I run past her up to Mercedes’s room and crash through the door to find it and the bathroom empty. The window is open, and it wouldn’t be wide enough for me to squeeze out, but Mercedes is smaller than me and much more flexible. But that’s not the worst of it. There, outside, Paolo is gathering up the sheets that she’d tied together, that had ripped from whatever she’d secured them to. The dogs are sniffing and barking, and I hurry back out of her room and down the stairs through the kitchen and out the door.

A memory of something I’d seen at her house crops up in my head. A magazine. Yoga. Aerial yoga.

But fuck. To tie sheets together and use them in an attempt to escape? And go where? The gate is locked. She can’t get off the property, and if she could, then what? She has no money. No transportation.

Although she has friends. Friends outside of IVI.

And she has one on property. An accomplice more likely.

Theron.

“Did she fall?” I ask, my heart pounding against my chest when I reach Paolo.

He holds out the ripped sheet.

“Fuck!” Did my brother come get her? Did he somehow plan her escape? Did Miriam facilitate it? For all I know, he could be running off to elope with her. But she wouldn’t do that to me. She wouldn’t.

At least she survived the fall. There’s no blood. Nothing like that.

I dig my phone out of my pocket and dial my brother. After a few rings, it goes to voicemail, and I hear his arrogant voice commanding me to leave a message.

“Where the fuck is she? Pick up the goddamn phone, you little prick!” I disconnect, then hurry to the stable to get my horse. The grounds are acres large, and the South Cottage is at the farthest end of the property with its own entrance and exit. I need to take the detour to the stables because it will be faster to get there by horse than on foot.

As I mount, I call Theron again, and it again goes to voicemail after a few rings.

“If you touch her, I will fucking kill you.” I disconnect and ride at the speed of light to his cottage, keeping low to Kentucky Lightning’s back as we take the shortest route through the woods.

I hear the dogs somewhere nearby. They must have picked up her scent. But I’m surprised when the sound of their barking grows farther away. When Theron’s cottage comes into view, it’s dark. No lights are on. No smoke from the fireplace. His car is in the driveway, but the house is empty. I know it. He’s not here.