My happiness was short-lived because, within a few months, Mum took up with Pete. But at least Wolf was gone. But that’s why I recognized the radio-controlled IED when I saw it. And, if I was right, as soon as the phone next to the plastic explosive was called, it would initiate the firing circuit of the IED. With that and the petrol Jarvis had thrown over the car, it was guaranteed that this garage and everything in it would be blown to smithereens in a fireball that would be visible from the moon.

I twisted to look up at the garage ceiling through the side window. Lurching forward, I strained to make out the ceiling rigging and the garage door through the front windscreen.

‘Oh God! I’m right.’ What little hope I had left inside fluttered, flickered and all but died.

‘What? What is it?’ Troy moved beside me.

‘Jarvis has set up an IED with a mobile-phone trigger and he’s also rigged it to the garage door,’ I said. ‘See! Those two wires on the door are linked to the device at the back of the garage. If anyone opens the garage door, this place will go up like a rocket.’

‘So if anyone tries to rescue us …?’ Troy left the rest unsaid. ‘If your dad and Callie come to rescue us …?’

I stared at him. I hadn’t even thought of that.

‘God, we can’t catch a break,’ said Troy.

‘Why didn’t he just put a bullet in our heads and have done with it?’ I said with disgust.

‘Because he needs us alive until he gets whatever ransom money he’s demanded. After that, we’re history,’ said Troy. ‘I think … I think this is it.’

It wasn’t just what he said, but the way he said it. The half-full mood had dissipated. Did Troy really believe that it was over, that there was nothing we could do but wait for death to escort us out of the garage? I’d thought I had no hope left, but Troy’s words had a strange effect. They fanned the tiny, dying spark that remained within me back to life. Troy had spent our time together shoring up what little hope I had inside me. Now it was my turn.

‘Troy, we’re still alive now, and you know what they say about where there’s life, there’s cake. So I’m going to need you to get it together, pull your head out your arse and help me find a way to get us out of here in one piece. If we can get out of the car, we can go through the internal door into the house and escape that way, so all we have to do is work out how to escape this car.’

Troy glared at me.