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When Arkadi took my rings, I stopped screaming, only because I was in a state of stunned horror. Why? They were certainly worth a fortune, but was this really the time or place to be thinking about robbing me on top of everything else? Or was it just easier to pry rings off of a living hand?

It was clear he was loving every second of whatever terrifying game he was playing, and like he’d told me earlier, I was only a pawn. But pawns outlived their purpose pretty early on and there were rarely any left standing at the end. I was running out of time.

He jumped out of the car and I scrambled over the middle to try to follow him out. I was ready to fight again, to my dying breath this time. He wasn’t going to kill me easily, that was for sure. He slammed the door in my face, conking me in the forehead, but I was on the verge of hysteria at that point and barely felt a tap. What was one more blow?

Stomping toward the edge of the burning wreckage, he crouched down, seeming to dig in the ashes for a moment. As soon as I had his door open, I started to fling myself to the ground with the plan of rolling under the car and escaping out the other side while he was preoccupied with the dirt.

Grunting with exertion since the raging fire made it so there was no need to stay quiet, my hands hit the ground, and I began to pull myself out. As soon as I rolled sideways onto the hard-packed dirt, avoiding a random bit of charred metal that had flown over from the explosion, I grabbed onto the edge of the tire and pulled myself under the car.

This was going to work! Not daring to crane my neck to see what Arkadi was up to, I scrambled toward the other side, trying to determine which direction to go as soon as I was back on my feet. Returning the way we drove in would result in an instant recapture, so I decided to bolt toward the back of what had been the warehouse. It meant risking going through the burning debris, but it might slow him down.

I was so confident, so invigorated by this new chance, that I didn’t notice the soot-covered shoes when I pulled myself out from under the car. Didn’t see the impatiently tapping toe. All I could see was my shot for freedom, and that was dashed when Arkadi grabbed me by the back of my shirt and hauled me up.

He looked at me with disgust. “Now you’re going to get dirt all over the seat.”

Without another word, he stuffed me into the car and slammed the door, narrowly missing, crushing my ankle as I hurriedly pulled it in.

I had been fighting hysteria and blind panic since Arkadi popped out in front of me at the restaurant. Now, it was closing in fast, stealing my vision and ability to think at all. Sirens sounded in the distance, and I jerked around, hoping to see flashing lights moving toward us. My last hope.

Arkadi calmly finished sending a message and dropped his phone in the center console before taking off down a narrow road leading away from where we’d come in. Away from the rescue vehicles and my last chance to gain my freedom.

How many more buildings would Arkadi blow up before he put me in one of them first?

Before my vision blinked out altogether, I noticed his phone screen was still on, revealing a picture of my rings for some reason. I didn’t have time to wonder about it, because the light on his screen was already growing dimmer. Seconds. Less than that. I had to take the chance.

Leaning over and letting out a keening wail, I slid the phone into my palm, furiously tapping on the screen with my thumb to keep it active. Dragging it close to my stomach, I stayed hunched over, pretending to bawl my eyes out.

“Knock it off,” Arkadi said, a little more than annoyed by my antics. “Or you’re going back in the trunk.”

Keeping the phone tucked close, I stopped making so much noise and sat up, but curled to the side, as if I couldn’t bear the sight of him. Which was true enough, but my heart was pounding with excitement now instead of raw fear.

Yes. His phone was still open and I immediately saw that he had sent the picture of my rings to someone. The number had no contact attached to it, but it had to be Nik. Who else would know who the rings belonged to? He probably sent the picture to taunt him. My heart ached to think he might have succeeded in making Nik think I was dead.

And the egomaniac had just handed me my husband’s phone number on a silver platter, though I swore if I made it out alive, I’d memorize at least three important numbers after this.

Keeping his phone hidden, I swiveled my neck a bit to see Arkadi was preoccupied with driving and his tablet, which was now mounted on the dashboard. A map was pulled up on it, revealing a bunch of green dots, and a route to the nearest one, which didn’t look too far away. I burned the image into my brain and kept acting like I was on the verge of passing out.

I was pretty close to it. Any moment, Arkadi might decide he needed to send another message and discover his phone wasn’t where he put it. All the while, I was tapping out the next destination on the map, along with a few of the others on his map, in case I was mistaken about where we were heading. My movements were awkward and stiff as I tried to keep the handcuffs from clinking against the phone and drawing Arkdadi’s attention.

Praying my message wasn’t gobbledygook since I was keying it in with my eyes on Arkadi and not the phone. I was about to plea for Nik to hurry, but Arkadi glanced at me. All I could do was send the message the way it was. I slid the phone down between my seat and the door until he turned back to the road.

Oh my God, I prayed we weren’t in one of those dead zones where the message had no chance of going through. It was impossible not to breathe a huge sigh of relief when I slid the phone back up and saw it had been sent. Thankfully, Arkadi only thought I was blubbering and continued to ignore me. I deleted the message and began to move it toward the console, but it felt like there was a beacon shining on the open area between our seats. The slightest movement in that direction would have him striking out, and I’d be in a world of hurt if he noticed I’d swiped his phone.

I let it fall from my fingertips between my seat and the console. Hopefully, when he went looking for it again, he’d think he’d just missed, and it had fallen there on its own. There was no evidence I’d sent the message, so I curled back up in the seat and tried to cling to hope.

Nik had to get that message and find me before Arkadi did any more damage. Or worse, decided I was no longer useful in his sick games.