“What happened?”

“Not sure. Sounded like an explosion. I got turned around, heard you yelling.”

A strong cough ripped from her lungs as smoke threatened their path. “We have to get out of here.”

Mitch, who she never saw as a hero type, guided her out of the office down a back stairway she hardly knew was there. Smoke filled the stairs close to the third floor, but he kept them moving forward.

“This doesn’t feel safe.”

“C’mon.” He pushed through the second-floor offices and ran through smoke. He handed her some kind of cloth and helped her cover her mouth to keep from inhaling the smoke-filled air.

They moved in what felt like circles. Judy’s breath came in short pants that brought up a cough. The cloth wasn’t doing a good job of filtering. Each breath felt more difficult than the last.

“We need to find the stairs.” Her head swam.

“This way.”

Only this way wasn’t toward the stairs. At least she didn’t think it was.

Mitch’s grip on her arm was viselike and more menacing than she expected from the shy delivery man.

She removed the cloth from her lips. “We need to go back the other way.”

Mitch pulled her with him.

“Mitch!” She didn’t know of an exit where he was headed.

“I know where I’m going, Judy.” His angry voice shook her. Sounded familiar.

She hesitated, noticed the smoke thinning. She sucked in a breath through the cloth and looked at it.

A pillowcase?

She froze, twisted out of Mitch’s grip.

He turned, looked at her, and she knew.

She acted as if she was going to run, turned into him with her elbow aiming for his torso. They connected and she ran.

A wall of smoke filled her vision, right as a freight train ran her into the ground.

“Stupid bitch.”

Rick and Michael arrived along with the media.

Outside the building, employees gathered in sections, too many unrecognizable faces from every floor. Dressed in full firefighting gear, the fire department personnel filed into the building, pulling hoses. Smoke pushed out of what appeared to be the third floor on the west side of the building. Judy’s office was several floors above toward the east.

Michael turned in circles. “Do you see her?”

Rick peered over the heads of people gathered. “No.”

“I’ll search over there.” Michael pointed to a thick crowd of people standing on the opposite side of the street.

“OK.”

Michael jogged away and Rick searched the crowd around him for a familiar face.

The police started to arrive and usher the people away from the building and still Rick didn’t catch a glimpse of Judy.

When a familiar face met his, he took hold of Nancy’s arm and turned her around. “Nancy?”

“This is crazy,” she said turning toward the building.

“Have you seen Judy?”

Nancy shook her head. “No. We heard the explosion and ran. It was nuts in there.”

“Where was the explosion?”

She pointed toward the smoke. “Either the third or fourth floor. Not ours.”

That was something, at least. “If you see Judy, tell her I’m here.”

He’d already lost Nancy’s attention when a second explosion, several floors above the fourth floor, rattled the building and sent people screaming away from the building.

Running toward him through the crush of people was Neil. He looked like a linebacker pushing through a bunch of tight ends.

Rick didn’t give him time to ask. “I haven’t seen her.”

From behind them, Michael joined the conversation. “Her boss didn’t see her leaving.”

Behind Neil’s shoulder, the police were starting toward them. Probably to move them out of the area. He bumped his friend with an elbow. “Distract them. I’m going in.”

She weighed nothing tossed over his shoulder and lifeless as he hid his path with smoke canisters and well-timed bombs. To think the Army didn’t think he was fit enough for the job. Stupid f**kers.

The path joining the buildings was an abandoned corridor in the garage. If the homeless population knew of its existence, it would be littered with rotting garbage and the stench of urine. But for whatever reason, the vagrants in the area didn’t know it was there. He did.

He relieved the baggage from his back and opened the door to the adjacent building’s empty corridor. With the path clear, he tossed Judy back over his shoulder and down two flights. He twisted a familiar set of halls, the space becoming increasingly dark and obviously unused.

From the look of the old boiler room, it had been abandoned at least a decade before. The space was perfect. Noise from an old shaft that housed the newer ventilation and heating system drowned out much of the noise that would come from the room. Not that he needed to worry about that. Judy’s building would be evacuated, and with the weekend now in full swing, there wouldn’t be any meandering employees around to stumble upon anything.

He dumped her on a pile of blankets he’d placed there earlier, careful with her head only because he didn’t want to ruin his fun by killing her too early. He’d been looking forward to this for weeks.

The chloroform he’d placed on the cloth she’d willingly taken to her mouth was starting to wear off. He wasn’t quite ready for her to be completely aware of where she was, the fun they were going to have, so Mitch found his little helper and cooked up a small cocktail for his guest.

He drew up the solution and flopped down beside her. He wiped the vein in her hand to attention, pierced her skin. She jerked away, but he kept hold of her.

Judy’s eyes opened, the panic sparkling from her lashes wouldn’t be forgotten anytime soon.

He pushed the plunger with her first struggle, slipped the needle away, and waved it in front of her eyes.

“W-what do you . . .” Her words were already slurring, her gaze unfocused.

He let her arm go only to feel the dead weight of it hit his thigh.

He pushed his fingers to her lips. “Shh.”

She moved her head to the side but didn’t have the ability to turn it again before her lids closed and she slumped over.

Mitch stood, rubbed his hands together, and smiled.

Meg pushed through the crowd, Lucas and Dan at her side. She’d just made it back to the house when Lucas and Dan showed up at the gate, informing her about the explosion.

They had to park blocks away from the chaos and run toward the mess of police and fire trucks. As they pushed through the people, they looked for Judy but didn’t see her.