But it was time for Julia to see what it felt like to rot up here in the mountains for a change! Let her be the one who couldn’t escape, who would be dependent upon her own damned sister, who had to fear that Sophia might never return. Julia would see what it was like to feel as if she were slowly going out of her mind.

At that thought, Sophia actually smiled.

The trouble was, Sophia had no clue as to when—or if—Julia would deign to return. She gnawed on a fingernail, then realizing what she was doing, quit.

“Get it together,” she whispered. She was never exactly sure when Julia would arrive, but so far it had been about every other day—but now, it had been several days longer, and Sophia was beginning to worry. Her stomach curdled at the thought that she was almost out of supplies. “Don’t freak out.”

Crap! There she was talking to herself again, having conversations not only with herself, but others as well. Not just with Julia but James as well . . .

As her mind wandered to James again, she caught herself and ignored the painful ache in her heart, the lump in her throat. She didn’t have time to dwell on him right now.

“Oh, James,” she whispered in a moment of weakness, then shoved thoughts of his handsome face from her mind. Right now, she had to concentrate.

Julia had to return soon. Even she couldn’t be so cruel as to let her sister—her damned twin—die a slow, torturous death of dehydration or starvation.

But then, something could have happened to her. What if Julia were injured? Lost? Killed in some freak accident? Arrested?

Would anyone know Sophia was imprisoned here?

Gus Jardine? Well, maybe. But would he care?

Not at all. Gus only cared about himself.

So who would find her?

The answer was as bleak as the surrounding hills: no damned one.

Sophia’s throat closed in fear again, and she had to force herself to back off the worries, to slow her suddenly panicked breathing. Eventually, her parents would start to wonder, despite the fact that they’d been estranged.

Oh, what a fool she’d been to trust Julia.

She closed her eyes.

Waited.

In the dark.

Alone.

As she had been for days.

Time ticked slowly by, and Sophia could only keep her panic at bay for so long before the questions that had plagued her started repeating, over and over again, in a never-ending loop.

Would Julia ever know the angst of . . . ? Wait!

Sophia froze, her ears straining.

Had she imagined the noise, the whine of a struggling engine?

Her heart nearly stopped.

But there it was again.

The rumble getting ever louder.

She shifted on the ledge, stared out the windows as her lungs constricted.

Oh, please!

A flash of light caught in the surrounding firs, and the sound of the engine grew closer.

Julia!