My eyes flare wide and a surge of anger pulses through me as I understand what he’s saying.

God…JT raped Caroline? He’s Ally’s father?

“That’s right,” he says with a laugh as he reads the expression on my face. “Slipped her a little Rohypnol in her drink at her parents’ Christmas party, followed her home, and when her date dropped her off, she was easy pickings.”

I growl against the weight of his cast on my throat, narrowing my eyes at him with hatred. As incomprehensible as it is, I have no choice but to believe him. I try to pull in air but get nothing. My hands release my hold on his cast, and I start to flail in a desperate attempt to do something. Find something to help me live through this, and avenge not only myself but Caroline as well.

But as the lack of oxygen starts to shut my body down, the gray gets darker, I feel myself starting to give in to the pull of oblivion.

I glance at the clock on the mantel for maybe the hundredth time, the nauseating feeling of unease that’s been steadily increasing over the last hour threatening to expel the Michael Mina scallops. I pull my phone out of my pocket and dial Sela again. It rings only twice before going directly to voice mail, but I don’t bother leaving another message. She’ll get the point I’m worried when she listens to the other two I’ve left.

I have no clue where she is or why she hasn’t responded to me, but this is what I do know. Her last class got out at one P.M., just about the time I was with Dennis. She had told me that morning she had planned to come back to the condo and do some studying here, and we knew that Caroline and Ally would be arriving roughly around four thirty or so, depending on the drive after Caroline got off work and picked Ally up from preschool. When I got home around two thirty, it was to an empty condo.

Fine. No problem. Maybe Sela decided to study at Golden Gate’s library. She does that sometimes. Or maybe she went to the grocery store. Not out of the realm of possibility, although we tend to eat out more than we cook in.

Still, plausible possibilities and I know I shouldn’t worry.

Except I am, because the one thing Sela wouldn’t do is ignore my calls. She would have texted me her change of plans. And if she was unable to take my first call for some reason, she absolutely would have called me back once she got my first message, which was left almost two hours ago.

Something’s wrong. I can feel it deep in my gut. It actually makes my bones ache.

Add on top of that, I haven’t heard a peep from JT today, and my trouble radar is going haywire. He should have called by now, as he knows his deadline is looming. I had hoped for the call to come saying he accepted my offer. At the very least, I expected a call from him trying to get me to change my mind. I knew it was a distinct possibility JT wasn’t going to just roll over and take what I offered. He’s a businessman first and foremost. He would try to negotiate, of that I’m sure. He would try to find leverage over me, and he’d use it to his benefit.

And now Sela seems to be off the grid, and she would be the biggest source of leverage JT could get his hands on.

But no.

That’s fucking ridiculous to even think that JT would have Sela. Or that Sela would go near JT. Or that she’s anywhere other than the library studying, for some reason forgot to text me, and has her phone off so as not to disturb others.

The doorbell rings and I nearly jump out of my skin, first thinking it’s Sela, then realizing she wouldn’t be ringing the doorbell.

I stride to the door, look through the peephole and confirm it’s Caroline and Ally, and then unlatch the lock to let them in. I look first down to Ally, giving her as wide a smile as I can muster, bending down to pick her up. Her little arms go around my neck and she hugs me silently. I look over her shoulder, trying for the same smile at Caroline, but her brow immediately furrows with worry.

“What’s wrong?” she asks me bluntly, because she can just tell.

I shake my head slightly to her to let her know that I don’t want to discuss this in front of Ally. She steps in, brushes past me, and heads into the living room. “Ally…come watch some TV for a few minutes. I need to talk to Uncle Beck privately.”

I follow her in while Caroline expertly navigates the programming guide until she finds Dora the Explorer. I drop Ally down on the couch, ruffle her hair, and whisper, “Be back in a jiff, cutie.”

She smiles at me and then her eyes go to the TV and remain glued there.

I walk back to my office with Caroline following. She shuts the door behind her and says, “Where’s Sela? Did you two get in a fight?”

I whirl around in surprise. “God, no. We’re fine. Perfect. But she’s not here and she should be, and I’m worried.”

Caroline’s look of concern turns to one of amused exasperation. “Geez, Beck. So she’s a few minutes late…no biggie. Although I think it’s adorable the way you worry about her.”

“No,” I say harshly, and Caroline blinks at me in stunned surprise. “It’s not a matter of her being a few minutes late. It’s something more than that…I can just tell. There’s just some stuff that—”

I stop, not even sure what I should to say to Caroline. I’m sure she’d understand, but there’s still a tiny part of me that’s hoping that Sela will be breezing through the door any minute with a sheepish look of apology on her face.

“Hey,” Caroline says softly, stepping toward me with her head tilted. “You’re really scared something might be wrong, aren’t you?”

I take a deep breath, scrub my hand through my hair, and then let it out in a frustrated sigh. “Yeah…there’s some shit going on that I really can’t—”

“You tell me everything that’s going on right this fucking minute, Beckett North,” Caroline says with an imperial tone and a look that says she means business. “I’m your sister and I’ve got your back always. Just like you’ve had mine, so spill it right now.”

My lips curve upward involuntarily, because my sister is fierce and cute all at the same time. She’s also been the only one I’ve been able to turn to in my life who supports me one hundred percent, no questions asked. And I know I can trust her with my worries and the underlying basis for them.

“I don’t even know where to begin,” I say hesitantly, “because really…this story is beyond complex and unbelievable.”