My phone buzzed, and I glanced down at the console to see Dani's number. We hadn't talked since she'd hung up on me the night before. I needed to speak to her, but not right this second. I couldn't get into a long conversation now when I was about to turn in to the hospital parking lot. I'd call her back after I spoke to our mother. Hopefully, I'd finally have a complete story to tell her.

The parking lot was crowded, so I had to park on the top floor of the parking structure. Too impatient to take the elevator, I raced down the stairs. I was nearing the ground level when I heard someone coming down behind me, moving fast, making a lot of noise. I was about to turn around when I felt an enormous weight come down on my head. I tumbled down the last few steps as pain ripped through me, along with the fatalistic thought that I wasn't going to get away this time.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

I don't know how long I was out but as I became aware of noises around me, I realized that I was still alive—at least, for now. I was laying on something hard and cold.

As I opened my eyes, pain swept through me, made worse by the light coming through the slits in the blinds above me. I squinted as my eyes tried to focus through the throbbing ache that seemed to get worse with each breath, each beat of my heart.

I heard someone crying. As I tried to sit up, I realized my hands were tied behind my back. It took me a minute to roll over, but I managed to get onto my side. I was in a storage room. There were dusty shelves filled with Bibles. I blinked at that odd realization. There were also boxes of candles and pamphlets, some music stands and containers that smelled like incense.

My gaze moved across the room, stopping abruptly when it came to the figure lying on the floor across from me. My heart skipped a beat. Her hands were tied, and there was a blindfold around her eyes, but I knew her like I knew myself.

"Dani," I said, finding new energy to get onto my knees and scoot across the floor. "Oh, my God! How did you get here?"

"Brynn?" she asked between sobs as she rolled over onto her back.

"It's me. What happened?"

"I don't know. I was grocery shopping. I put the bags in the back of the car and then someone hit me over the head. I woke up, blindfolded, in the trunk of a car. I was there for hours. Then some guy carried me in here and dropped me on the floor. Where are we? Can you see anything?"

"Yes. We're in a storage room. It kind of feels like we're in a church. There are shelves with

Bibles and candles."