girls in the picture. But it wasn’t one of the Kents daughters; it was Savannah Tate.
Savannah appeared to be alive and well in the photograph standing next to who I assumed was Olivia Hathaway. The labels on the boxes told me their names had been changed, but that wasn’t all. Both girls had dark, brown hair before they were taken, and now they were blondes. But it didn’t matter what the Kents did to change the girls’ appearances, there was no mistaking Savannah’s angelic face. She looked just like she did in the photo her mother had been holding.
If the Kents had moved the girls to this hideaway in the woods, where were they?
I walked out of the storage room, planning to find Cade, but stopped when I noticed a closed door at the end of the hall. I was curious, so I walked to it, turning the knob when I got there. I slowly pushed the door open. The door creaked like the hinge plates needed to be oiled. I turned on the light, illuminating the master bedroom, and then gasped, throwing my hand over my nose to mask the indescribable odor. The scene before me was horrific. On the bed, Bradley and Regina Kent lay next to one another. Their eyes were closed. But they weren’t sleeping: they were dead.
CHAPTER 34
I sprinted down the hall, darting around the room in search of Cade. My eyes were blurred, and I couldn’t see much of anything out of them. I thought about yelling, but that would have required me to get actual words out, and I could hardly breathe, let alone form sentences.
In a matter of moments my elation over finding the photo of both missing girls had turned from hope to heartache. Someone had found the one place the Kents had chosen to hide the girls from everyone else. Were the girls dead too?
I paused, leaning over the kitchen counter to gain control over my staggered breathing, but resting did nothing to quell the anxiety growing inside me. A sound echoed from the opposite end of the house. I followed it to Cade, who was bent over looking inside bedroom drawers.
“Where are they?” I shouted when I entered the room.
“Who?”
“The girls! Their bodies! Have you found them yet?”
Cade gripped the sides of my arms, shaking me. “Sloane, look at me. What are you talking about—what’s happened?”
I breathed in and out; slow and steady, closing my eyes for several seconds and then opening them back up again. I looked around. The room was decorated in a variety of colors, but one stood out far more than the rest: green. Olivia’s room. The bed was disheveled, the comforter piled up at the bottom, and I couldn’t see a flat sheet, only a fitted one. There was no sign of Olivia.
I dashed out of the room, throwing the door open to the second bedroom across the hall. I paid attention to nothing but another unmade bed in front of me. Again, empty.
Cade ran up behind me. “What’s gotten into you? Sloane, talk to me!”
“Have you searched the rest of the house?” I said.
“What does that have to do with—”
“Have you searched it?!”
He nodded.
“Why?”
I was mumbling to myself now. “Good, then there is still hope…maybe they’re alive. I need to check both of their rooms for clues. We need to find out who—”
“Sloane—what’ going on?” Cade’s voice was agitated.
“The girls—they’ve been taken.”
“What girls?” he said.
“Olivia and Savannah.”
“How do you know?”
“I found a picture of them in a storage room. They were together—they are together. The Kents took them and—the Kents!”
I grabbed Cade’s shirt sleeve, pulling him down the hall behind me. “I need to show you something.”
I led him to the master bedroom, allowing him to enter before me. His reaction upon seeing the bodies was similar to mine, except I’d hesitated to get too close. Cade walked right up to them, staring down at their lifeless bodies. He leaned over, looking first at Regina, and then crossing to the other side of the bed to inspect Bradley.
“Well, I know how they died,” he pointed to Bradley Kent’s head. “A single gunshot wound to the head.”
“It smells in here,” I said. “I’d like to get a closer look at the bodies, but I don’t know if I can take it.”
Cade unbuttoned the top snap of his shirt, holding it up to his nose. He inhaled and exhaled out of it. “I might need to get some air myself,” he said. “And then I