Lucas stumbled down the stairs, and one of his neighbors grabbed him before he tumbled and did serious damage like breaking a leg.

“Let me get this for you. Is this Troy’s football-card collection?”

“Yeah, he’d be destroyed if something happened to it. Is there anyone else inside?” asked Lucas.

“I think everyone is accounted for.” They both looked across the street, counting heads. The apartment complex was small, only eight units with nineteen total people, including Mrs. Levitz.

The two yap-yap dogs who lived downstairs next to her were barking at the commotion. All the downstairs apartments were filled with smoke, there was smoke practically surrounding the building outside, but Lucas didn’t see any flames. Were they in the back?

A fire truck could be heard in the distance. This whole thing was weird. Lizzy ran up to him. “That smoke—it’s toxic. Everyone’s eyes are burning. But there’s no flames. What is this?”

“I don’t know,” Lucas said. His own eyes were watering so much it looked like he was crying. They walked across the street, and Lucas put his backpack on the lawn.

He called Regan. Her phone rang and rang, she was probably sleeping. Lizzy ran to help the owner of the dogs when one of them got away.

Regan answered. “Hey.”

“There’s a fire at my apartment.”

“Where are you?” She now sounded more alert.

“Outside, with my neighbors.”

“Do I hear fire trucks?”

“Yes, I can see the lights, a couple blocks away.”

“Stay put. I’m on my way.”

He ended the call and was about to walk over to where his neighbors had gathered when someone came up behind him.

A hand fell onto his left shoulder, and another came around his front. “Say one word and I will kill you.” He felt a sharp jab in his right side, then excruciating pain. He could feel blood dripping down his skin.

“Whoops,” the woman said.

He turned and saw a black Jeep Wrangler on the street. Its rear door was open. A rag came down over his face, and it smelled sweet. He looked at the woman, as he clutched his side. Everything looked fuzzy and unfocused.

Rachel Wagner?

Rachel pushed him into the back seat as he grew woozy, and then he couldn’t think straight. He heard Lizzy scream his name. She sounded far, far away...then the car, with him in it, was moving.

He lost consciousness before the first turn.

Forty-Six

Regan jumped into her truck not five minutes after Lucas called—she’d simply pulled on the clothes she wore yesterday. She was twenty minutes out of town, but this early in the morning, she punched it, figured she could make it to Lucas’s in fifteen minutes.

Her phone rang as soon as she got on the highway.

“Regan Merritt,” she answered.