Cat’s hands were free. She’d severed the tape and was flexing her fingers. She’d gone limp in the man’s grasp, but the looseness was a ruse. She wanted to go for his gun. And she’d lose.

Serena saw it, too, and she murmured a warning. ‘Jonny.’

‘Cat, don’t move,’ Stride called to her. ‘We’ll get you out of this. Stay calm.’

A mistake.

He regretted it as the words left his mouth, and the man didn’t miss it. Cat. Stride had admitted that he knew this girl. She wasn’t a stranger. She was more than a hostage.

‘You want to save Cat?’ the man shouted. ‘Then get these cops out of here! You’ve got ten seconds before I pull the trigger. Kill me if you want, but she’ll be on the ground. Is that what you want?’

‘Stop! Don’t do this! Cat, don’t move, it’s okay.’

‘Ten . . .’

Cat’s fingers curled like claws. Fragments of torn tape dangled from her slim wrists. Her breathing accelerated.

‘Nine . . .’

‘Put the gun down!’ Stride shouted at the man.

‘Eight . . .’

Cat stared at Stride, and he stared back. Don’t, he tried to tell her, but she wasn’t listening; she was too far gone with fear and fury.

‘Seven . . .’

‘Jonny, he’s going to do it,’ Serena whispered.

‘Six . . .’

And he was. Stride knew that. The man was insane. When he reached zero, he’d pull the trigger, regardless of the consequences. And before that, Cat would wrestle him for the gun, and he’d overwhelm her in seconds. It all ended the same way. With both of them dead.

‘Five . . .’

Everything was careening to a finish. One way or another.

‘Four . . .’

Stride bent down and put his gun beside him on the railroad tracks. He straightened up and put his hands in the air with his fingers spread wide.

‘Look at me!’ Stride shouted. ‘Look! No gun!’

The countdown stopped. The man stared at Stride.

‘Now the others, too,’ he called. ‘All of them. Tell them to drop their weapons.’

‘First, we chat,’ Stride said. He took a step closer to the man.

‘Stay where you are!’ the man shouted. He kept the gun at Cat’s head. ‘She and I are going to walk out of here. Just her and me. And you’re going to let us go.’

Stride shook his head and took another step closer. ‘I can’t let you do that. I just wanted to prove that I’m not going to shoot you.’

‘Stop!’

Stride took another step closer.

‘I told you to stop!’

And another step closer.

Then the man finally did what Stride wanted. He took the gun away from Cat’s head and pointed it directly at Stride’s chest. ‘I said, stop!’

Stride froze. No one had a clear shot yet. Cat stared at him with a question in her eyes. Now?