Heart pounding, she found her voice. “Yes . . .” The word came out in a whisper. “Now that I’m out of that terror box, I’m fine.” She glanced around the corridor, where emergency lights still flashed. The alarm had been shut off, though. “Can someone please tell me what exactly happened?”

Tilden, one of two security guards Mackenzie had met when she’d entered the facility earlier, finished speaking with his night shift partner over his radio, then waved them forward and down the corridor toward the stairwell.

“Some kind of catastrophic power failure,” he said. “I’m going to get to the bottom of it.” They followed him down the corridor as he continued talking. “The elevator runs on a battery and should have safely taken you to the main floor.”

On the first-floor level, they pushed through the stairwell door into the main foyer. Tilden turned to Nora. “I’ll let the fire department know we got her out. They were on their way.”

“And you didn’t wait?” Mackenzie looked between Tilden and Alex.

“He wouldn’t wait.” Tilden gestured at Alex.

“Thank you.” She would still be waiting in the elevator for the fire department if Alex hadn’t decided to intrude into her night at Hanstech.

My hero.

FOURTEEN

Outside in the dimly lit parking lot, Alex stood next to his rental car and studied Mackenzie as she watched her sister drive away. Carson followed in his luxury car. Though Alex didn’t know enough to understand their family dynamics, he sensed a strong combination of tension and love connected the sisters.

A security light flickered and buzzed, holding back the darkness that seemed eager to close in on them.

Was someone watching?

Aiming to shoot?

“We should get out of here.” The high-tech facility seemed oddly unprotected, but maybe the rugged natural landscape, along with cameras, was protection enough.

When she didn’t respond, he leaned in. “Earth to Mackenzie.”

She startled, then looked at him, blinking rapidly. “Oh, right.”

He opened the car door and waited for her to get in, then he jogged around to the other side and climbed behind the wheel.

Buckling in, he said, “I don’t feel comfortable protecting you at your brother’s cabin.”

He felt this way for a thousand reasons, not the least of which was that her brother might have been murdered there. He started the car and steered out of the parking lot. “What possessed you to want to stay there instead of going with your sister?”

Nora had made the abrupt decision to stay at her condo tonight. She’d invited Mackenzie, who refused.

“I need more time at the house. Maybe I could look around and see if there’s anything that might hint at what’s going on.”

He sensed that her reasons went much deeper. The family dynamics again. Or . . . “You mean search your brother’s computer.”

“Yes.”