This room was a shell of an office. A sham, much like its owner. No wonder the door hadn’t been locked. The paintings, the shelves with art and antiques, the humongous desk—they were all props to give off an intimidating vibe to whoever set foot in this room.

Rafe met my eyes, and even in the dim light, I detected the heart-wrenching defeat in them. It only lasted a moment, but it was enough to tell me that he was losing hope, giving in to the bleakness of our situation.

“Okay,” he said, backing away from the desk. He turned around and aimed the light at the shelves. “The guy I took down will wake up soon, we can’t call out for help, and there’s Jack shit in here to use as a…

He swerved the beam, stopping on the whips, paddles, and restraints. As he shot across the space, I headed in the direction of the heavy-looking vase on the other shelf.

It didn’t weigh as much as I’d hoped, but it was better than nothing. Or was it? I eyed the bulky ceramic piece and wondered how much strength it would take to knock someone out with it.

Rafe pulled out a set of handcuffs with a sigh. “How long would you guess the tunnel is?”

“Long, at least thirty minutes to reach this end.”

“Damn,” he said with a sigh.

“There’s nothing but forest out there, Rafe. We walked quite a ways before entering the tunnel.”

“We’ll worry about out there once we get out there.”

But his tone wasn’t one of hope. He didn’t think our chances of reaching the other end were good, and if this door was anything to go by, we’d probably find another keypad at the other exit too.

“Can we fight our way out of here?” I asked. “What about the other hostages? Maybe we can free them and fight our way out as a group.”

“We don’t know how many there are, or the extent of their injuries.” He shook his head. “I don’t want to leave anyone behind, but you’re my only concern right now. I’m getting you out, then we can get help for the rest.”

We both glanced toward the door. First, we needed to make it down that tunnel.

Rafe took the vase from my shaking hands and placed it on the shelf. “I can do more damage with the flashlight. Hold on to these though,” he said, holding the cuffs out to me. “They might come in handy.”

I nodded with a hard swallow, and we both sent a longing look at the door with the damn keypad blocking our escape.

“Stay close, baby.”

“Always.”