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PROLOGUE
Consciousness came to Gigi slowly. The first thing she was aware of was a gentle rolling sensation, as though she was moving up and over the crest of a wave. The waves grew gradually more powerful, and she grew nauseous as they grew in intensity.
She moved her head, and the waves morphed into deep, throbbing pulses centered behind her eyes. She groaned, and the pulses sent rhythmic stabs of pain through her temples. She gasped, and a lightning bolt of agony shot through her skull.
She squeezed her eyes shut, pushing out tears as the pain pushed her back toward unconsciousness.
After what felt like hours, the pain calmed enough that she could open her eyes. She did and was immediately stabbed with bright white light. She gasped again, and this gasp ended in a choking sob. She took a deep breath and released it slowly, willing herself back to alertness little by little.
The pain in her head eased slightly after a few minutes, enough that she was able to open her eyes and see that it wasn’t bright at all. The sword of light that had pierced her skull earlier was a single streetlamp that illuminated the ground she lay on.
She sat up slowly, gritting her teeth against the nausea and headache. She couldn’t remember what happened, couldn’t remember anything from yesterday after leaving for her morning walk.
She kept her eyes open and focused on her breathing until her vision coalesced. What had happened to her? Where was she?
She looked around and saw that she was in what looked like an industrial lot. Forklifts and other heavy equipment were parked in rows a few dozen yards away. A few dozen yards past that, piles of rocks and stacks of steel beams sat in orderly rows. To the other side were more beams and bags of concrete powder. She was in some sort of storage backlot for a construction company.
What the hell was she doing here? The nearest industrial park was over twenty miles from the upper-class Rolling Hills Estates where she lived. How had she gotten here?
A shadow caught her eye near one of the machines. The silhouette of a man. She blinked, but despite clearing her vision, all she could see was his shadow.
“Who are you?” she asked, her voice hoarse and croaking. “Where am I? Did you bring me here?”
The silhouette didn’t respond.
Panic wormed its way into her consciousness. She wasn’t naïve. She knew it meant nothing good that she was trapped here in some backlot with her head pounding while a strange man watched her from the shadows.
“Please,” she said, “I have money. I can pay you. Just please let me go.”
He spoke then, a soft, almost gentle voice that nonetheless carried a hint of venom. “You’re going to pay for what you did.”
Her heart froze. Pay? For what? What did she do? Did he think she was someone else?”
“What are you talking about?” she pleaded, “Pay for what?”
That’s when she heard it. A low, ominous growl, followed by another, then another. More shadows appeared next to the man. Big shadows, low to the ground, shadows with long snouts filled with teeth.
One of the unseen dogs barked, and the man said, “for everything.”
Panic clutched her like a vise. “Please!” she cried out, “just tell me what I did!”
“You know,” he said.
“No I don’t!” she said. “Please!”
He lifted a hand, and she realized with a sinking feeling that he wasn’t going to accept her pleas. Whatever he thought she did, he was going to kill her for it.
The dogs growled and snapped and barked, and a few of them approached closely enough that she could see their massive muzzles and bared fangs in front of their glowing red eyes.
They were big dogs, Rottweilers or Shepherds. Guard dogs. Dogs that could easily rip her limb from limb if so commanded. A few dogs were smaller, terriers and spaniels, but they bared their teeth and barked just as ferociously as the bigger dogs.
“You can try to run if you’d like,” the voice said calmly, “it won’t matter.”
It was a lilting tenor, soft, almost feminine. The contrast between that soft voice and the low growl of the dogs terrified her.
“Better hurry,” the voice said.
She got up and started running just before she heard the snap of a finger and the roar of the dogs as they rushed their quarry.
