When the knife falls onto the blanket beneath me, I almost can’t believe it. The sound it makes, this big block of metal, seems so loud I can’t believe Tina and Tanner don’t hear it. As a distraction, I knock my head against the gas can again.

“That must have hurt,” says Tanner.

He has no idea.

I close my right hand around the grip of the automatic knife. I can feel the raised button that will release the lock and free the blade. All I have to do is push it, and the spring inside will do the work for me. But cutting myself loose now is the dumb play, I realize. When they haul me out of the Suburban, they’re sure to have multiple guns pointed at me. Even if I surprise Tanner with a stab in the stomach, someone will put a bullet in my head.

I have to be patient. And my luck has to hold.

I slide the knife up under my shirt sleeve, bending my wrist and cupping my hand to hold it in place.

I’m going to drop this when they lift me.

But it’s too late to change plans because we’ve come to a halt.

The lights outside the frosted window have the quality of cheap strobes. I hear high-pitched snowmobile engines and voices raised to be heard above the whining machines. Someone knocks a fist against Tanner’s window. He rolls it down.

It’s Tori. “He better be alive,” she says. “After what he did to my sister—”

“Have a look for yourself.”

A moment later, the power gate opens seemingly of its own accord. I am blinded by a white sunburst. Even with my eyes shut, I know it’s the light mounted on the barrel of her Benelli shotgun.

“I want you to know,” Tori says. “After we’re done with you, I’m going hunting, and I’m going to find that big black dog of yours, and I’m going to make a rug from his skin.”

“He’s not a dog.”

Frankly, I’m surprised I am able to speak, given how swollen my tongue is.

The light wavers. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“He’s a wild wolf I was transporting. You’ll never catch him. He’s already twenty miles from here.”

“My cousin saw it by the river half an hour ago.”

God damn it, Shadow. Why haven’t you run?

The next thing I know I feel strong hands close around my ankles. Tanner pulls me across the steel gate with no regard for my head. I fall and hit the ground hard. There’s not enough snow to cushion the impact.

Miraculously, I don’t lose hold of the knife. It’s still there, pinned under the sleeve by my bent wrist.