Have things gone so far that they can’t be stopped? Parker doesn’t know. He just knows he doesn’t want to die on this floor, curled up like a shrimp. He rolls to his knees and starts to push himself up. He flinches when one of Velcro’s hands moves toward him. But instead of hitting him, the older man grabs one of his wrists and helps him to his feet.

Hocking a mouthful of blood onto the floor, Parker fists his hands and takes a fighting stance. At least his wrists aren’t bound like the others’. If he can just manage to stay on his feet, he might survive.

But now no one’s even looking at him. He follows their gazes.

A security guard steps out of the entrance to Eternity Day Spa. Parker blinks.

A mall security guard. Is he coming to save them?

Only he’s carrying an automatic rifle in his right hand. And his left grips the shoulder of a girl about Parker’s age. Her turquoise headscarf marks her as Muslim. A trickle of blood runs from one of her nostrils. Her face is expressionless, but her huge dark eyes betray her terror.

So this security guard is no one’s savior.

Parker tries to put the pieces together. Has the Muslim girl been hiding inside the spa the whole time? And what about the guard? If he’s a bad guy, does that mean all the security guards are part of this?

“Ron,” Wolf yells from the other side of the gate, “where’d you get that one?”

Ron tows the girl to the gate, with Lips following close behind. “I found some kids in the service corridor. They were trying to get out through the emergency exit. When I grabbed this one, the other four ran off.”

The other four? Could one of them be Miranda? Hadn’t she told Parker she was hiding with four other people?

“This is America,” Lips shouts, and yanks the scarf off the girl’s head.

Her hands clap on either side of her head, fingers spread wide, trying to cover her hair the way someone just out of the shower would cover their body if their towel was snatched away.

Heels whispers to the group around Parker, “You guys, we need to make a plan while they’re distracted. We have to turn the tables.” Her back is to the security gate. Parker is standing across from her, meaning he can see both her and the killers.

“Plan what?” Van Duyn whispers, drawing out the word as if she’s not quite agreeing.

“If we work together, we have a chance.” Heels’s whisper is urgent. “They can’t shoot all of us.”

“Yes they can.” Businessman shakes his head. “Those are semiautomatics. They could kill all of us in twenty seconds.”

*   *   *