Thank you guys for your feedback. I don't think I'll go back and change anything because I honestly don't think I've violated any rules. I thought even before I asked that I hadn't, but if you're a writer, you know how it is with your own stories. There might be things in it that aren't appropriate, but you don't see it that way. Now that I know most – if not all – of you agree with me, I've decided that things are fine the way they are.

Also, thank you so much for the reviews! You guys are the best! I'm not sure yet, but this may not be the only book. I may just write a sequel. I probably will because there's no way I can resolve Rose and Dimitri's relationship within this story. You all already know that Rose is still underage and Dimitri is her counselor, so that still has to be resolved. I'll make sure to let you know if there will be a sequel at the end of this one :)

"Rose? Are you okay?"

My head snapped up to look at Dimitri. I was sitting at his kitchen table while he got ready to go. We'd just ate breakfast. I hadn't realized it, but I'd been staring at the same spot on the table, my mind somewhere else.

I honestly didn't know what I should do. If I didn't tell anyone about the text and met these people, I could get both Lissa and I killed. At the same time, if I told someone and had them come with me – especially Dimitri – it would get Lissa killed. I was in a lose-lose situation.

"Huh?" I asked, getting my thoughts back together. "Oh, yeah. I'm just worried about Lissa. I hope she's okay." Because having a knife at your throat constitutes as "okay".

He walked over to me, picking up my hand and standing me up. "She will be, but only if we keep trying to find her. So let's go."

With one last kiss, we made it out the door and headed to the donut shop, our group's designated meeting spot.

I immediately spotted my friends sitting at a table when we walked through the door. I ran over to them, sitting down. "So have you guys heard anything?"

"Yeah, but it probably isn't anything reliable." Christian answered, running fingers through his black hair. "The police told us this morning that they got a report on Lissa's whereabouts. It came from an anonymous tip. We're checking it out today."

Eddie leaned forward. "I would go along with any tip we got, but Christian's right about this one. The person wouldn't say who they were, but they did say that they saw Lissa in the back of a station wagon, headed toward Big Timber. It's not very reliable."

"They may have just seen someone who looked like Lissa. But it's still something we need to check out." Mia elaborated.

I sighed, knowing that they wouldn't find her. The address I'd been sent the night before was here in Bozeman, but it wasn't like I could tell my friends that. Instead, I nodded. "You're right. We have to check it out, no matter who it came from. But where do we go?"

Eddie nodded toward the cops on the other side of the room. They were having coffee. "They said that we're going to Big Timber to talk to everyone. We also need to put up flyers between here and there. It's going to take all day, at the least."

"What if it takes longer?" Christian asked, worry all over his face. "Do they expect us to go to school, like nothing is wrong?"

I shook my head. "Let's not think about that right now." I knew I couldn't. I already knew that it wouldn't come to that. Lissa would either be out tomorrow, or she would be… I couldn't think the word. I couldn't let that happen to her. "We need to focus on the present. For all we know, we could find her today."

Thirty minutes later, we were in the back of a cop car. Christian rode in the front – which the cop told us was illegal, so we couldn't let anyone else know we'd gotten a ride from them – and the rest of us rode in the back. Even though I knew we were working with the police, I couldn't help but feel like I was in trouble. The bulletproof glass in between us and the cops didn't inspire much comfort.

Dimitri, Mr. Dragomir, and the others were staying in town to continue the search here. Even though we'd already checked every place in Bozeman, we couldn't be too careful.

"You kids don't need to worry too much." Mahoney, one of the cops who'd come to my house after the theater incident, told us as we drove to Big Timber. "We'll find your friend in no time. We won't let anything happen to her."

My friends all nodded while I thought about how this could be my big opening. Should I tell him I knew where Lissa was? If I did, they would probably go there straight away, possibly getting the jump on Lissa's kidnappers.

And that's when I came up with a plan. It suddenly occurred to me that I didn't have to play games with these people. Instead of meeting them at their appointed time, I could go as soon as I got away from my friends. There was a chance it wouldn't work – they may be holding Lissa somewhere else – but I had to try it.

I worked until noon with my friends, doing the same exact thing we'd done the day before. I was almost vibrating from being so nervous while I stapled flyers to trees and telephone line poles. Mia and Eddie were two streets over, talking to pedestrians, and Christian was with Mahoney on the other side of town. Looking at the flyer I'd just posted, I decided to put my plan in action.

There was a bus stop just down the road. I was surprised to find the bus schedule taped to the outside of a building behind the bus stop. They didn't do that in Bozeman. If you wanted to know when the next bus was coming, you had to go to the bus station. I'd always found that to be ridiculous because if you were using the bus, you'd have no way to get to the bus station other than the bus or walking. If you decided to walk, why not just walk to the place you were trying to get to?

I had really good timing. The schedule said the bus would arrive in five more minutes, but it pulled up to the curb just as I sat down on the bench they had set up.

"Two fifty," the bus driver said as I made it to the top of the stairs.

I dug around in the small bag I'd brought with me. It held the tape and pins I'd used to tack the flyers up with, a few more flyers, and my wallet. To my dismay, I found that the smallest bill I had was a five. It looked like the bus driver would be getting a tip today since he thrust his hand in the box I'd just put my money in.

This bus wouldn't take me all the way into Bozeman. It only went to the city limits, but it was easy enough to walk into town from there. I sat down in an empty row of seats, hoping the next hour would go by fast. That dream was shattered, however, when an old woman who had a bad cough and smelled like cat pee sat down next to me at the next stop.

I stepped off the bus at Bozeman's city limits feeling a little woozy from the smell of that woman. I was amazed that she hadn't gotten off the bus sooner, but maybe being around that smell constantly messed with her head a little too much. For all I knew, she rode the bus just to get away from that smell.

The walk into town would've been peaceful if it weren't for all the turmoil I felt. The birds were out, probably because the neighborhood I was in had bird feeders all around. The sky was a bright blue, clusters of white clouds scattered all around it. I tried to focus on these things instead of the feelings of doom and gloom inside me.

I took another bus over to Penn street. From there, it was an easy walk to Westwood.

It wasn't until I made it to 981 Westwood Boulevard that I started to shake. I stopped walking, counting four addresses down to see a white brick building. It looked like a warehouse, but I couldn't be sure until I was inside.

"Calm down," I whispered to myself. "Everything is going to be okay. You just have to get in, find Lissa, release her from whatever prison they have her in, and get her and yourself out, all without being seen. Piece of cake."

You go right ahead and keep telling yourself that… the snarky voice in the back of my head hissed. I didn't have time to acknowledge it right now.

I decided to walk around the building, hoping there was a back entrance. It would be a lot easier to sneak in that way instead of going right in the front door. I went down the alley that led to the back, noticing that all the windows in the building were at the top of the wall. The windows on the other side were probably the same as these, but I decided I'd check just in case. If they were, that meant I had to go in through the back, either through a back door or window.

I made it to the back pleasantly surprised. The universe may have been against me lately, but it seemed that my bad luck streak may have come to an end. There was a back door, but there were also regular sized windows. I hoped they were unlocked. It would be a lot easier to slip in through a window. There was a small parking lot for this building and the one behind it – Radio Shack – but no cars were parked in it.

A sign next to the back door caught my attention.

Warning: this parking lot for employees of Radio Shack and Watson's Locksmith only. All vehicles without proper documentation will be towed at all times.

So that's what this place was, a locksmith. How would anyone know that when there wasn't a sign in the front? I pushed that thought from my mind as I approached one of the windows. It didn't matter right now.

I pressed my hands on the glass, lightly pushing up. It didn't budge. I pushed harder, hoping it wouldn't make a noise if it did open, but I didn't have to worry about that. The window was locked. I used the end of my shirt to wipe my handprints off the glass before moving to the next one. I repeated the process to find that this one was locked as well. As I wiped the glass, I prayed that the third window was open.

It was. Part of me wondered how a locksmith could be so sloppy – especially when they'd kidnapped someone – but I didn't make myself think about it too much. I slipped quietly in through the window. When I was inside, I immediately looked around, hoping no one had seen me. Luckily, there was no one around.

I was in a room that measured the width of the building. It looked like an office, but there was a mattress on the floor in the corner, signaling that someone was also using the room as living space. In the corner opposite the bed, there was a desk with a ton of paperwork on it. On the side of the room with the windows, there were two sinks. A coffee pot sat on the counter next to one of the sinks. The walls were bare and the floor was covered in tan carpet, making my footsteps lighter.

Two thoughts popped into my head simultaneously. The first was that I needed to find a way to wipe my handprints off the window. If someone saw them, they would definitely know something was up and do a search of the building. The second was that I hadn't even thought about a security system as I was sneaking in. I wrote down a task on my mental to-do list: ask Dimitri for sleuth lessons to go along with self-defense.

Dimitri… He would be furious with me when he found out what I'd done. I wondered if anyone had noticed I was gone yet. I was sure they'd send me a text message when they did, but I wouldn't be able to get it until I got out of here. I'd turned my phone off before coming here, just in case. I already knew what I would tell them if no one was here and I had to go back to town – that I'd sent them all text messages explaining I'd gone home to get a picture of Lissa in the outfit she was wearing when she got kidnapped. When they claimed they never got it, I'd just tell them it was because of spotty service.

Looking around, I spotted a rag on the counter with the coffee pot. I grabbed it before pulling the window down enough to stick my hand through. I quickly wiped the handprints off and closed it. Putting the rag back where I'd found it, making sure it was in exactly the same position, I walked toward the door on the other side of the room from the windows.

It was closed. I put my ear up to it, listening intently. I heard voices, but they were very light and muffled. I assumed that meant there was another room between here and the place the other people were, but I couldn't be sure. For all I knew, this place was open for business and had nothing to do with Lissa's abduction. The kidnappers could've just wanted to meet me here before taking me where they held Lissa.

But I couldn't take that chance. Taking a deep breath, I slowly opened the door, hoping it wouldn't make a sound.

I was right. I'd walked into another room, one lined with keys on the wall. Under the keys were drawers, all labeled with numbers and letters. There were four doors in this room, including the one I'd just come in through. There was a door for each wall. I quickly walked over to the door on the right, putting my ear to it just as I had the previous door.

No voices behind this one. I opened it to find a small room filled with filing cabinets. I got on my tiptoes, trying to see around all the cabinets. Once I was sure Lissa wasn't being held there, I stepped back out and shut the door as quietly as I could, which wasn't quietly enough.

Even shutting it carefully, the door made a small bang as it closed completely. I jumped, hoping the people in the other room hadn't heard it. When I didn't hear the voices anymore, though, I jerked the door back open, darting into the room. I made sure to pay extra attention when closing it again – it turned out the latch in the doorknob wouldn't close unless you turned it all the way, which was probably how it'd made that noise – and it didn't make a sound.

I weaved around filing cabinets and papers that were scattered around the floor until I made it to the back of the room. I heard a door open in the room I'd just come from as I ducked behind the cabinet furthest from the door.

I held my breath as I waited. Stupid, stupid, stupid, I chastised myself. You should've been paying more attention! If you get caught, you'll probably doom Lissa!

The door to the room opened. My back was to the cabinet, its icy coldness barely noticeable now that I was so scared. I made sure not to move a muscle, afraid my reflection might be caught on another of the shiny, black cabinets. If it was, it should be easy to overlook, especially way back here with so many obstacles blocking the person who'd just walked in's sight. If I moved, however, it would do the exact opposite, drawing their attention straight to me.

It felt like I sat there for an hour, stock-still, but only a few seconds went by. I heard the door close again, but I stayed where I was. If the person had noticed anything was up, they might be trying to play a trick on me. The cold of the cabinet was getting to me now that my adrenaline had dropped a little. A shiver went through me, one that in no way reminded me of the shivers Dimitri could make me feel.

Thinking that way about Dimitri made me feel guilty. He trusted me absolutely and here I was, breaking that trust. Maybe I should've told him about the text, should've gotten him to come here with me. The more I thought about it, the more I realized how dumb I'd been. If I'd have used my brain and thought of this plan earlier, I could've gotten Dimitri to come with me. If I told him I didn't want anyone else involved, he would've respected my wishes. In fact, I thought that was how Dimitri would've preferred it – he and I sneaking in here together to find Lissa.

But it was too late now. I snapped back to my current situation, realizing I'd been sitting here for way too long. I slowly peeked around the corner of the cabinet, finding no one else in the room with me. Listening, I heard the soft murmur of voices in the other room again. Whoever had done the sweep of the perimeter must not have found anything and gone back to the front of the building.

I got up and went back to the door, almost slipping on some papers as I did. I managed to get out of the room – without a sound, thankfully – and went straight to the door on the other side of the room. Making sure there were no voices on the other side of the door, I went in.

This room was disgusting. It was filled with old cleaning supplies that had obviously not been used in here. A plastic, fold-out table sat in the middle of the room, covered in dust and buckets. Most of the buckets were empty, but there were a few with murky, film-covered water. They must have been used for mopping. A couple of shelves on the table had halfway fallen, making the jars and containers on top – filled with things that were indistinguishable and gross – fall down. A few had broken, leaving what looked like sticky fluid covering all of them. The floor to this room was different from the others. It was tile instead of carpet.

There was another door in here, one that looked like it also led to the front of the building. To my dismay, it was open. That meant I had to pay extra attention to where I stepped. It proved to be hard, though, when I came across a slippery substance on the ground. With some maneuvering, I managed to stay upright, but not without some of the stuff getting on my shoes. It made it harder to move around, but at least they didn't make any sound.

I made it to the side of the doorway. Looking inside, I saw a long counter with – surprise! – more papers under it. There were also a few scattered keys and locks. Now that I thought about it, the drawers in the room with the keys probably had locks like those in them. The walls in the other room were an ugly, dull yellow. I didn't have time to look around anymore, though, because I was too busy listening to what the people in the room were saying. I could hear them perfectly now.

"I don't know," said a woman. "I just don't know anymore. Bringing that Dragomir girl into this seems like too much."

I know that voice, I thought. I've heard it before…but where? I couldn't remember. I kept listening, hoping it would come to me soon. If I could figure out who these people were and sneak out, I could tell the police who'd taken Lissa.

"I was thinking that, too," replied a man. "But we can't back out now. It's too late."

Someone sighed. I assumed it was the woman. "It's a shame we'll have to kill her. She knows too much. She's seen our faces. We should've worn masks."

Kill Lissa? No. I wouldn't let that happen.

There was another sigh, but this one sounded different, more frustrated. "I know, I know. I heard you the first fifty times you said that."

"Don't you go getting all huffy with me, Sidney Blaine Lester. You know I'm right. That poor young girl didn't have to die. I don't even know if I can go through with it. Maybe we can just…knock her on the head or something. Make her forget, like that hussy did." the woman huffed.

I couldn't feel my body. I should've known as soon as I heard her voice who she was. Patty Lester, Mason's grandmother. The man speaking to her was Sid, her husband. Thinking back, I should have seen this coming, should have known Patty and Sid were behind this. Memories of the past few months came rushing back to me.

"Patty and Sid have a pretty bad reputation. I heard about Rebecka's outburst at the hospital… Let's just say that Patty and Sid were the one's she got her attitude from. They all shoot and ask questions later." Mason's mom had explained to me.

Another memory came after that, one right after the viewing, when Patty had come up to me and my friends. Patty took turns looking at each of us before shaking her head. "Everyone will know what you did. You just watch."

Lissa's words flashed through my mind, the ones she'd spoken after I'd asked her who the mysterious text might be from. "I can only think of two people: Camille and Patty." It was as if she were right next to me, speaking the words in my ear.

The last one was of Eddie and what he'd told me the night before. "I just hate seeing how miserable they are. I can't complain, though. They're way better than Patty and Sid."

Even as I made all the connections, though, something at the back of my mind was nagging at me. Why would they go after me? Wasn't Eddie the one they blamed for their grandson's death? It didn't matter right then, though. I quickly decided that I would wait until they were in police custody to ask them why they did it. I'd leave, go tell the cops Sid and Patty were the ones behind all this, and we'd bust them here before they could do anything to Lissa.

But, wait. Where was Lissa? I'd searched every room in this building, save for the front, and surely they wouldn't keep her there. What if someone came in for services? Even if they didn't expect anyone, with no sign on the door, someone could easily come in on accident. So…maybe they weren't keeping Lissa here.

As I began crouching – so I could be smaller and a little more comfortable after all that walking today – a thought popped into my head out of nowhere. Did she just call me a hussy?

Before I could think further on that, however, I froze. I'd been so caught up in listening to them and making all the connections that I'd forgotten about the stuff on my shoes. When I crouched down, they squeaked. I knew it was loud enough for Patty and Sid to hear in the other room.

I glanced around at my surroundings. There was no place to hide in here. If I tried to make it to the door, I'd have to get around the substance on the floor while still being quick. I knew I wouldn't be able to do that without falling. I could always go around the other side of the table, but who knew what else was over there? From the looks of it, I'd have to dodge some buckets anyway, so that was out.

I stood up, getting into the guard stance Dimitri taught me. The only way out of this was to fight, but that didn't bother me. I could take on two old-timers.

Two seconds after I got in my stance, Patty came around the corner. When she saw me, her eyes widened in shock. I took advantage of the opportunity, landing a smooth right punch to her right eye. It was hard; she would have a black eye later today. She stumbled back, hitting the doorframe behind her. "That is for calling me a hussy." I said, feeling triumphant.

For an old woman, she sure did bounce back fast. She threw herself at me, her hands grabbing whatever she could. I grabbed her hips, knowing her body would follow whatever direction they were facing. With as force as I could muster, I shoved her back, making her hit the wall hard.

We both cried out in pain. I hadn't noticed when I was grabbing her, but she'd latched on to my earring before I could push her off. When I did, my earring tore through my earlobe, sending a jolt of searing white pain through me. I quickly chastised myself for not taking my earrings off before sneaking in here.

Before Patty could recover – she'd hit her head on the wall hard – arms wrapped around me at my elbows. They pinned my arms to my body so well that I could barely move them. That wasn't a problem, though. Dimitri had shown me a few ways to get out of a hold like this since it had happened both times I'd been attacked. I decided to go for the quickest one.

I doubled over. There were two ways this could go: either Sid would lose his grip on me and I could turn to fight him, or he wouldn't and I would have to headbutt him. Because his arms didn't loosen their hold on me, I brought the top half of my body back up as fast as I could. I only knew when the moment of impact had come from Sid's cry. He let go of me and I stumbled forward, hoping the force of the hit had been enough to slow him down.

I decided to go for the front entrance, which was closer than the back. To do that, though, I had to get through Patty, who looked like she held the fires of Hell in her eyes. I guess she'd shaken off the hit to her head. We were close enough for me to land a blow on her, but I needed something that would incapacitate her quickly. If I wound up in another scuffle with her, Sid would be right on top of me before I could move a foot.

Getting into guard with the lithe of a cheetah – at least, that's how it seemed to me – I spun my right foot into the air in front of me, going straight for her head…

…and missed.

I'd kicked too hard to stop, the force of it making me fly toward the table. My arms flailed, desperately trying to find something to steady myself, but finding nothing. I hit the table hard enough for it to fold up, going down with it. When the table hit the ground, the force knocked the air out of my lungs. It didn't help matters when the buckets of disgusting water came showering down on top of me. There wouldn't be enough soap in the world to make me feel clean again, if I ever did get clean.

As I tried to get oxygen to go back down my throat, someone grabbed me by my hair and yanked me up. Maybe Dimitri was wrong, I thought. I should cut my hair so things like this stop happening. When I was on my knees, a pair of arms swung under mine, coming back up to wrap behind my head. They used their leverage to pull me to my feet.

"Quit resisting. There's no use, we have you. You're in no shape to keep fighting." Sid whispered in my ear.

I struggled in his grasp, knowing there was no way I'd be able to headbutt him again. His hands were between our heads, so I'd wind up just getting a punch to the back of my head. I was also really dizzy after my fall and the lack of oxygen, so I couldn't afford another hit to my head. I tried to kick his legs out from under him, finally getting air back in my lungs.

"Let go of me!" I yelled. "You won't get away with this, even if you do kill us!"

He ignored me. "Get the ropes and handcuffs, Patricia. Quickly now." I heard Patty scuttle off without a word. Sid whispered in my ear again, "Oh, we'll get away with it, sweetheart. I assure you. But we're not some cheesy bad guys in a movie. We won't go telling you our plans and we won't let you go, so you can just save your breath."

I heard Patty's footsteps as she came back in the room. She walked over right next to Sid. "Now, this'll hurt, but I'm not sorry." I felt the bite of metal in my skin as she clicked the handcuffs on my right wrist. Once they were on both my wrists, Sid let go of my arms. Before I could do anything, his hands came down on my shoulders. Taking advantage of the dirty water on the floor, he pushed down, causing my feet to go out from under me. I hit the floor, seeing stars from the pain that went through my tailbone.

Before I could get my vision back – or stop being consumed by the pain – someone rolled my pants legs up. More metal bit into my legs. Realizing that someone was taking off the handcuffs on my wrists, I thrashed, but it was no good. I couldn't get any leverage from the position I was in and they soon had me restrained again, this time with my hands behind my back.

Patty handed Sid one end of a rope before they began wrapping it around my torso. I wriggled around as much as I could, but it didn't matter. They soon had me tied up.

Sid picked me up, throwing me over his shoulder. These two were a lot stronger than they looked. I brought my legs back and ran my feet into his legs, hoping he'd fall over. When he didn't, I kicked again, but Patty grabbed my legs before I could do any real damage.

I couldn't do anything as they sat me down in a hard chair in the filing cabinet room. Another rope was around Patty's shoulder, one they used to tie me to the chair. I panicked as I thought about the fact that there was no way I'd be getting through two ropes, let alone one. Even if I was able to hop away, which I highly doubted, I couldn't use my arms, so I couldn't open a window or door.

They set up three filing cabinets so they were all around me, to my left, right, and back. Glancing over at them, my heart fell when I realized I couldn't use anything on them to cut the ropes off.

As they dragged another chair in the room – presumably so someone could watch me comfortably – I heard the unmistakable ring of a bell. Hoping it was a customer, I yelled as loud as I could, "Help! I'm being held here! Help!"

Patty and Sid shared a look. Patty turned to me and said, "Won't do you any good. No customers today." Just before she left the room, she glanced back. "Oh, and you are a hussy. No point in getting mad over it."

Instead of getting mad and giving her the reaction she wanted, I smiled. "You're doing your makeup well these days, Patricia. Too bad it won't cover that eye of yours. It's already swelling up."

She glared at me, touching her eye before leaving the room.

I turned my attention to Sid, who was now sitting in the other chair they'd brought in. "You may not tell me what exactly it is you plan on doing to me, but I at least want to know one thing. Why? I thought you were mad at Eddie, not me."

"That's not for me to tell." he replied calmly.

I scoffed. "Oh, don't tell me she's the brains of this operation. I heard the two of you talking earlier. She may be able to order you around because she's your wife, but she helped kidnap Lissa even though she didn't want to. If she were the leader of this operation, she wouldn't do anything she didn't want. So, again, why are you doing this to me?"

Sid opened his mouth to reply, but he never got the chance. A loud laugh had emerged from outside the room. "Oh, he didn't do this to you." a feminine voice said. She stepped into the doorway, a grin that I couldn't describe as anything but evil on her face. "I did."

All of the theories I'd been coming up with – even though there weren't many – since finding out Patty and Sid were doing this disintegrated.

"Rebecka?!"

Duh duh duuuuuuh! So, tell me, did you guess correctly? Did you see this coming? Or were you blind sighted? Tell me in a review! Let me know whether you think Rebecka was the mastermind behind everything that's happened to Rose – in the alley, at the theater, all the texts – or not. Don't forget to tell me why you think she did it as well. For those of you who might not remember who Rebecka is – she's had a very small part in the story – she is Mason's mom. I know that was mentioned earlier in this chapter, but I just wanted to make sure you all knew. Thanks so much for reading! :)