“What does that mean? And where is Carol?”

  “She’s safe. In answer to your first question, it will become apparent in short order.”

  “What will?”

  “What I have devised for you. But let me warn you, it will be more difficult than anything you’ve ever faced.”

  “We’ve both faced a lot,” said Pine, while Mercy just watched him.

  “You’ve faced nothing like this,” said Buckley. “I can assure you.”

  On that, he rose and left.

  Chapter 69

  TWO DAYS PASSED AND PINE SLEPT uncomfortably, waking at odd hours. She noted with some envy that her sister slept soundly, seemingly untroubled by the situation they were in. During the day, and knowing that they were probably under surveillance, they discussed things. Mercy filled Pine in on what had happened with Ken.

  “I didn’t think I hit him that hard,” she said. “But he was going to shoot me.”

  “You did nothing wrong,” said Pine.

  “Oh, I know that,” said Mercy matter-of-factly.

  They talked about Mercy’s life after she was taken. Her years with the Atkinses were painful for Pine to learn about, and she believed that Mercy glossed over some of it, perhaps to spare her the hardship of learning about it. The years after her sister escaped from the Atkinses were also difficult to hear about, particularly when she had been repeatedly brutalized by people along the way.

  “I let it happen,” Mercy said simply. “And then I stopped letting it happen.”

  “You didn’t let anything happen. The Atkinses kept you in a cage and then you got free. You weren’t capable of handling any of what happened to you, Mercy. None of this was fair to you.”

  “Nothing about life is fair, at least for people like me. But I got things straightened out eventually.”

  Pine watched her twin closely. “Now I wish you had left me. Then you wouldn’t be stuck here.”

  “I was the one the dude was after. They would have found me at some point. At least we can face it together, have each other’s backs.”

  Pine reached out and touched her sister’s arm. “I just wish I knew where they were keeping Carol. Just because he said she was okay means nothing. I want to see that she’s okay.”

  “I wonder what the guy meant about what we would be facing.”

  “He strikes me as the type to understate, rather than embellish things. So, I guess we’re right to be worried.”

  “Do you think the FBI is looking for us?”

  “I’m sure they are. They’ll have gone over the Atkinses’ house by now. What’s left of it, anyway. They’ll have found Bertrand’s remains. They’ll bring everything they have on this one.” She said this louder, in the hopes that they were being spied on.

  Mercy glanced out the window. “Any idea where we are?”

  Pine looked out the window, too. “Western U.S., I think. If I had to guess, I’d say Utah or Idaho, maybe Colorado. I’ve been through those states a lot, and I recognize the topography.”

  “Then we must have been flown here. I don’t think we were out long enough to have been driven.”

  “Which means the man has his own jet with pilots who won’t talk.”

  “He looked like money,” said Mercy.

  “And this looks like some sort of compound. A jail, perimeter fencing, armed guards.”

  Mercy said in barely a whisper, “Like the dude from Waco? I read about that.”

  Pine replied in a low voice. “David Koresh? I don’t know. Our guy strikes me as more of a businessman, not some crazed cult leader.”

  “I guess we’ll find out.”

  Mercy lay back on her bed and put her arm behind her head.

  Pine watched her for about a minute, certain things inside of her building, like a jet’s engines creating barely suppressed thrust before takeoff. Finally, unable to stay silent any longer, she said, “I’m sorry about everything, Mercy.”

  Mercy glanced at her. “This wasn’t your fault. Dude was after me. I should be apologizing to you.”

  “No, I didn’t mean that. I meant…” Pine looked down, gathering the words she wanted to use as precisely as possible. Only her emotion was impeding her effort at logic. Finally, emotion won out.

  “I should have looked for you long before now. I just went on with my life and…It was like you weren’t…I didn’t deserve to…have…any…fucking thing. I…hate…myself.”

  Pine leaned forward, her head nearly touching her knees, wrapped her arms around herself, and started to sob. It was like someone had just dropped an entire world on her soul, crushing it to nothing.

  Mercy sat up, looking alarmed, and then her features changed to understanding. She shifted over to the other bunk, drew close to Pine, and finally wrapped her long, strong arms around her. She pressed her mouth to Pine’s ear, as Pine was wracked over and over again with sobs, her body shaking uncontrollably. Mercy tightened her grip, trying to quell the guilt-ridden rage inside of her twin.

  She said in a low voice, “You’re going to get through this. We are going to get through this. You always figure it out. Always.”

  Pine shook her head fiercely. “No, I don’t. It took me thirty damn years to find you. I’m useless.”

  “Look at me, look at me. Lee, look at me!”

  A teary Pine finally gazed at her sister.

  “Do you remember that old oak tree in our yard? You would climb to the very top and it would make Mom so mad, because she was afraid you were going to fall and kill yourself?”

  Pine nodded. “I-I r-remember.”

  “But you always figured out how to get back down. Every single time. I watched you do it. You know that, right?”

  Pine nodded dumbly.

  “Well, this time we’re both up that tree, but you’re going to get us back down.”

  “H-how can you be so s-sure of that?” said Pine with a pleading look on her face, and sobs still coming jerkily from her.

  “I believe in you, Lee. I always did. And that got me through more than you’ll ever know.”

  Slowly, painfully so, Pine’s sobs subsided. Her body stopped shaking. Her breathing slowed.

  And all the time, Mercy’s grip on her held firm.

  “I’m here, Lee. I’m here.”

  Pine let out one additional long gasp of air, straightened, turned to her sister, and wrapped her arms around her. And held her just as tightly as Mercy was embracing her.

  “I’ll never let you go, Mercy. Whatever happens, I’ll never let you go. It’s both or none, from now on.”

  Mercy patted her sister’s back and stared up at the ceiling with a troubled look.

  Nothing in her life had ever gone as planned. And her features betrayed what she was feeling.

  She had found her sister, or her sister had found her.

  They were together after all these years.

  And now they would probably die together.

  * * *

  In another room of the jail, Britt Spector sat alone in front of a video screen set up on a desk, with a pair of audio buds in her ears. She had just finished watching and listening to this entire exchange between the two sisters.

  She cut the video feed off and yanked the buds out of her ears. And with her own memories wracking her, Spector stared at the screen as the tears rolled down her cheeks.

  Chapter 70

  PINE AND MERCY WERE JOLTED FROM SLEEP by the drumming of boots on wood. They sat up on their bunks as the half-dozen large men filed into the room. Four of them were armed with shotguns. The other two held restraints designed to transport prisoners.

  Buckley was not with this group.

  Pine searched the men’s faces. They were all hard, featureless, soulless. They were here to do a job—a well-paid job, no doubt—and they were going to do it. Morals, issues of right and wrong, were never going to be entertained by such people.

  “On your feet,” said one man. He was the smallest among them, at six one, but he also looked the sharpest.

  “Where are we going?” asked Pine. “And where’s Carol?”

  “We’re taking you to her. Now, on your feet!”

  The door was opened and both women’s ankles and wrists were manacled with the chains, which were then interconnected around their waists, forcing them to do the prison shuffle as they left their cell.

  One man nudged Pine in the back with his shotgun. “Now you know how it feels to perp-walk, FBI.”

  They were led outside, where it was cold and dark with a raw wind blowing in from the west. Pine shivered and felt sprinkles of rain land on her head.

  As they were marched across the dirt she could see other buildings, the guard tower, and a row of vehicles. This clearly was a compound of some kind, stuck in the middle of nowhere. Could the well-dressed and well-spoken man who was doing all this really be some sort of cult leader, like a David Koresh? Or was he the head of some criminal organization? The men surrounding them looked far more like hardened criminals than potential Kool-Aid drinkers. If so, that did not bode well for Pine, Mercy, and Blum.

  They were led into a large building that looked like a barn, and there they were separated. Before that happened, Pine had a glimpse of something large in the middle of the space. She couldn’t see what it was, because it was draped with a huge tarp.

  She was led into a small room by two of the armed men. Hanging on wall pegs were articles of clothing.

  One man took off her chains while the other kept a shotgun pointed at Pine.

  The man stepped back, coiling the chains around his arm. He said, “Take your clothes off in that little stall over there and put those on.” He indicated the things hanging on the pegs.

  “Why?”

  The other man waggled the shotgun. “Just put them on. We’ll be waiting right here. You got two minutes before we come in there, so hustle it up. And no shoes or socks. Leave those behind.”

  Pine grabbed the items and marched into the stall. She stripped down to her underwear and then looked at the articles of clothing.

  What the hell?

  She slipped on the Lycra shorts, a chest protector, and the sports top.

  She stepped out of the stall and looked at the men.

  “What is going on?”

  They just motioned her to the doorway they had come through.

  They returned to the main area, where Pine saw Mercy come out of another area of the building wearing clothes nearly identical to her own. Her twin stared back at her, obviously as confused as she was.

  They were led over to the tarp.

  And that was when Buckley appeared. He was dressed in khaki pants, a tan sports coat with a yellow crew neck sweater underneath, and sturdy brown boots.

  Pine glared at him. “What in the hell is all this about?”

  In answer, Buckley motioned to a man standing in a far corner, his hand on a metal lever connected to a machine with a flywheel and a chain. The man pulled on the lever, and the space was filled with the whine of engaged hydraulics.

  They all watched as the tarp, attached to a chain at its pinnacle, was slowly lifted. Revealed underneath was something very familiar to Mercy.

  A UFC cage. She glanced over at her sister, her mouth agape.

  The tarp was swung away from over the cage and deposited on the ground.

  Pine looked at Buckley. “That doesn’t answer my question.”

  “This will,” said Buckley. He motioned to another man. He disappeared from sight, but came back about ten seconds later, leading a blindfolded and gagged Carol Blum.

  “Carol!” exclaimed Pine. She tried to reach her, but a wall of armed men barred her way.

  Blum was forced to sit in a chair next to the cage and her blindfold was taken off, but her gag remained. As her eyes adjusted to the light, she saw Pine, and then Mercy, and her eyes widened to the extreme edge of their range.

  Pine whirled on Buckley. “Look, just let her go. Your beef is with us, not her. Just let her go.”

  Buckley stayed silent for a moment and then said, “Are you finished? Because I have a schedule to keep.”

  Pine just scowled back.

  “Good. Now, as you can see, you are about to engage in battle with your sister.”

  “The hell I am!”

  He looked at the man next to Blum and nodded. The man took out a serrated-edged knife and held it against Blum’s neck.

  “If you don’t fight, your friend dies and then you both die, too. It’s up to you.”

  Mercy stepped forward. “I killed your brother, not them. Let me fight one of your guys. Hell, I’ll fight all of them. But you don’t have to hurt my sister or Carol.”

  Again, Buckley remained silent for a moment. “Are you finished?”

  Mercy glanced at Pine but said nothing.

  “Let me introduce you to your referee.”

  From out of the shadows stepped Britt Spector. She was dressed in a striped hoodie with a kangaroo pouch, and black pants that hung loosely on her, with a knapsack over one shoulder. Her hair was tied back. She came to stand next to Buckley. Spector didn’t look at Pine or Mercy. Her gaze just stared out.

  Buckley said, “Now for the rules. There will be four rounds. Five minutes each round. If, at any time, I feel that you are not fighting your hardest…” He turned to the man next to Blum. “Jason over there will make an incision on your friend’s skin. Each subsequent incision will be deeper and draw more blood. The ending of this is easy to see. The more times I request the cuts, the more blood she loses. A tipping point will be reached and that will be that. But I will be fair in my calls.”

  “Sure you will,” snapped Mercy.

  “And how exactly does this end?” said Pine.

  “If one of you wins by knockout, you live, as does Ms. Blum. And the other one dies. If neither of you clearly wins, you both die. Along with Ms. Blum.”

  “And you expect us to believe that you’ll just let us walk out of here to tell the cops what happened?”

  “I didn’t say the winner walks out of here. I said you get to live. I didn’t say where or how.”

  An enraged Pine bolted toward Buckley, but two of the men tackled her before she could get to him.

  She fell at his feet. He looked down at her and then nodded at the man next to Blum.

  Pine saw this and screamed, “No, please, don’t hurt her.”

  The man ripped open Blum’s sleeve with the knife and cut delicately into her skin. Blum jerked back as the blade sliced into her. She started to shake with pain.

  Pine was hauled to her feet and was vibrating with fury, as Buckley looked at her in disappointment.

  “I expected better from you,” he said. “And your sister is apparently a real killer in the cage. You better bring your A game.”

  He jerked his head at his men. They force-marched the two women into the ring. Spector followed and then the door was closed behind them.

  Spector finally looked at them. “Are you two ready?”

  “What the fuck do you think?” snapped Pine.

  “If you don’t fight hard, he will do exactly as he said he would to your friend.”

  “And you really expect us to believe he’s not going to kill all three of us regardless of what happens in here?” said Pine.

  “I don’t know what else to tell you,” said Spector, looking at the dirt.

  “Great, thanks for the help,” said Mercy.

  “I’m just doing my job.”

  “Right, I’m sure he’s paying you plenty. Enjoy it along with the memory of a triple homicide,” barked Pine.

  Spector led them over to the center of the ring. She pulled from the knapsack two pairs of UFC gloves and two mouthpieces. She helped the women get them on and then looked over at a man who was standing next to a large countdown clock set on a table and visible to all in the cage.

  “Okay, I’m sure you both know the rules. Knockouts and arm-bar stops are in my sole judgment. Your level of fighting is up to him. And Carol is already bleeding some, so keep that in mind.”

  Both women looked over at Blum to see her pained face and the swelling patch of blood leaching onto her torn sleeve.

  Pine stared at her sister. Mercy looked back at her, with not a shred of hope on her features.

  “Well,” said Pine. Her voice was garbled because of the mouthpiece. “He was right about this being something I’ve never faced before.”

  Spector said, “Okay, step back and then commence fighting on the sound of the horn.”

  Pine looked once more at Mercy and shook her head.

  “Shit” was all she could think to say.

  Chapter 71

  WHEN THE HORN SOUNDED, they marched forward, and each assumed a defensive stance. Mercy looped a kick; Pine blocked it and then threw an awkward punch.

  The scream froze them.

  Blum’s gag had been removed. And the man standing next to her had made a large cut on her upper arm, where blood was streaming down.

  “Carol!” screamed Pine.

  Buckley called out, “I warned you. Now fight!”

  Spector stepped between them and whispered. “Do it, ladies, or she’s dead. Just make contact and absorb the punishment. He’s not an expert in MMA. Come on. You can do this.”

  Pine gave her a curious look as she stepped back.

  Mercy eyed her sister and said, “Let’s give the asshole a show.”

  Pine launched a right hook at Mercy’s left oblique, and she fell back. As Pine charged forward Mercy pivoted and landed a side kick to Pine’s jaw. Had her sister unleashed her full power, Pine’s jaw would have been broken. It still hurt like hell.

  Pine clinched and then pushed her sister off. They landed solid blows with their fists and feet. They kept doing so until the horn sounded and the round ended.

  They retreated to separate sides, where a bottle of G2 with a squirt top was hanging from a hook on the fencing next to a white towel. Spector held the bottle to Pine’s mouth and let her suck on it. She wiped Pine’s face, arms, and legs off with the towel.

  While she was doing that Spector said in a low voice, “Just keep doing what you’re doing.”

  Pine eyed Spector curiously.