Page 133 of The Chain

This little family get-together is going to be a lot more interesting than he initially expected. He picks up his phone and texts his sister:Ginger, can you do me a favor and come talk to me when you get a chance?

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Rachel tries to call Kylie but she can’t get through.

“No signal,” she says. “Thank God she’s safe, though.”

Pete, however, is looking worried. “Shit. Maybe not,” he says.

“What is it?”

“Look at the time stamp on the GPS trace in her sneakers.”

“Oh my God. She’s been at the Adidas store in Boston for nine hours!” Rachel says. “I know what happened. She bought new shoes, threw the old ones out, and forgot about the GPS.”

“How could they have taken her in broad daylight from the mall? It doesn’t make sense,” Pete says.

Rachel is poleaxed.

Her world has been pulled out from under her.

Again.

And this time it’s 100 percent her fault. They had warned her. They told her to leave well enough alone, and she had blundered ahead with this idiotic plan.

She feels sick.

Dizzy.

Nauseous.

She dry-heaves.

The old thoughts:You stupid cow. You stupid bitch. Why didn’t you just die when you had the chance? Everyone would have been better off.

They have taken her beautiful, innocent, wonderful girl.

Her fault.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!

Stupid no more.

She unslings her shotgun. She’ll go in the back door under the balcony. She’ll shoot the lock off if she has to and she’ll kill everyone inside and get her daughter out of there.

She brushes snowflakes off her face and heads for the house.

“Where are you going?” Pete asks.

“To get Kylie.”

“You don’t know what or who is in there,” he says.

“I don’t care. You can stay here, I’m going in,” Rachel says.

Pete grabs her arm. “No. We’ll both go. Wait here for two minutes and I’ll scout ahead.”

“I’m going with you.”

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