All of a sudden, I’m blinded. A light so bright it actually hurts shines directly into my eyes, making me throw my arms over my face and back away, my heart exploding with hot, holy terror.
“Looking for someone?”
I suck in a loud breath at the low, menacing voice coming from deep inside the garage. The light is relentless, an assault of white that makes me turn and stumble toward the open door.
“Kenzie!” It’s Rex, calling from the front porch. “Where did you go?”
I open my mouth but nothing comes out. I spin away from the light, but I still can’t see anything else, even when I close my eyes.
“Kenzie!”
“I’m here,” I call, the older man suddenly a safety net instead of a threat. “By the garage.” I run a few feet across the driveway, chancing a glance back at the open garage bay. Everything is dark.
At least, I think it is. My eyes are wrecked. Squeezing them open and closed, I frantically try to clear my vision, and little by little, I can see again.
“I thought you ran away,” Rex says, a chuckle in his voice as he meets me halfway along the walkway.
“I just … went to …” Finally, I can see him. Looking quite kindly and old, his face more lined than I recalled, his shoulders ever so slightly slumped.
He isn’t scary, this old man. What’s scary was in the garage.
“Mr. Collier,” I say, breathless. “There’s someone in your garage.”
He lifts both brows. “One of Josh’s friends?”
“No.” Was it? “I don’t think so. Someone older.” That voice was no teenager’s. It was low, booming, demanding. Terrifying. “Maybe an … intruder?”
He draws up his chest in a deep breath, the dark brows furrowing. “Then we better kill him.”
My eyes pop.
“Come on, Kenzie.” He puts his hand on my shoulder again. “I’ll show you how it’s done.”
I stand stone still, shocked. “I’ll wait here while you check.”
“And miss this?” He reaches behind his back with his right hand, holding my gaze for a second, then suddenly whips out a shiny knife that glints in the light.
I draw back. “Oh my God.”
He angles it so I can see the deadly point. “She’s a beauty, huh?”
“She’s …” Got a carved white handle and a tiny gold ring on the end. I’ve seen that knife before, but where? “Sharp.”
In the underground museum! It was on the wall with the other weapons. I saw it, I know I did. “Why don’t we just call the police?” I suggest.
“Oh, child, what am I going to do with you?” He has papers in his other hand, which he uses to gesture me forward. “Let’s go.”
“He has a really bright light and he’ll shine it on your face,” I warn.
His laugh is the condescending chuckle a wise adult would give to a naïve little kid. “A bright light, huh? Well, we can beat him at his own game.”
Getting ahead of me, he reaches the open garage and walks in fearlessly. Staying a few feet behind him, I realize my hands are both pressed to my mouth, stifling a scream I know is going to come out. What can he do with a knife in the—
Light floods everything. The driveway, the garage, the whole world seems lit up by a million watts.
“He can’t blind me now,” Rex says with a chuckle.
He must have hit a switch that turned everything on, inside and out. Dozens of spotlights pour light all over the lawns and highlight the trees; the whole house is as bright as if it were noon.
Only a little less terrified, I walk closer to the open garage, but just as I do, all the other garage doors start rumbling up in unison. I turn to the cars, feeling completely exposed, fully expecting to see … someone. Someone who just spoke to me.
But there’s no man, just Rex Collier marching up and down the shiny gray flooring, around expensive cars, the massive garage lit up like a football stadium. There’s not a shadow or a place to hide.
“It’s deserted,” he says, leaning over to look in the sports car, then opening the doors of the SUV and leaving them that way for me to examine.
“Could he have … gotten away?” I ask.
At the only door into the house, Rex pauses and jiggles the knob. “Locked tight.” And there are no windows, and not a cabinet big enough for a man to hide in. “Look in the cars if you