Braithe, who had her knees pulled up to her chest, straightened one leg.

As they grappled, they lost their balance, and Ginger took the brunt of the fall, hitting the ground and staying there, pinned by Taured’s weight. They’d collapsed just beyond where Braithe sat against her own table leg, struggling.

Rainy couldn’t see what happened next. The men’s feet were kicking, and she saw flashes of gray boots. Ginger tried to reach for his gun, but Taured was a bigger man with longer arms, and he got there first. She braced herself for a gunshot, her vision swimming as the grunting continued, but the only sound that came was two dull thumps. Braithe was watching, she had a better view than Rainy, and she was trying to keep out of their way, pulling her legs up to her chest. As Taured stood, Braithe’s head followed him, tilting all the way back.

Everything felt perfectly still in those moments, and the light from the high window was shining directly on Rainy’s face, bright white and blinding. She blinked once...twice...and then Taured rose from the ground, a disoriented victor. Rainy could just see Ginger’s boots, unmoving, beyond Braithe.

Taured stumbled back into Rainy’s view, glancing at Braithe and stepping into the greater part of the room. There was blood on his hands and shirt, but he didn’t seem to notice. He was looking for her. It was her turn to tremble, the weight of her stupid, ridiculous plan crashing down on her. Handcuffed to a table leg on an abandoned floor of a hotel, at the mercy not only of a would-be killer but her worst enemy. She started laughing at the absurdity of it: How had she thought she should deal with a kidnapper herself?

She couldn’t contain the laughter that bubbled from her lips. All because she grew up in a cult and had a lot of great therapy, she’d thought she could outsmart a sociopath. Her laughter was almost beautiful even to her own ears, illogical yet melodious in this impossible situation.

“Hello, Taured,” she said, and as he crouched down in front of her, he was grinning. Blood was running steadily from his nose where Ginger had got him good. She wondered if Ginger were still alive. The light wasn’t good, but it looked like there was a lot of blood on that side of the room.

“You’re not so different,” she said.

He grabbed her chin and turned her head from side to side.

“You’re very different.”

When he let her go, her skin tingled where his fingers had been.

“That’s good. Want to let me out of these handcuffs? My wrists are killing me.”

Taured made a face like, Wow, okay, and stood up.

“Who’s your friend?” He glanced back at Braithe, who was sitting very still.