“It sure as hell isn’t anyone in here—unless there’s been an escape I don’t know about.”

“Not all psychopaths are locked up. There are still plenty of people like you on the outside,” Amarok said dryly. “Evelyn was on the news several times while fighting to establish this institution. The challenge could’ve drawn someone else. It doesn’t have to be Bishop.”

“True. But you have to ask yourself, who’d want to get to Evelyn worse than Bishop?” Jasper pursed his lips, making a show of considering his own question—and then he answered it. “Only me.”

Anchorage, AK—Tuesday 7:00 p.m. AKDT

Evelyn tried to remain calm. Whoever had kidnapped her wasn’t Jasper. It couldn’t be Jasper; he was locked up. And she wasn’t quite as scared of anyone else. She took some solace in that.

When nothing happened, no one else came for quite some time, she slowly began to relax, despite the questions that swirled in her mind. Who’d taken her? What was his intent? And why hadn’t he confronted her? What could he possibly be waiting for?

She had no answers and the unknown was driving her crazy. In an attempt to occupy her mind, she started doing math problems. “If Suzie plans to unload a refrigerator from the back of her truck, and the truck’s thirty-eight inches from the ground, the ramp sixty-four inches long, what is the length of the distance from where the ramp touches the ground to the back of the truck?”

She solved that before making up a bunch of others, which required such focus that more frightening thoughts couldn’t intrude. But she’d skipped breakfast, been kidnapped before she could have lunch and hadn’t been given enough dinner, so she was hungry again.

She returned to the tray her captor had left before and nibbled at the core of the apple she’d discarded. While such a small amount of food didn’t do anything to ease her hunger, it tasted good.

Her body ached from sitting on the ground. She’d stayed close to the door, wanted to get out so badly she hadn’t dared move away for fear she’d miss her one and only chance. But she was beginning to believe she was wasting her time. It wasn’t going to open anytime soon. Her captor or captors didn’t seem to be on the premises. If they were, they were good at ignoring her presence in what used to be a walk-in cooler.

Why would someone kidnap her but not harm her? she asked herself. Was she being ransomed?

She hoped she had been taken for money. If that was the case, maybe Amarok could raise the funds to get her back. They weren’t wealthy, but they both had decent jobs. And he could go to her family and friends. Her parents had a significant fortune. While she hated the thought of anyone having to sacrifice for her release, especially her parents after all they’d been through when she went missing for three days in high school, if the only thing her captor wanted was money maybe she wouldn’t be put through the hell she’d experienced before.