LITMIR.BIZ

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The lock stuck. “My sister... I think... I think she’s been shot.”

      “What is the location of the emergency, ma’am?”

      Kate squeezed her eyes shut, fighting back tears as she gave the woman her sister’s address.

      “The paramedics are en route now, ma’am.”

      Thirty seconds later, Kate managed to open the door. She stepped inside the two-story house in the upscale Dallas suburb, her heart pounding. Dora the Explorer giggled on the flat-screen TV in the living room. The normally immaculate house had been completely trashed.

      “Rachel!” She screamed out her sister’s name.

      Kate picked up the remote, froze Dora’s character, then called for her sister again, but only an eerie silence greeted her. Trying not to panic, she checked quickly through the downstairs.

      There was no sign of her sister.

      She headed up the stairs straight for the master bedroom. Like the rest of the house, the room had been trashed. Bedding lay in mounds on the floor, framed photos had been ripped off the walls and dresser drawers dumped onto the floor. Their contents lay strewn across the bloodstained carpet—all telltale signs of the horror that had taken place moments before.

      Rachel lay still on her back in the middle of the room.

      Kate dropped to her knees beside her sister, avoiding a thick shard of glass from a broken mirror, and grasped Rachel’s wrist. The monotone beeping from the receiver of the landline vied for attention against a pulse that was steady but weak.

      Rachel groaned and opened her eyes.

      “Don’t move, sweetie. I’m here.” Fighting back the tears, Kate wiped off the perspiration that had beaded across Rachel’s ashen forehead.

      “They broke in through the back door... They had guns... It all happened so fast...”

      “An ambulance is almost here, and they’ll get you to the hospital. You’re going to be okay, Rachel. I promise.”

      Kate’s gaze shot to her sister’s bloodstained dress and realized it was a promise she might not be able to keep. “Rachel, stay with me. Please.”

      Grabbing a bathrobe off the floor, Kate pressed the fuzzy garment against Rachel’s abdomen where the bullet had entered. The white material immediately took on a deep crimson stain.

       Oh, God, please don’t take her now. Not this way.

      Rachel’s eyes widened as she gasped for air. “Sophie... They took Sophie.”

      “Sophie’s fine, honey. She’s with Mom.” Kate forced her voice to stay calm despite the sick feeling spreading through her. Rachel had to be mistaken. Sophie spent every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning with Grams. And today was Monday.

      But if that was true, why had Dora been on?

      Rachel’s mouth twisted from the pain. “No...Mom couldn’t keep her today. Her arthritis is flaring up again.”

      The walls of Kate’s stomach contracted. Surely someone hadn’t taken her four-year-old niece. She brushed back a strand of Rachel’s auburn hair. “I didn’t see her when I came in, but if she’s not with Mom, she has to be here somewhere.”

      Kate glanced at the open door of the bedroom, trying not to imagine what Sophie might have seen. Armed men breaking in and tearing apart the house. Her mother shot. And if they had taken her...

      “Sophie?” she shouted. “Are you here, sweetie? It’s Auntie Kate.”

      No response.

      Kate pressed harder against Rachel’s wound to try to stop the bleeding, as her mind scrambled to put together a time line. She’d arrived moments after Rachel’s call, unclear from her sister’s frantic speech as to what had happened, other than the chilling words that she’d been shot.

       They shot me, Kit Kat. Hurry...please. I can’t...

      The moment she’d stepped into her sister’s house, it had been clear that something was terribly wrong. Someone had been here, systematically going through every inch of the house. Looking for something. But what?

      The tug to find Sophie grew stronger, but for now, she had no choice but to stay with her sister.

      “Rachel, I need you to try to focus for a minute. Who shot you?”

      Rachel’s gaze narrowed. “Two men.”

      Kate listened for signs that someone was still in the house, while trying to swallow the terror. “Do you know them?”

      Rachel shook her head.

      “What about Sophie?”

      “They took her.” A shriek erupted from Rachel’s lips as she fought to sit up. “I know they did. They took my baby.”

      Kate held Rachel tighter. She had to be mistaken. “Sophie has to be here. What reason would anyone have to take her?”

      Rachel’s breathing grew raspier. “I don’t know.”

      Kate glanced at the window. Where was the ambulance?

      “You have to know something, Rachel. They were here, looking for something. What were they looking for?”

      “I said I don’t know.”

      Kate frowned. If Sophie was missing—and Rachel didn’t make it—they were going to need every clue possible to find her. “Try to think. Please. Does this have anything to do with Chad?”

      She’d never known Rachel’s husband to be abusive, but that didn’t mean their marriage had always been amiable.

      Kate remembered that Saturday Rachel had met her for lunch and told her not only that she was pregnant, but that she was going to marry the baby’s father. Rachel had spent that summer in Europe, traveling with a group of friends, and had fallen for the first Frenchman who’d caught her eye. Kate might not have approved of the relationship, but she’d seen the love Rachel had for Chad and prayed that they’d find a way to make it work. They’d all hoped for happily-ever-after. But sometimes life didn’t turn out that way.

      “When I went to see him...in Paris...he told me he was scared.” Rachel choked out the words. “He told me they would do anything to...to get what they wanted.”

      Kate tried to put together the pieces. Rachel had left for Paris three months ago to try to patch up her relationship with her husband, Chad. When she returned, Rachel had distanced herself, never opening up about the trip. Kate had assumed her silence was her way to deal with her failing marriage. Now she realized it had to be much more than that. She’d always feared Chad and Rachel’s relationship might one day end in divorce. She’d worried about how Sophie would handle the loss of a father, and how Rachel would cope as a single mom, but she’d never considered the scenario they were facing now. Not the reality of her sister fighting for her life.

      “Who are they?” Kate asked. “What do they want?”

      Sirens screamed in the distance.

      “I think he’s involved in something illegal,” Rachel said.

      “What?”

      “He wouldn’t tell me.”

      “Did Chad take Sophie?”

      “No, but it could be...someone he’s involved with.”

      Flashing lights from the ambulance reflected against the beige walls of the bedroom. Kate heard the front door slam against the foyer wall and shouted to the paramedics to come upstairs.

      Rachel gripped Kate’s forearm. “Promise...promise me you’ll find her, Kate. Don’t let anything happen to her. Please...please, Kate...she’s all I have.”

      Kate nodded at her sister. “You know I’ll do

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