A new sense of urgency kicked Alyssa’s pulse into overdrive, and she and Cord exchanged a look. ‘I need to know right now where that house is located.’ Somehow she knew this was the place they were looking for.

‘Placitas. Let me call Kimberly so she can get me the exact address.’

As she waited for him to place the call, Alyssa’s mind swung back to another time in April when she’d discovered where Isaac had been held. That same sensation swarmed her, and her nerves demanded she move.

A couple minutes later, Bartholomew hung up and handed her a piece of paper. ‘God, I hope this doesn’t mean what I think it means, Detectives.’

Neither she nor Cord responded to that, but what she did say was, ‘Stay where we can contact you, Mr. Rosenfelt.’

They rushed to the car where Cord called Hammond to request the telephonic search warrant and a chopper. While he was doing that, Alyssa called Hal and had him contact the chief of police in Placitas, who to no one’s surprise, Hal knew from ‘back in the day.’

Chapter Forty

Saturday, May 25

Never in Rachel’s nineteen years had she ever been so desperate to change something, do something, help someone else. The desperation was a physical hum that raced through her nerve endings, setting them on fire as she hung suspended in the contraption.

And though her back burned from the slashes sliced into her from the whip, though her hands were raw from gripping the rope dangling to the side of each handcuff, those things faded when the men disappeared, only to reappear moments later with Katelyn. Despite knowing it was unrealistic, she’d still hoped the young girl would somehow be spared this deviant torture.

She’d watched helplessly as the men had dragged Katelyn into the room, her feverish, over-bright eyes spotting Rachel, naked and suspended from the contraption. She’d collapsed to the ground, hand clutched to her throat, her breaths coming in short bursts as she tried to get enough air into her lungs. And then she was crawling to the door, clawing her fingernails down it as the blond muscled guy laughed and dragged her back.

Bile burned its way up from Rachel’s stomach and into the back of her throat as she forced her lungs to breathe in steadily, willing Katelyn to stay strong.

And then, before she could process the change in the men’s positions, one of them had pulled up the long leather strap lying across the foot of the bed and moved in behind her while the other man gripped Katelyn by the chin, holding her face immobile. Even as she screamed out at the searing agony, she saw the man holding Katelyn lean down, an evil, malicious smile decorating his face as he whispered something in her ear.

Trying to dislodge the man’s grip, tears streaked the young girl’s pale face, her mouth opened in a terrified scream drowned out by Rachel’s.

And then a thunderous boom that reminded Rachel of the time Nick had stolen their father’s Hummer and crashed it through their block wall when he’d taken the corner too fast reverberated throughout the entire house, shaking it on its foundation. She hoped it was a nuclear bomb that would kill them all because she would rather die than watch Katelyn try to survive the nightmare that awaited her.