Squinting against the glare of the lowering sun, he slid his aviator sunglasses over his eyes and wondered how the hell he would ever admit that he’d been there the night Arianna Hayward was killed.

CHAPTER 29

CHAPTER 29

Chloe knew she was going to die.

Here, in this hellhole of a basement, all alone.

No one would ever know. Not for years.

The freak had left her for hours, maybe a day, maybe even two, she didn’t know. It was dark and dank in the basement. Water dripped in a rhythmic tapping noise, and the smell of water seeping through the walls was ever present.

And she was alone.

No phone.

No water.

Her hands were tied behind her back and somehow connected to her feet, so the more she moved the more uncomfortable she became. Her muscles were sore from straining, the rope cut into her ankles and wrists, and her joints ached. Sometimes she wished she would just die so that it would be over.

She’d nodded off from time to time, but her fear and anxiety kept her on edge and awake. That and the overpowering sense of thirst. She was hungry, yes, but more intense than the emptiness in her stomach was the scorched bitterness in her dry throat and parched lips. How she wished for a single drop of water. For anything wet. One moment’s relief.

But it wasn’t happening.

At first she’d plotted her revenge and ultimate escape. There were tools on the table and resting on holders in the wall. A knife, she thought, maybe a saw, certainly a screwdriver, any number of weapons to take the freak’s life. And she’d do it, too. If she ever got the chance again. But as the seconds and minutes and hours ticked by in her head, and the pain, discomfort, and despair took over, she thought less about revenge and murder and an eye for an eye, and more about the solace of death, the peace of giving up.

There was her family to consider, but her dad had more children and a new wife, her cousin of all people. Mom would be devastated and heartbroken, but she would have Zoe. If Zoe survived. Oh, God, please. Let Zoe be free of this. If Zoe did escape, she would return for her twin, Chloe was certain, but when? And how? Would she still be alive?

She tried not to think of what might happen, to keep up her flagging spirits, to sing, at least in her mind as her throat was dry as a desert. But in the end she quit trying and just prayed that it would end soon, that her pain would be over, her battle finished.

The people she’d wronged came to mind, and she remembered thinking she loved Tommy. How long ago it all seemed. As if it had happened to another person, in another lifetime.