Fresco clenched his hands together to keep them from shaking. Everything in him demanded he go back inside the house and put an end to those horrible people.

Medley must have felt the same way. She shook worse than he did. Fresco reached for her, to thank her for stopping him from making a huge mistake. She jerked away from his hand on her arm, however, the steering wheel twitching in her grip.

"It's okay," he said. "We did the right thing. They are just a symptom of ...