As Wilson spoke from the back seat, Cate surveyed the rolling, wooded terrain. The ground and the skeletons of the bare trees were a ghostly, translucent white under a thin veneer of snow, but no structures were visible. Nor were there any clues to indicate their location.

And after the twisting route they’d followed for forty-five minutes, all she knew was that they were somewhere west of the city, past Defiance and Augusta. Beyond that vague sense of direction, she was lost.

“This is it.”

Cate slowed and tried to detect any indication of a lane forking off the two-lane state road.

“Turn this side of the sign.”

She shifted her attention higher and homed in on a small, rustic wooden placard difficult to read through the light snow sifting to the ground.

Camp Oasis.

Beside it, parallel gravel tracks led into the woods.

“What is this place?”

Silence.

“It’s where Reverend Wilson has his retreats for teens and people from the rehab center. But it’s . . . it’s closed in the winter.”

Cate frowned as Kayla supplied the shaky answer.

Why would the man bring them here?

If this was their final destination, though, she’d have to go with the plan she’d developed during the drive to deal with a remote location where no one was available to come to their assistance.

Problem was, the odds of success were fifty-fifty at best.

But it was all she had—and if Wilson intended to kill them anyway, she wasn’t going down without a fight.

She swung onto the track, inching along on the bumpy surface.

A couple hundred yards in, a log structure came into view.

“Keep going.”

“I can’t see the road.”

“It winds between the trees. Follow the clearing.”

She pressed on, passing a dozen small, rustic cottages set into the woods.

At last the lane widened into a turnaround.

They were at the end of the road.

Perhaps literally.

Her pulse picked up.

“All right, ladies. We’ve arrived. Cate, pass the keys back to me.”

She shut off the engine, set the brake, and complied. “Now what?”

“Get out of the car and stand beside the door. We’ll do the same on the other side. If you’re thinking about making a break for it, you may want to reconsider. There’s very little traffic on this road at night—especially in weather like this—and it will take you a long while to find help. You’ll also leave Kayla at my mercy. If, on the other hand, you both cooperate, neither of you will die this evening.”

The man could be telling the truth—but believing him required a huge leap of faith.

And given the presumed fate of Stephanie and her boyfriend, her trust level wasn’t all that high.

But in any case, she couldn’t leave Kayla behind.