Freddy was packing up his suitcase, carefully folding his Batman T-shirt, when Delilah suddenly sat on his bed.

“Hi ya, Del,” he said, smiling at his sister.

“Hi, Freddy.”

“Where have you been?”

“Out with some friends.”

“Did you hear?”

“I did.” Delilah leaned in and whispered, “Actually, Toni sent me.”

Freddy didn’t understand. “Sent you?”

“Yeah. She wants me to take you out of here.”

“No. I’m going with the family.”

“Oh, hon. She doesn’t want you putting them in danger, too.”

“But they said—”

“They were just being nice. For Mom. But you want to do what’s right for the family, don’t you?”

“Of course I do.”

She smiled. “Then come with me. I’m going to take you someplace safe.”

“Just the two of us?”

“For now. Don’t worry. We’ll have you back with the rest of the family in no time. But you wouldn’t want to risk them, would you? If something happened to them, wouldn’t you feel awful?”

It was the first time Freddy had ever felt this way. It came over him, falling on him like a blanket. He knew the word Toni would use, too . . . instinctual. He instinctually knew Delilah was lying to him. Had been lying to him. Was still lying to him right now.

“Freddy?”

“What do you really want, Del?” he asked her.

“Where’s that notebook, Freddy? The blue composition one you had stashed in your backpack.”

“I got rid of it,” he said.

“You’re lying, Freddy.”

He shook his head. He was, but he knew giving it to Del would be wrong. It would be . . . dangerous. “I’m not going to tell you.”

“But you know what’s in the book by heart, don’t you? You can write down exactly what’s in there, right?”

Toni had always told him to trust his instincts, and Freddy knew what his instincts were telling him to do now. They were telling him to run.

Freddy turned and ran toward the door. Had his hand on the knob when Delilah caught him from behind and put something over his face that smelled funny.

He tried to fight but . . .

Oriana was in the backyard, putting off packing until she could finish this letter to her favorite teacher. She knew how important it was to make a good impression. Maybe one day she could afford to be a demanding diva with others besides her family, but until then, she’d have to do what she could to make sure those who would be helping her career only had good memories of her. So they would not only remember what an amazing dancer she was but how easy she was to work with.

As she struggled over her second paragraph, she heard the back door open, but didn’t bother to raise her head fromwhat she was doing until she heard that Roy guy greeting someone with, “Hey, sweetheart.”

Worried he was hitting on Cherise—who God knew, couldn’t handle the pressure—Oriana looked up to see the big idiot walk into the kitchen and close the door behind him. Then she heard the side gate open and glanced over. It wasn’t Cherise, though—it was Delilah, which Oriana couldn’t care less about. But then Oriana saw that her sister held an unconscious Freddy in her arms . . .

Oriana knew he was passed out because poor little Freddy rarely slept. He especially didn’t sleep at nine o’clock at night. She shot off the bench and went after her sister, using her hands to flip her body up and over the gate since she didn’t want to bother opening it. When she landed on her feet, she charged flat out for Del’s back, ramming into her with her full weight.

But Delilah was surprisingly strong. Other than a small stumble, she didn’t fall. Instead she turned and shoved Oriana off, then continued walking, heading toward a running car on the street.

Oriana charged again. “Give him to me!” she ordered her sister.

With one arm holding on tight to Freddy, Del grabbed Oriana by the back of the head, turned, and using the energy of that, rammed her face-first into the side of the house.

And that was pretty much the last thing Oriana remembered.

Kyle saw Oriana running and disappearing over the side gate in the backyard. He knew his sister. Oriana didn’t run. She didn’t jog. She definitely didn’t flip herself over six-foot-tall fences—unless she really had to. Glancing at Troy—they’d come out here to fight in peace about . . . something, he couldn’t even remember now—Kyle ran after his sister. Unlike Oriana, he had to stop to open the gate, but by the time he made it through, he saw Delilah shove Oriana into the house. Hard. Heard something crack. Saw blood splatter even in the darkness.

“No!”

Kyle ran over to his sister’s side, sliding to a stop on his knees. Troy ran past them to follow Delilah as she got into the waiting car and drove off with Freddy.

Troy yelled after the car, just screamed Freddy’s name.

When Kyle couldn’t wake up Oriana, he leaned his head back and let out a wailing howl until every adult on the street was there.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Chuck Roberts left his office in the church and walked to the back door. Someone had been knocking for a bit and he’d chosen to ignore it as long as he could. The rest of the church members had gone to the farm, but Chuck had stayed behind because he refused to buy into this con. He knew better.

He and Chris had been friends for a long time and they’d always enjoyed money. But Chuck had no illusions about what they were or where they’d come from. Chris, however, had begun to buy into all this bullshit. Believing the worship. Crazy.