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“No.”Definitely fucking not.“I need to know she’s safe first, then we’ll go to the police.” I press the roll of cash into her hand, closing her fingers over it. “Please, don’t mention I was here.”

“Room 1021.” Luke’s voice crackles in my ear. “And there are two men, you said?”

I hear the bellboy murmur agreement.

“Let’s go up together,” Luke says, to the bellboy, I imagine. I frown. There’s no way the bellboy play will work, though he’s better up here than down in the foyer, talking to the front desk.

The maid still looks worried. “Be careful,” she warns me as the elevator rises. “Men like this, dangerous.”

No shit.

But two is easy enough.

Too easy?

My stomach twists with tension.

“I’m parked by the north entrance.” Paddy’s voice crackles through the radio. “Best we get the fuck out of here as soon as you’ve got the girl. Daddy is taped up in the back seat.”

I grin.I bet Pete’s thrilled about that.

“Think you can take two by yourselves, boys?” Paddy says. “Or do you need a real man to come do the job for you?”

“Fuck off,” Luke and I mutter in unison.

“Ooh,” Paddy says. “Feisty.”

The maid looks at me curiously. She clearly heard thefuck offpart of the exchange.

“I’m very worried about this man,” I say, smiling at her, and she nods.

My mind is spinning as I step out onto the tenth floor, the maid standing anxiously behind me. A moment later the elevator next to me dings, and Luke steps out. The bellboy and the maid exchange a nervous look.

“Maid or bellboy?” Luke asks in a low voice as we look down the corridor toward 1021. There’s nobody standing outside the door.

“Neither.” I smile at the maid. “When we are in position by the door,” I say, nodding at the fire emergency switch, “canyou pull that? And you,” I say to the bellboy, “as soon as the alarm goes off, can you knock on the door and tell the men inside that they have to exit the building?” I take out another roll of cash and split it between the two of them.

The bellboy is visibly sweating. “I am not sure,” he says uneasily.

The maid glares at him and says something fierce in Thai which makes him look down miserably at the floor. She turns to me. “He pull switch,” she says. “I knock on door. Better if maid knock.”

I look at the bellboy skeptically. “Are you sure he’ll do it?”

The maid says something else in the same sharp tone, and the bellboy nods, looking even more ashamed. “He do,” she says.

“Thank you.” I hand her another roll of bills. “You are very kind.”

The bellboy sniffs as we pass him. I lean in close. “Don’t fuck up,” I warn him, “or we will come for you.” Looking utterly terrified, he nods.

Luke and I take up position on either side of the door. The maid, pale but surprisingly fierce-looking, stands just out of the way. Glancing down the corridor, I nod at the bellboy.

He pulls the red lever down, waits for the shriek of the alarm, then runs for the stairs without looking back.

Doors begin opening immediately, people pushing each other as they head for the stairs. They give Luke and me barely a glance.

The door to 1021 stays stubbornly closed.

We wait until the first rush is gone, then I nod at the maid.