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PROLOGUE
This was it. The moment she'd been waiting for. Nicky Lyons pressed her back to the wall beside the door, her gun out and ready. She held her breath so as not to make a sound. Shutting her eyes, she found her happy place.
Rippling water. A tide slowly rolling in.
Nicky opened her eyes and sucked in a breath.
Game time.
She faced the door and threw her black boot right into the wood, making the lock burst open on this remote cottage off the coast of rural Florida.
The perfect place for this sicko to bring the senator's daughter.
Nicky stepped into the empty cottage with her gun facing forward. As a BAU agent specializing in missing persons, she'd never shied away from getting her hands a little bloody. If it meant saving a missing girl, she would chase a kidnapper to the ends of the earth.
This guy had made a mistake and bought a chocolate bar from a convenience store in the nearby town with his credit card; and Nicky had found out that this cottage had been in his family before but was sold years ago. The fact that it was sold convinced the others back at HQ that the guy likely wouldn't be here.
But then Nicky discovered that the "buyer" of the house seemed to be a completely non-existent person. A guy named Daniel High, who had no birth certificate, no paper trail. He’d bought the place in cash.
Nicky didn’t buy it. In fact, she was damn sure that the suspect—Frank Reese—had bought it under the alias “Daniel” just to do whatever sick things he was doing here without getting caught. Nicky was sure “Daniel” was the same person they'd suspected had kidnapped the senator's daughter, Masie, more than a year ago.
He had to be hiding her here.
A place where people could be easily forgotten.
The cottage was dark, and she didn't switch on the lights. Nicky didn't make a sound as she stepped into the living room. She took a deep breath and braced herself against the thought of what she might find. If this guy was the one who stole Masie, keeping her locked up for a year, he was capable of doing anything.
Nicky took out her Maglite and switched it on, shining the light around the guest bedroom.
A creak of the floorboard behind her. Nicky's heart stalled.
Someone was right behind her.
Nicky spun. Her eyes met his, shiny as a snake's. He was tall and thin, covered in tattoos. He had one hand behind him, his fingers curled around the handle of a gun.
Frank Reese.
It was really him.
Nicky wasn't about to wait for him to shoot her--she dodged beneath him, just as he fired off a bullet that resounded through the cabin. Nicky got under him and struck his arm upwards, causing his grip to drop the gun. It skidded across the wooden floor. Nicky drew her own gun, ready to shoot--but Frank was fast. He grabbed her wrists and forced them above her head, pointing her gun straight at the ceiling. Nicky fought back with all her strength, but in this moment, she wasn't afraid of dying.
There was only one thing she cared about.
"What have you done with Masie Gregory?" she uttered as she tried to twist her wrists from his grip.
His eyes shone against hers, and a smile curled at his lips before he let out a wicked laugh. And at that moment, Nicky knew, without a doubt, that her hunch was right--this was her guy.
Anger surged through her. She shoved back against him.
"Where is she?" she spat at him, shouting.
He chuckled and pressed her wrists up and forward, increasing the strength of his grip. Nicky's arms shook as she tried to hold back the pain.
"Let her go," she said through gritted teeth.
“Or what?” he taunted.
The words sent a chill down her back. "If you hurt her--"
