Her intuition screamed stalk. Her gaze fixed on the little girl. She carried a Hello Kitty backpack and wore a navy blue private school uniform. The child looked so fragile walking through the parking lot, so innocent.

Her gaze ate up the distance between themselves and Alexander. If Alexander was the demon, they were too far away to be effective quickly. They couldn’t move the automobile, or they’d be seen. But…she assessed the terrain between the parking lots. There were many big trees for someone of her stature to hide behind. Thomas and Adam were too large to go unnoticed, but she could do it.

She turned to Thomas. “I want to go in closer.”

Thomas gave a sharp shake of his head. “Too dangerous for you.”

“Thomas, there’s a little girl! We can’t just hang back and hope she’s not going to be hurt. Let me go. I can get over there without being seen, and I’ll be closer if something happens. If it does, get your ass over there pronto.”

Thomas chewed his lip, mulling it over.

Not able to stand it a moment longer, she opened the door slowly and eased out. “Goddamn it, I’m going.”

“Be careful.”

She rolled her eyes at him and slipped away.

From the car, she’d mapped out a way to get from point A to point B via cover. The campus of this office building was blessedly tree rich. As the woman and her daughter progressed across the pavement, Isabelle traversed from tree to tree, a path that brought her just shy of Alexander’s car. There, Isabelle hid behind a huge oak and waited.

The dark-haired woman missed a step when she caught sight of the Volvo and kept her eyes on the vehicle as she approached. By now the couple had passed out of the blind spot the trees made and back into Thomas’s line of sight. Isabelle hoped he’d seen that hesitation in the woman’s step, which signaled her unease with the vehicle and the male figure behind the wheel.

Isabelle tensed as the woman and child grew nearer and the Volvo’s car door opened.

“Simon,” the woman called in a tired voice. “I don’t want to do this right now.” She remote unlocked her SUV, spoke low to the girl and the child ran to climb inside.

“Melanie,” said Alexander with his hands out as if to stop her from fleeing. “I’m sorry, but I miss you and Katie. Just a couple minutes. That’s all I’m asking. Just let me have a couple minutes to explain what happened.”

Melanie hesitated, and then walked to him. They spoke in muted tones for a few minutes and then Melanie fell into Alexander’s arms, crying.