Bring Them Home (Detective Amanda Steele #16)

Prologue

She’d never been this terrified in her life.

Not even of the monster in her closet as a kid.

The sensation of being watched used to jolt her awake.

But now the nightmare was real. Eyes wide open, she couldn’t dismiss her predicament.

It was taking all her effort to hide her fear from her captors.

She couldn’t let them see it or they’d swell with more power.

Instead, she tried to focus on the fact she wasn’t alone.

That these evil people had taken her parents too.

It terrified her to see how unsettled they were, how vulnerable, when she wanted to turn to them for protection.

Yet they too were at the mercy of these strangers.

The three of them were crammed into a pitch-black room in the basement of a farmhouse, in the middle of nowhere.

It felt like they’d been on the road forever, being driven in the back of a windowless van.

When the vehicle stopped, they were ushered out.

She’d scanned their surroundings. Nothing but fields for miles. No one to hear our screams…

She still tried, belting out like some wild exotic bird screeching its song.

The man who took them shook her and nudged her forward.

She lost her footing and toppled to the ground.

The gravel bit into her knees. He hauled her to her feet, and they continued the march inside the house, where they were pushed into this windowless room and left alone.

For how long, she couldn’t guess. In the darkness, she’d plucked what small stones she could from the abrasions caused by her fall.

It gave her something else to focus on, though it did little to calm her nerves.

Her parents were mute, not their usual reassuring selves. Their heavy breathing was the only sound in the small space.

Unable to take the silence any longer, she pivoted toward them. “Why are they doing this to us?”

“We don’t know, kiddo.” Her father’s soothing voice did nothing to calm her.

“We just do as they say and hope for the best,” her mother added.

Why weren’t they being the parents? Standing up for her, for themselves?

Fighting back? But if they weren’t going to, that meant she had to.

Her heart sped up. She gasped for breath.

What was she supposed to do? I’m just a kid…

What the— Since when did she fall back on that excuse?

At sixteen, she argued with her parents daily that she was old enough to make adult decisions.

“We can’t let them bully us around. We haven’t done anything to deserve…

this.” The latter word slipped out as a whisper as she picked up on the tapping of footsteps coming toward the door.

Her mother leaned in close to her. “For once, just do as you’re told.”

She stiffened. Leave it to her mother to reproach her at a time like this. But their relationship was always rocky, as far as she could remember. Her mother didn’t get her. It was like she’d forgotten what it was like to be a teenager.

The door creaked open. Light seeped in from the stairwell, casting their captors in shadows—the man with her at his shoulder.

The woman who lured me away from my friends to the van…

She swallowed, nearly choking on a gob of spit that came close to going down the wrong pipe.

The man stepped toward her mother. “You’re coming with us.”

Her mother reached for her hand and squeezed it. A gesture of reassurance. One she was too terrified to reciprocate. Yet frozen in fear, her mind barked at her to do something.

“No,” she burst out. “Leave her alone.”

The man laughed, causing her stomach to lurch. But she squared her shoulders, mustering bravado. “I mean it.”

“Listen, little girl, you just shut up and play nice, and you’ll have nothing to worry about. But your mother is coming with us.”

She looked at her father, yelling at him in her head to do something.

As if he heard her thoughts, her father stepped in front of her and her mother. “Tell us what’s going on, and we’ll be happy to cooperate.”

“You’re either hard of hearing, or just plain stupid.

” The woman slithered around the man and placed herself within a few inches of her father.

“We don’t owe you any explanations, but you will do as we say.

” She drew a long blade from a sheath and held the point to her father’s chin. “Now step aside.”

Leave him alone! The scream ricocheted in her head, but she couldn’t get her voice to work.

Her father remained in place, guarding them.

“I’m not moving until you tell us what this is about.

” His tone carried the indisputable weight of authority.

It was the one he pulled out when she returned home after curfew.

Punishment was coming without question or room for negotiation.

She wanted to stop him now though, silence him, remind him of what her mom had said a moment ago.

We just do as they say and hope for the best…

A feral glint flashed in the woman’s eyes and told her something bad was going to happen if she didn’t step up and break the tension.

“Leave us alone.” She intended the command to come out in the same vein as her father’s had.

Instead, the three words left her lips like the strangled cry of a newborn kitten.

It had taken all her strength to just push them up her throat and out her lips.

The duo leveled their gazes on her. She shrunk on the inside but stood tall, jutted out her chin.

“What did you say, little girl?” The woman tried to push past her father, but he stood his ground.

“Tsk, tsk.” The man pulled a gun on her father. He moved to the side.

The woman came at her with her blade held up. So close that her warm breath swept across her face. “Did you not hear me? I asked you to repeat yourself.”

The request housed a threat, but she wasn’t about to back down now. “I said, leave us alone!”

The woman reacted like a cobra. Her blade swiped out.

She pulled back just in time. Heart pounding in her ears, time slowed, and her vision pinpricked. She swore she heard the swoosh of the knife as it sliced through the air.

“You need to mind your manners,” the woman told her.

She saw the trap, but she steamed ahead like a runaway train. “You’re one to preach about manners. You—” Her mother squeezed her hand so tightly her bones ached under the pressure.

“I see.” The woman smiled. “You have quite a bad attitude, little girl. One I don’t think came about on its own. It’s time for you to learn a lesson you won’t soon forget. It isn’t polite to talk back.”

“Please, just leave her alone,” her father petitioned.

Silence.

Time stretched out. Seconds turned into minutes. But without warning, it galloped ahead.

The woman flew across the room with superhuman agility and plunged the blade into her father’s chest in two quick jabs. His eyes widened and constricted. They connected with her and her mother, just as his legs gave out beneath him, and he crumpled to the floor.

“No!” she cried out and dropped to her father’s side. His chest was heaving for breath. He’s alive!

She looked at her mother and found her wailing, wide-eyed, with horror imprinted on her expression.

“Enough.” The man yanked her away from her father.

She fought like a street cat, swatting at him all nails. It didn’t seem to have any effect.

He pushed her across the room and flung her like a ragdoll into the corner. From there she watched in horror as the woman stabbed her father until his body became a pulpy, bloody mess.

Silent tears fell down her cheeks. He’s dead because of me! All because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut…