Kai and his men watched as Melody unceremoniously tossed one of the team member’s bags out of the new room she had chosen for herself. It was directly down the walkway from the master bedroom. They stood near the room they would use for surveillance and glanced at one another as she slammed the door. 

     As they looked at Kai for his reaction, he shook his head in response. 

     “Leave her be,” he told them. “No one goes near that room until we find out more about her.” 

     “Yes, sir,” they responded and entered the surveillance room. 

     Melody leaned back against the door as soon as she slammed it shut. She looked around and decided it wasn’t bad for a second choice. It was almost as big as the other one and had nearly the same view. At least this one gave her more of the forest to admire. 

     She walked toward a small alcove with a window seat and sat down with a dejected thud. Her lip trembled as she looked out toward the thick green pines, and she allowed herself to cry. 

     A few moments later, one of the men who had stayed downstairs to take an inventory of the kitchen went to the bathroom between their rooms. He listened to her through the wall while he relieved himself, then hurried to join the others.

     “Pantry’s full,” he announced. “There’s a walk-in freezer loaded with meat, ice cream, and TV dinners. Previous owners left this place in a hurry.” 

     Kai looked at him as he spoke and could see something was wrong. 

     “What else, Neal?” he asked. 

     Neal motioned with his head toward Melody’s door. 

     “She’s crying,” he said quietly. 

     Kai looked around at the opened laptops and screens, then at the man he’d ordered to get her case file. 

     “Have you heard back?” he asked. 

     Paul sat at the makeshift desk and pulled up the team e-mail. 

     “Just got it,” he replied. “Do you want a hardcopy?” 

     Kai motioned for him to give him the chair and nodded. “Yeah, but I’ll start reading now.” 

     The team’s attention would go back and forth from what Kai was reading to the gear being set up and prepared.

     “My god,” they heard him mutter and quickly gathered around him. 

     He pulled up the photos from the hospital. There were before and after shots. Those taken before they cleaned her up, when she was still covered in blood, and those after she was cleaned but before treatment. Then, there were photos of the stitches, swollen and bruised flesh, and care for the deliberate burns. 

     He skimmed through and read out loud her statement as well as those of her friends, the doctor, and the first officers to arrive at the hospital. 

     “How do you come back from something like that?” asked one of the team. 

     “Not very well,” another answered. 

     Kai looked at the photos one last time before turning to his men. “Now we know what’s going on with her. Tread lightly. It can’t be easy for a victim of something like this to have to share a cabin with half a dozen strange men.” 

     “Yes, sir,” they agreed. 

     “How’s that feed?” he asked of their cameras, trying to force himself to focus again on their own case. 

     As he watched his men communicate with each other to link into their servers, he glanced at the printer shooting off a paper copy of her file. The first moment he was able, he would see about her. He had to find a way to let her know she was safe with them, even if her survival instincts would convince her otherwise.