“Jesus,” Nathan muttered. “Looks like a damn war zone.”
Shea froze when her gaze skittered across the monitor that had a view of the dining room. The carpet that had borne the bloodstains of her parents was gone. Someone had removed it. Why? But she still saw the pool of blood in her mind. Tears filled her eyes and she looked hastily away.
In her mind, an endless loop played and she saw her father valiantly trying to protect her mother. Heard the intruders demand to know where the girls were. She saw him gunned down when he refused to give them any information on his daughters’ whereabouts and then her mother throwing her body over her husband as she sobbed and pleaded for their lives.
She shut her eyes and viciously shoved the images from her head. She’d looked away then too, no longer able to bear to see what happened. Grace had called her a heartless bitch when Shea had dragged her toward the door and shoved her into the tunnel.
But she’d known there was nothing she and Grace could do and she’d made a vow that her parents wouldn’t sacrifice themselves for nothing. She’d keep Grace—and herself—safe. Her mom and dad wouldn’t die in vain.
Who had done this? They’d gone to great lengths to conceal the deaths, disposing of the bodies, removing the blood-soaked carpet. Yet they’d trashed the house and left it in shambles? It didn’t make sense, which was why she suspected that the house had been ransacked much more recently. Like when Grace had been here and had been frightened away by intruders.
When Nathan spoke, she jumped. She’d been so lost in her thoughts that she hadn’t heard him move toward the door leading out of the panic room into the rest of the house.
“Same code?”
She nodded. Her heart jumped into overdrive and her hands shook so much that she wrapped both around the stock of the gun in an effort not to drop it.
The stock was slick and she took one hand away from it to wipe it down the leg of her jeans. Then she switched hands so she could rub the other one.
There had been no sign that anyone was in the house. No sign of Grace. Had the house been that way when Grace had arrived? Or had this been done by whoever had startled Grace?
Fear gripped her by the throat and threatened to choke her.
Where was Grace now? And was she okay? Why the hell wouldn’t she communicate with Shea? Or was she unable to?
That was what scared Shea the most. The thought of Grace hurt and unable to call for Shea was paralyzing.
“Let’s move. I don’t want to spend any more time here than necessary,” Nathan said when the lock released on the door.
She collected herself and moved into the hallway behind Nathan. Her gaze scanned each room, but what was she looking for? Everything was a complete and total mess. How would she even know if there was something missing?
Then she remembered the journal tucked into her jeans. She looked down and fingered the edge. She was convinced now that Grace must have dropped it. What Shea didn’t know was if it had been an accident or if Grace had intended for Shea to find it.
She forced her attention back to her surroundings. Nathan kept his head up as he crept from room to room. He toed through a few of the fallen items but quickly moved through the house.
When they reached the kitchen, Nathan glanced into the garage and then turned back to Shea. “Try to contact Grace again. Everything is quiet here. I don’t see any fresh blood, and it’s hard to tell if there was a struggle. Too big of a mess.”
Shea’s stomach dropped and she poured all of her energy into the effort to reach out to her sister.
Grace. Please, talk to me. I’m here at the house. Things are a mess here. I need to know you’re okay. Tell me where you are. I’ll come get you. I’m safe now. You can be too.
Only empty silence greeted her plea.
“She’s not there, damn it!”
Nathan touched her arm. “Don’t get worked up, Shea. You don’t know that anything has happened to her. I need you to stay calm and focused.”
She blew out her breath and battled tears of rage and frustration. How was she supposed to be calm and focused? She was standing in the place where her parents had been murdered. A place that her sister had come back to and from which she had now disappeared.
Glass exploded around them, sending slivers slicing over Shea’s neck and shoulders. Then she hit the floor as Nathan threw her down and covered her with his body.
“Cover your ears and close your eyes!” he yelled hoarsely.
She barely had time to close her eyes before a loud explosion registered and then splashes of color appeared in her vision even though her eyes were tightly shut. Her hands over her ears did little to buffer her from the concussion of sound.
Before she could collect herself, Nathan was dragging her toward the panic room. She stumbled as she got to her feet but promptly staggered. Her balance was off and her ears were ringing. Those damn patches of black still obscured her vision and no amount of blinking made them go away.
Behind her, more breaking glass and then the shattering of wood urged her forward.
The world spun so crazily around her that nausea rose sharply. Her head hurt. Her ears throbbed and she felt sick as a dog.
Finally Nathan hoisted her over his shoulder and ran the rest of the way toward the panic room. As soon as they were inside, he tossed her down, slammed the door and set the locks.
The gun. She’d dropped the damn gun.
She held her hands to her head and staggered upward, willing the room to stop spinning.
“What the hell was that?”
“Flash grenade. Can you see? I need your help here. Do you know anything about the surveillance system?”
She shook her head to rid herself of the residual effects. Nathan sounded like he was a mile away but at least her vision was slowly ridding itself of the spots. Her head hurt like a son of a bitch.
“What do you want to do? I know a little. Just what my dad showed me and Grace when he set everything up.”
Nathan pointed to the monitor that showed two men stealthily moving into the kitchen from the garage door. She gasped, her mind becoming sharper as she stared at the guns they held.
“I need to get this surveillance to my brothers. Do you have the passwords to the computer system? We have to be quick. I want to upload the footage of these jokers so we find out what we can about them.”
For a moment she blanked.
“Come on, Shea. Think. We have to get out of here. These aren’t your average baddies here. Your high-tech security system won’t withstand a grenade. They’ll just blow a hole in the damn wall.”
“It’s—it’s DLGSP.”
“That’s it?”
“No. No, just give me a second.”
“We don’t have a second, Shea. Give me the rest of it, damn it.”
She closed her eyes and replayed inputting the password. The first letter of each family member’s name in order of age. Then the number of members.
“It’s 4. The number 4 and then Peterson spelled back- ward. All uppercase. NOSRETEP. The entire password is DLGSP4NOSRETEP.”
Nathan typed in the letters and then entered a series of commands. He watched one of the monitors and zoomed in one of the men, who moved slowly down the hallway toward the panic room. He took a series of still shots and then captured a thirty-second video.
Shea surged forward. “Oh my God, Nathan. The cameras would have caught Grace when she was here! We’d know what happened to her!”
Nathan cursed and muttered under his breath as his fingers flew across the keyboard. “I’ll have to start the upload of that entire day and just hope it doesn’t get interrupted if they blow this place. We don’t have time to babysit it.”