Despite my strong words, I wasn't at all sure how to get out of this situation. I couldn't even move away from the wall. How was I going to jump someone with my hands tied behind my back and my ability to move hampered by debilitating waves of dizziness?

A door slammed somewhere—the noise a long, loud echo. I straightened.

Dani shot me a panicked look. "He's coming back."

I heard more than one voice, and one of them belonged to a woman—a woman who sounded exactly like Dani and me. She was arguing, demanding to be let go. And then the door opened, and she was shoved into the room so hard she fell to her knees. I caught a glimpse of a tall, bearded man, and then the door closed.

She looked up and met our gazes, her hands also tied behind her back.

"Oh, my God," she whispered. "He got both of you."

"Yes," I said. "He went all the way to Carmel to get Dani."

Rachel stared at us, a look of pain and sorrow in her dark-blue, violet eyes. "I'm so sorry, girls. I never wanted this to happen."

"What is happening exactly?" I asked.

Before she could reply, the door opened again, and a different man walked into the room. He wore black jeans and a gray sweater, and his brown hair and eyes were very familiar. I gasped in surprise once more.

"You?" I asked, shocked at the man facing me. "Mark Harrison? My mom's boyfriend? You kidnapped us?"

"That would have been one of my associates," he said smoothly.

"His name isn't Mark Harrison," Rachel said, a fiery anger in her eyes. "It's Max Davino, and he is not your mother's boyfriend. He's a criminal. He's a murderer."

My stomach clenched. I'd thought Mark was a nice, older man who had a crush on my mom, but he looked far from that now. The façade he'd shown me before was gone. He looked younger, sharper-edged, and ruthless.

"Look who's talking," he said to Rachel, his tone laced with anger. "You're right where you belong—on your knees."

Rachel immediately sprang to her feet. "Never," she said defiantly.

He slapped her hard across the face, her head snapping back, the horrifying sound echoing throughout the room.

Dani cried out in alarm.

"Stop," I said, as he looked like he was going to hit her again, if for no other reason than to destroy the defiant expression on her face. "What do you want? Why are you doing this?"