She didn’t turn, and, as I ran toward her, I had to entertain the possibility that my fake scenario with Derek wasn’t totally fake after all—that Rae had a doppelgänger in North Bay, Ontario. But when I darted into her path, there was no doubt. She was standing three feet from me, and I knew her as well as if it were Tori standing there.

“Rachelle,” I said.

She screwed up her face. “Huh?”

“Rae, it’s me. Chloe.”

“Do I know you?”

I hesitated. “You’re Rachelle Rodgers, right?”

Quite possibly the easiest question in the world to answer, but she stood there, giving me this look like I’d asked her to name the capital of Liberia…and getting the right answer was a matter of life or death.

“I…I don’t think so. I…can’t remember.”

“What?”

She looked around. “I don’t know what I’m doing here. The last thing I remember…” She shook her head. “I don’t know. I think there was a man. Maybe a truck? A van? I…I don’t remember.”

Amnesia? They were seriously going with the classic—and classically overused—amnesia plot? The chances of someone wandering a street honestly not knowing who she was were—as Derek would point out—statistically improbable. To the nth degree.

She peered at me. “Did you say Chloe?”

“Right. Chloe Saunders. We—”

“I know you, don’t I? It’s…” Her eyes went wide. “Oh my God, yes. Chloe. Lyle House. We…” Her eyes rounded, and she grabbed my arm. “We need to get out of here.”

Uh-huh. I saw that plot twist coming.

She continued. “There are men. They…I don’t remember—” She looked around. “Where are we?”

“North Bay, Ontario.”

Her face screwed up. It was a good try, but her acting ability is strictly small-town community theater.

Her eyes widened again. “They put me here to find you. Or so you’d find me.”

Yep, that’d be my guess.

She looked around, still grasping my arm. “Come on! We need to get out of here!”

I cast a glance down the darkened street. No sign of Derek, but I had to trust he was there. I took off after Rae.

Six

Six

I followed Rae, our footfalls echoing down the empty street. It had rained while we were in the theater. The light drizzle had cleared up before I’d come out, but it had left the road shimmering under the streetlights. Droplets plinked into puddles, adding to the air of desolation. A noir crime-thriller stage. Silent, vacant and hazy with the gauzy sheen of rain.