Gianna followed Chris up the steps to his cabin. Had it been only two days since they abandoned the cabin, worried a killer was about to show up on his doorstep? She’d spotted the felled tree that’d ended their escape from the forest in Chris’s truck. It’d been pushed to the side of the road and Chris’s truck had been towed. It felt like it’d happened a lifetime ago.

“I just want to grab a few things,” said Chris as he put a key in the lock. He pushed the door open and stepped back to allow Gianna to enter first. The cabin was dim, and she moved toward the closest window to raise a blind.

A loud crack sounded behind her and she spun around to see Chris crumple to the floor.

She locked eyes with Reid Kruger and froze, her heart in her throat.

Reid dropped the piece of firewood he’d slammed into Chris’s head.

“Chris?” she whispered, her vocal cords numb.

“Shut up!” Reid Kruger was big. Bigger than he’d seemed on camera. He pointed at her. “Don’t move.”

I can’t.

Her feet couldn’t budge and her knees threatened to collapse. She pulled her gaze away from the giant and looked toward Chris.

“Don’t move!”

She lifted her hands and held still but kept her gaze on Chris. Breathe! Time started to tick off in her head. She watched his chest, his eyelids, his fingers. No movement. Dimly she was aware that Reid didn’t have a gun in his hands. Given that he’d shot three people in one day, she’d expected him to be armed. Had she and Chris surprised him?

Chris’s chest moved with a deep breath, and she gasped in relief. She looked up at Reid. “Where’s Violet?”

He jerked his head toward the loft. “Upstairs.”

Gianna hadn’t heard a sound out of the loft since she’d entered. “Violet?” she yelled, holding Reid’s eye contact.

Silence.

“She can’t talk.”

“What did you do to her?” Rage rose from the depths of her gut and fired through her chest. Her fingers curled, aching to rip at his throat, gouge his eyes, and pull his hair out at the roots. Hatred boiled over.

Surprise lit his freakishly blue eyes. “She’s fine. I just needed her quiet for a while.”

“What did you do to her?” Gianna screamed at him. She took a half step in his direction.

Reid leaned toward her. “I. Needed. Her. Silent,” he said in a low voice that made the hair curl on the back of her neck. Seeing her fear, he let his gaze drag over her from head to toe and back up. Sexual desire laced his stare and made Gianna’s stomach churn. A new suspicion settled over her and her limbs turned to ice.

Did he rape my daughter?

Touch me like that and you’ll never be able to touch another woman.

Teeth. Nails. Knees. Elbows. She mentally prepared her arsenal and spread her feet, rocking up on her toes and bending her knees. She wasn’t going down without causing as much damage as possible. She stared back at him, daring him to put a hand on her.

He threw his head back and laughed. “The little tiger has claws!”

She didn’t say anything.

Blinding white teeth grinned at her. “She has spice, too. I like that.”

“Fuck you.”

He found that hilarious. Her anger shot higher.

A glance at Chris showed blood flowing from a gash by his ear. A million questions shot through her brain. How injured is he? Are the police coming? What will Reid do next?

Don’t know. Don’t know. Don’t know.

He shoved the door shut and the cabin darkened. He turned on a small lamp. As her eyes adjusted, he reached behind his back and removed a gun from his waistband and a knife from his pocket. He stepped to the blinds and slashed at the cords, then tossed them at Gianna. She instinctively caught them. “Tie him up. And do it good. I’m watching.”

She knelt next to Chris. His chest still moved with quiet breaths, and she rested the palm of her hand on his forehead as she would for Violet when checking for a fever. Hang in there. She started to tie his hands together.

“Behind his back!”

She awkwardly shifted him to get both hands behind his back. He was incredibly heavy, his limbs difficult to move, but she managed. She tied a loose knot.

“Tighter! Jesus Christ. I’m not blind.”

Gianna gritted her teeth and pulled the knot tighter. “You haven’t proven to be a very good criminal, have you?” she snapped.

“Watch your mouth.”

“How much trouble did you get in when your father found out you didn’t have the thumb drive?”

He said nothing.

Aha! He still hasn’t told his father. “What about Rafael Jones? What did he do wrong?”

“Shut up.”

She lifted her head to look at him, one hand still on Chris’s wrists. She brushed her hair out of her eyes. “You weren’t supposed to kill your partner, were you? Did you have to do that to cover your initial fuck-up?”

He stepped closer and pointed his gun at her eyes. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Now tie his ankles.”

She moved to Chris’s feet, keeping her focus on the killer. “Then tell me, Reid.” She saw his eyes widen the slightest bit at her use of his name. “Tell me how Rafael died. And what did your boss say when he found out my father was dead but you didn’t have the thumb drive?”

“Rafael was a fuck-up.”

“Why was I drugged?”