The road ended just ahead, where the minivan was. Deep swamp stretched ahead, while some dilapidated old canoes lay beneath a tree on an embankment.

The occupants of the minivan were emerging. For a moment Madison didn’t recognize the man with her sister. Then she gasped, disbelieving. And she knew why she hadn’t been able to see. She knew why she hadn’t wanted to see, to believe….

Anthony was crying, and the killer was telling Kaila to get the baby to shut up. Justin was trying to joke with him, but he was growing angry.

Desperately Madison searched the foliage for Carrie Anne. She didn’t see her daughter. Terror gripped her heart. He had killed Carrie Anne.

No, no, no…that hadn’t happened, she convinced herself. Carrie Anne just wasn’t with them. Something must have happened, and Peggy had gone to get her. She would know if her daughter was…dead.

“Please…” Kaila was saying. “I’ll handle the children. I’ll do whatever you want, but please, just let me handle the children.”

“They need discipline.”

“I’ll take care of it. Really.”

“Get in the boat.”

Madison nearly stepped forward, but then she saw that he was holding a switchblade.

And Anthony’s hand.

“Wait, please—”

“Kaila, don’t learn your lessons the hard way.”

Madison kept quiet, biting her lip as she watched them step into one of the boats.

Madison stood behind a big pine, watching as the boat moved across the narrow expanse of water and its passengers alit on the hammock across the water. She inhaled deeply.

Go back, get help! an urgent sense of self-preservation warned her.

But she couldn’t go back.

When the figures on the opposite side disappeared into the foliage, she scampered toward the boats. She felt ill. There were snakes in the water. Moccasins. God knew what else. Alligators. She wasn’t exactly a nature girl. Oh, yeah, she loved the water, but…

Not moccasins or gators.

And spiders. Oh, God, there were spiders all over the boats. Which boat to take? One had a hole punched through it. Which of the other three was swampworthy?

She couldn’t hesitate any longer. She chose one and pushed off. She moved slowly through the water. It was fairly shallow; saw grass was rising about its surface. In places, the grass was very thick, making it hard to maneuver. Don’t think about the spiders, snakes and gators, she warned herself.

Right. Just remember that a man you loved as family all your life is a brutal killer. A killer who seduced your sister, just like his other victims, who has her here now…

She made it across the water and crawled from the boat, shaking. She hadn’t chosen a great vessel. The water was two inches deep at the bottom. Don’t think! she warned herself. Don’t think!

She couldn’t help but think. Kyle had been so afraid for her. She was the one with second sight, yet he was the one who had known she might be in danger. Kyle, oh, God, Kyle, if I’d listened, if I’d known…

Kyle…

If only she could will him to find her.

But he wasn’t there, she was on her own, and she had to think!

She kept low in the foliage, managing not to scream when she walked into an enormous spiderweb.

She’d been here before, she realized. Years and years ago, when she was a child. This was Roger Montgomery’s “swamp lodge,” as he had called it. Abandoned so many years ago.

And yet apparently…it was still in use.

Oh, Kyle, where are you? I’m so scared. I’m so sorry. Kyle…Kyle…Kyle…

Please…

Madison’s phone was apparently dead. Kyle swore in sheer frustration, slamming his fists against the wheel and throwing his own phone into the back.

Dan stared at him as if he’d lost his senses. Maybe he had.

“Kyle? Where are we going now?”

Kyle had cops moving all over the city, trying Jassy’s place, the morgue, Jimmy’s house, his father’s house, Trent’s, Rafe’s, and checking the roads between Miami and Key West. People were obeying him without really understanding his sense of panic. His wife and sister-in-law had only been missing a couple of hours. No big deal. Women got together and went shopping. Nothing to worry about, according to most men.

But Madison wasn’t shopping. She was somewhere…in danger—and looking just like her mother.

“Kyle?” Dan said worriedly.

He exhaled a long breath, looking at Dan.

“Where are we going?”

“I don’t know.”

God, it was almost as if he could hear her voice. Crying out to him. Was she hurt? Scared? Oh, God, was she dead? No, no, no…

She needed him. He sensed it, knew it. She was near, and she needed him. He had to reach her.

But where…?

All he knew was that he was searching for his wife. The woman he loved. Had loved, had shared something special with, all his life. That wasn’t to take anything away from his marriage. He’d loved Fallon. But she hadn’t been Madison.

He’d stayed away too long. Refused to admit how much he wanted her. He would never let her out of their marriage. Never. Not in a thousand years. Now that he’d held her, laughed with her, made love with her, listened to her nightmares…

“Jesus!” he breathed suddenly. It was as if he could hear her, as if she were really calling out to him. She needed help, his help. She needed him, and he wasn’t there.

“What the hell is going on? What do you know?” Dan asked tensely. “The killer is the guy Kaila was having an affair with, right?” he asked thickly.

“Kaila never had an affair.”

“She was seeing someone—”

“Not sleeping with him. If…if she had been, she would be dead now.”

“They’ve got to be all right. I’m sure the girls are just off with the kids. They went shopping. For the love of God, they must have gone shopping.”

Kyle looked at Dan. “They didn’t go shopping.”

“Then—”

“They’re headed out to the swamp,” Kyle said. Yes, that had to be it. He remembered holding Madison, feeling her shaking and trembling against him.

I was driving west along the Tamiami Trail. To the hunting shacks…it was me, it wasn’t me…

Madison was with Kaila, or following her, not about to let her sister die as her mother had been killed.

19

Madison kept low, approaching the weathered old shack that sat on the pine hammock. Insects chirped. Things seemed to slither.

Yet as she neared the house, she was suddenly bombarded with mental images that left her gasping, doubling over for breath. Flashes of a knife wielded viciously in the flickering firelight danced before her eyes. Blood pooling on the floor.

And she knew. He hadn’t necessarily killed his victims here.

But he had come here to see to their disposal.

Kyle was always telling her to breathe through her mouth. She did so now. She fought the impulse to be sick, staggering up to the wooden shack. She gained control, and looked through the window.

There was a loft inside the shack. Kaila managed to convince the kids that they were on an adventure with their uncle Rafe, and that it was really important for them to take a long nap so they could play games that night.

She was numb, trying desperately to think. Oh, God, if only she could talk to Jassy or Madison now! Just how did you try to placate a raving lunatic? What did she have to do to stay alive? What about the children…

She wanted to laugh. All he had was the knife. She could run! But she couldn’t, because she couldn’t run with three little kids. This was absurd. She had to play along now and pray.

Pray for what?

That someone would find her in the middle of the swamp before he cut her and the children to pieces?

What about Darryl? What would happen when he came back with Carrie Anne, when Madison came looking for her daughter?