didn’t mean they’d risk anything to help her find her sister. The only way she could find her sister was to somehow infiltrate the Jokers, and to do that, she needed to allow herself to be captured by them again. They were obviously in the area, but she also feared that whoever had kidnapped her the first time might not be so willing to keep her alive the next.

She also didn’t want them to realize where she’d been this whole time. What if it got Seth into trouble? Nikki groaned. Why did she care what happened to him? Was it the sex? Was it the memory of the gentleness of his hands on her body, prompting flames of heat wherever they landed? Was it her curiosity about him? The sexual attraction she had felt for him since the moment she had climbed onto the bike behind him at the warehouse? There were lots of things that she couldn’t deny, and she wasn’t going to waste energy worrying about it now. She had to focus on tomorrow. On finding Stacey before it was too late.

A cold breeze ruffled her hair, prompting a swell of goosebumps as the cool breeze passed over her sweaty skin. She stood upright, too quickly, her head spinning. She groaned and clasped her hands to the sides of her head. She smelled rain. Another groan, this time not of pain but of frustration. She couldn’t catch a break.

She turned to the east, saw stars, then looked toward the west. Clouds were coming in fast, carrying rain with them. Great. If thunderstorms in Oklahoma were as bad as the sudden thunderstorms that appeared in the Albuquerque desert, she’d better find some place to wait it out. The sooner the better. It was a good thing she stood on higher ground, if there was a flash flood, chances were she wouldn’t get caught in it. Still, she should go even higher.

She turned and started to head for the lip of the rise she’d climbed, being careful to stay below the rim so as not to provide an outline of herself on the top, just in case they had followed her. But she heard nothing, no rumble of motorcycle engines, no trucks, no shouts . . . nothing now but a distant rumble of thunder. To the west a flash of lightning lit the sky, the wind kicking up even more, and a few fat, heavy drops of rain landing in the sand at her feet. She picked up the pace, scrambling along the edge of the ridge, hoping to get around it and to the north side before she stopped, or before the rain stopped her. She tried to watch where she placed her feet, knowing that one misstep could—

Her foot landed on the side of a rock, probably no bigger than the size of her balled fist. Still, it was large enough to cause her to lose her balance, and she thrust her left foot forward. Unfortunately, that one landed in a deep rut. Once again, from one second to the next, she found herself on the ground, planted face-first. Her forehead bumped into the dirt, her wrist zinging with pain, her knee protesting. “Shit!”

A loud crack of thunder overhead reverberated over the landscape, bringing with it the rain blowing from the west. The storm was upon her, the rain pelting now, striking her back like small pebbles. She didn’t get up but remained where she lay, tears falling now, shoulders shaking with her tears and emotions, huge, gulping sobs tearing at her throat. Desperation battered her spirit, fear for her sister’s fate tore her apart, and her stomach roiled from it all. Her head throbbed with worry and pain. Nothing had gone right from the moment she realized that something had happened to her sister. Nausea surged and consumed her, and she gagged, but she had nothing in her stomach to vomit, nothing but fear and anxiety.

Stacey!

What was happening to Stacey?

The tears streamed down her face as she lay, the rain pelting her, drenching her clothes, beating her back, pain throbbing in her body. She should get up. Find shelter, but she felt so tired, so exhausted, mentally and physically. Confusion not the least of her emotions, she thought a moment about going back to the Steel Kings? To Seth.

Would he help her find her sister? No! He couldn’t discover that she needed to get back to the Jokers. He wouldn’t understand. No one would. Only she knew that their link was the only way to find her sister.

If Stacey was still alive.

That was the question, wasn’t it?