He patted down his pockets. Empty. Even his breath mints were gone.

Where was the blond man, and why had he kidnapped them? Whatever the reason, it couldn’t be good. Kevin looked for a lock to pick. He swiveled his head in both directions. Fear rolled through his belly as he crawled to the edge and put both hands on the thick wooden posts that served as bars. No give.

His cage had no door.

There was no escape.

Danny juggled the pizza and unlocked the front door. In the kitchen, he set the box on the granite counter. The smells wafting from the box didn’t do anything for his nonexistent appetite. He couldn’t get the missing father and son out of his head. He’d spent the afternoon driving around to get a mental map of the town in his head. The latest news updates on the radio made it clear no one expected to find the pair alive.

He glanced out the window. Plenty of light left for a run. He changed into sweats and a T-shirt.

Danny jogged down the long driveway and slipped around the gate. On the main road, he opened his stride. His feet hit the pavement with reassuring firmness. With his bum hand, the sports of his youth were out of the picture. No more boxing as an outlet for stress. Pickup games of baseball or baseball were a thing of his past. But running made him feel competent and athletic again. Running was freedom. He’d always been fast, but now he was outrunning his memories instead of the cops.

It was a race he couldn’t win.

A mile or so down the road, his leg muscles warmed, and Danny hit his stride and pushed harder. The pain in his hand, the visions of blood and bombs, the threat to his sister, everything faded away as his body focused on its basic need for oxygen. When his thighs burned and his lungs complained, he slowed to a jog.

He scanned his surroundings. Nothing but trees in sight. Where the hell was he? He’d gone farther than he’d planned. The deep, dark woods were creepy as shit. He turned and headed back.

Past the point where he needed to drive himself to exhaustion to battle his stress, Danny took it easy on the way back. The return trip took considerably longer since he wasn’t kicking five-minute miles. He slapped an insect off his sweaty neck. Full dark had fallen on the house by the time he hit the driveway. Of course, he’d forgotten the freaky-deaky dark-as-a-subterranean-cave that smothered the forest at night. The crescent moon hanging over the treetops was barely a nursery nightlight. Just enough so Danny didn’t fall on his face. Not enough to see what was lurking in the shadows.