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me see if I can figure out what’s going on up there,” Dylan said. “You guys stay here. I don’t want to make too much noise on those stairs.”

Olin and Kim looked at each other. Olin nodded. “Okay.”

Dylan crept up the stairs slowly, stopping every time one of them creaked. When she reached the top, she put an ear against the door and listened. She could hear voices. It sounded like Austin was doing most of the talking, but she couldn’t make out the words. He and Connor were too far away from the cellar door.

As much as she wished she could hear what they were saying, she was glad he and Connor weren’t standing right outside the door. At least it gave her a chance to get Olin and Kim upstairs without being seen.

She turned the knob to see if the door was unlocked. It wasn’t. But that wasn’t going to stop her. She knew how to pick more than one type of lock. It was a skill she had learned when she was going through what her mother called her “spy phase.” At first, her mother had thought it was cute. “You’re going to be our very own double-oh-seven,” she would tease. That came to a halt when Dylan had gotten caught trying to steal a can of cranberry sauce from the Whole Foods near her house. Dylan had insisted she was just practicing what she had learned. She said spies had to do all sorts of things, and she wanted some real-world experience. Her mom had believed her because it was, well, a can of cranberry sauce. But that didn’t make it any better.

Dylan pulled two of her bobby pins out of her hair. She slid one into the keyhole and fiddled with the lock’s pins until they were all in place, then used the second bobby pin to turn the lock. Easy as pie.

She pinned her hair back into place, turned the knob. She let the door swing open only a few inches before she stopped it. Just enough to get a peek at the main floor.

She could see Connor sitting on a sofa, facing her. He didn’t seem to notice she had opened the door. Austin was sitting in a chair facing him. He would have to turn almost all the way around to see her.

She quietly pulled the door shut and went back downstairs. “They’re both up there.”

“What are they doing?” Olin said.

“They’re in the living room. Just talking, it looks like.”

“What about?”

“I don’t know. I couldn’t hear much.”

“What are we going to do?” Kim said.

Olin looked up the stairs. “I think we should stay here. We can wait until he comes back down and then take him by surprise.”

Dylan shook her head. “No way. We don’t know where this is going. Connor took a risk getting me that knife. We can’t take a chance that Austin will kill him before he comes back down for us.” That’s not what James Bond would do. Or Captain Marvel.

“What do you suggest?” Olin said.

“I’ll go back up there first. You two stay right behind me. They’re far enough away from the door that he won’t hear us coming up the stairs. Then, as long as they’re still sitting where they were before, we should be able to sneak up on Austin from behind.”

“What about the gun?”

“We’ll figure it out.”

Kim didn’t seem to like that answer.

“We have to do something.”

“Damn straight we do. I still need to know what he’s done with my parents.” Olin held out his hand. “Lead the way.”

Just before Dylan went up the stairs, she turned to Kim. “Actually, I want you to stay back. Let Olin and me handle this.”

“What? Why? That’s my son up there.”

And that was exactly the problem. Kim had lost her husband, might lose her son. Add to that the fact that she had been locked up for a long time in that little cage, and Dylan didn’t trust her to keep her cool. But she didn’t want to tell Kim that, so she said, “If something goes wrong, we’ll need another shot, and you might be all we’ve got.”

Kim needed barely a second to think about it. She nodded.

Dylan nodded back. She led Olin up the stairs, being just as slow and careful as she had been the first time. “I’m going to take a quick peek first, just to make sure nothing’s changed,” she said once she reached the door.

Olin was right behind her and biting down on his lower lip almost hard enough to draw blood. He gestured for her to go ahead.

“Okay, here we go.” She opened the door.

CHAPTER 59

What are you going to do with all of us? Connor had asked, and Austin still hadn’t answered it. He sipped his coffee, seemed like he was about to say something, and then sipped again. Finally, he spoke. “I guess that depends on you.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t let them go. You know that. But you and I—we can still start over if you would like to.”

Connor was about to tell Austin that he wasn’t going to let him kill his friends when he saw the cellar door creep all the way open. Dylan and Olin stepped out. They looked like they had a plan, like they were counting on him to be a distraction, so he played along. “I get it. After what my mom and Frank did to you . . .” He nodded thoughtfully. “I can’t lose my whole family. If we have to get rid of Olin and Dylan, too, so there aren’t any witness, then I guess that’s what we have to do.”

Austin was looking at him funny. Like he could tell something about Connor’s answer wasn’t right. Had Connor agreed with him too quickly? He wasn’t sure. But it also didn’t matter. While he was talking, Dylan and Olin had quietly crossed the room and were now standing directly behind Austin.

They grabbed him. Austin screamed, started to fight, reached for the