Holly’s whole body shook from exhaustion, anxiousness, and terror. Her grip tightened on her friend, Caylee, as they looked for a way to escape the people who had taken them.

“What are we going to do?” Caylee whispered.

“I don’t know. Keep looking. There’s got to be a way to get away from here.”

Holly wondered for the hundredth time if they were going to survive this, and with the way things were going and every minute that passed, it didn’t look like it. She could think of so many things she had wanted to do in her life but would never have the chance.

She wanted to get married and buy a house. She’d dreamed of having children and maybe a dog. She never once imagined she’d be in the predicament she was in.

At the moment, they were under a smelly garbage dumpster in an alleyway and had seen the bad guys rush past a few times. Fortunately, they were small women and could hide in tight places.

She tried to ignore the rat feces, urine, and dank water they were lying in.

Caylee nudged her shoulder and pointed to a large black SUV that pulled into the alley. Two huge men got out and went in a back door.

Holly looked at Caylee. “This might be our only chance.”

“What if they’re with the bad guys or even worse?” Caylee asked.

“We don’t have a choice, Cay. We’ve been under here for two hours, and those guys are still looking for us. They’ve passed by here three times already. I’m shocked they haven’t looked under this dumpster yet.”

“I’m so scared,” Caylee said.

Hell, she was beyond scared, but she needed to keep it together for a little longer. “I am, too. Let’s go. We have to be in the back of the vehicle before they return.”

They looked around before pulling themselves out from under the dumpster and raced toward the SUV. She pulled open the back passenger door and scrambled in before closing it as quietly and carefully as possible while Caylee climbed in the way back.

Holly crawled in back and sat down beside her.

Caylee grabbed her arm and pointed to all the guns, computers, and miscellaneous things that she couldn’t have guessed what they were because she’d never seen anything like them before, but they looked as menacing as the guns from where she was sitting.

Oh, God, what had they done? It looked like they took the wrong step and were in the hands of men as bad as or worse than the bastards.

“We have to get out now,” Caylee said.

“I agree.” Holly nodded and went to stand when one and then another of the doors opened. Caylee pulled her back down, and they held on to each other. She felt the vehicle lower with the men’s weight, telling her they were as big or bigger than she first thought.

“Well, that was a bust,” one of the men said.

“Fuck. Let’s head back and regroup with the guys tomorrow.”

The SUV started to move. Holly looked at the fear that filled her friend’s eyes and knew it was mirrored in her own, but there was nothing she could do to alleviate it.

They needed to make a plan but couldn’t talk because they were afraid the men would hear them. As long as the men didn’t know they were there, they had a chance.

They were in their predicament because they wanted to try something new and get out and meet people. Instead, they wound up in the hands of a monster who threatened to do unspeakable things to them.

Holly blamed herself since it had been her idea and wished, more than anything, that she could go back in time and change what had happened to them.

Caylee’s life had never been easy, and neither was Holly’s. They met in a high school class and hit it off immediately. They had so much in common, and she’d never found another person who understood how she thought or enjoyed the things she did.

Now, because she had wanted them to expand their horizons, they might not get a chance at a future.