Page 34 of Daddy's Little Sunshine

Donovan ranthe final few blocks to the apartment and took the stairs up two at a time. Something was wrong. He could feel it in his bones. His heart jumped into his throat when he saw the apartment door standing open.

“Lainey!” He called for her, panic clawing at him as he searched every room. There was a black, smoking hole in the wall of the living room, but no other signs of a struggle.

“Oh, God.” They had her. Those assholes had his Lainey, and he had no idea where they’d taken her. “Fuck!”

“Donny?”

Spinning around, he found Ms. Edith standing in the doorway, her face white as a sheet. “Did you see them? Did yousee who took her?” he asked, the desperation he felt clear in his voice.

Her head jerked up and down. “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.”

“What? How?”

“I told some people at the church. I never thought… never imagined they would…”

It took every bit of strength he had not to grab her frail shoulders and shake her. “Where? Where did they take her?”

“I think they took her to The Farm.”

“The farm?” None of this was making any sense. “What farm? Where?”

“It’s about an hour south. I-I’ve been there a few times, to talk to some teens in the rehabilitation program. I can drive you.”

“You have a car?”

Another jerky nod.

“I’ll drive. Tell me whereexactlyit is.”

“I don’t remember where it is, exactly. But I’ll know it when I see it.”

He didn’t have time to argue. “Fine. You can navigate. But you stay in the car once we get there.”

CHAPTER 15

Lainey

When Lainey woke again, she wasn’t in Daddy’s lumpy bed with the sun streaming through the windows. This time, she woke on a hard cot in a room painted solid white with no windows in sight. She lifted a trembling hand to brush the hair from her eyes and something shiny caught her eye. A thick silver bracelet circled her right wrist. She tugged at it, but it didn’t budge, and she couldn’t see a latch of any kind.

“Good morning, sleepyhead!” A cheery voice came though a speaker she couldn’t see. “We thought you were going to be out the rest of the night.”

“Where am I?” Looking around, she searched for a camera, but all she could see was white.

“You’re at The Farm, my dear. We’re going to do some tests. Doesn’t that sound like fun?”

“Let me out of here!”

“Of course,” the cheerful voice said. The wall to her left slid open soundlessly, revealing a long, white hallway.

It screamed “trap,” but what choice did she have? She took off running down the hallway. There were no doors, just walls of white. Fighting back the rising panic, she ran until she came to adead end. The wall to her right slid open, exposing a pitch-black room. With no other options that she could see, she ducked into the dark room.

As soon as she entered, the room was flooded with light and the wall behind her closed again with a quietsnick.Whirling around, she looked desperately for another way out.

This room was much larger than the cell she’d woken in, but still solid white. Tilting her head back, she found windows circling the top of the room. Positioned behind the glass were several people in long, white coats.

“Welcome to Observation Room One,” the same cheerful voice from her room said. “In this room, we’ll be testing your reactions to various stimuli. Look to your right, please.”

Trembling, Lainey turned her head. Relief washed over her at the sight of her parents standing there, arms wide open. “Mom? Dad?”

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