“Nod if you understand.”

I’m not sure I could get free to run, and I realize that no one is near to hear my screams. I nod. I don’t know what else to do.

Reid uncovers my mouth, but he doesn’t release me.

He pushes aside the thick vines and reveals a metal door. With one arm still wrapped around my waist, he holds me against him as he fishes a key out of his trouser pocket. Then he unlocks a padlock that’s been shoved through a makeshift hinge someone—possibly Reid—welded onto the door.

When he opens the door, I gasp. It’s not what I expected at all. Inside, the little house is decorated almost like a home. I look around, hoping to find something I can use as a weapon against him. In the main room, there is a daybed with a pretty yellow duvet on it. I see a coffee table, rocking chair, and a few crates that serve as side tables. On the crates and table are camping lanterns. To the left is a kitchenette with a mini fridge, and an old-fashioned combination sink and stove.

More plywood covers the windows from the inside, but there are pictures on this side of it. My mouth falls open as I look at them. They’re all of Eva. I’m in some of them. Robert is too. There are others that are of groups. Some have been altered so that Reid is beside Eva even though I know he wasn’t really at her side there. He’s cut and pasted them or in some cases altered them digitally before printing them.

“Do you think she’ll like it?” His voice is still against my ear and neck because he has kept me in front of him. It’s like an embrace, and it’s adding to my steadily mounting fear.

I’m silent as he closes the door and puts the padlock on this side, locking us in together. Luckily, the increased darkness hides my expression. I don’t want to anger him by telling him that Eva—or anyone else in their right mind—would be horrified, so I reply, “I can’t imagine what she’ll say.”

“I don’t think she’d mind you being here. You’re special to her.” He pulls me toward the daybed and spins me around, so I am facing him. “Sit.”

Obeying him makes me want to scream, but being hip-to-hip with him seems awful too. I sit. I sit on the daybed facing the killer who has kidnapped me and brought me God knows where. He hasn’t stepped back, so I’m eye level with his crotch.

“I think I’m going to throw up,” I half whisper.

“Don’t!” He leans forward, reaching past me, and pulls a length of chain from beside the daybed. At the end of it is a leather dog collar. “Stay still.”

I can’t stop the tears that fall as he fastens it around my throat. He tucks a finger between the collar and my throat. “Is that too tight? Can you swallow?”

“Reid, you don’t have to—”

“Stop.” He holds up a smaller padlock so I can see it. “I’m going to put this through the rings. I bought this collar because it works with the lock.”

“Please,” I beg. “Just let me go.”

“I can’t. You’re how I’m going to get Eva to come to me.” Reid snaps the padlock onto the collar. I hear the click. Then he straightens and looks at me. “Now, if you need to puke, there’s a bucket for that or bathroom needs.” He motions to an old-fashioned wooden privacy screen that has cracks and few small holes in it. “Your chain reaches. I planned this for Eva, so I thought of everything.”

I don’t move. I can’t. I don’t know what I’m to do here. I’m chained up in a cabin with a crazy person who is obsessed with my best friend. I look around the rest of the room. It’s easier to make out a few other details, as Reid lights some camping lanterns. A water heater with rust-covered pipes sits in the far corner where the privacy screen is. I see that the chain snakes toward it, and is attached to a thick pipe that extends into the ceiling. A doorway to at least one other room is to my right. I wonder what’s in there.

After a moment, I ask, “What are you going to do to me?”

“Nothing, I hope . . . unless you mean you want to do something? I looked up some people you went to school with in Philadelphia and emailed them. I know your secrets, Grace. You’re more like Amy than most people in Jessup know.”

I remember him saying he “sacrificed” Amy, so I try to be careful in my words. “I don’t . . . I can’t do that sort of thing.”

“Sex?”

I nod.

Reid looks upward at the ceiling. “This is part of the test, isn’t it? I get it. I need to wait for Eva. Prove my worthiness. Fine.” He looks at me again. “Maybe after Eva gets here you’ll change your mind.”

There is no answer here that seems safe, so I say nothing. I’ve never been as terrified as I am here in this place with him. I don’t know how he expects to get Eva here, and I certainly don’t want her imprisoned too. What I want is someone to get me out of here.

“I don’t want to die, Reid,” I whisper.

He nods. “I understand. I hope you don’t have to. It would upset Eva.” He smiles and walks over to a bag in the rocking chair. He unzips it, digs around inside, and pulls out a black collar with a little rectangular box on it. Then he pulls out what looks like a remote control with an antenna on it. “If you’re good, we can switch from the leash to a training collar. It’s supposed to work on dogs up to large breeds, and I don’t think you weigh as much as some of them.”

I can’t even speak right now. He’s crazy, absolutely, completely, dangerously crazy.