I almost faint with relief. Cam’s announcement feels like a shimmering oasis in a desert. I hear his words, I process them, but I don’t dare believe. Cam has the money. He’ll be here by the deadline.

The man nudges me again, and I search for meaning behind the mask. His earlier words echo through my mind like fragments of a nightmare I really wish I could forget. Ask where he is, how much of that money he’s got on him and how long before he gets here. These are the only things you get to say.

I frown.

He mouths a word that makes my blood turn cold. I know as soon as I say it, as soon as Cam gives me the answer, this conversation will be over. A masked finger is already hovering over the screen. I am not ready for this call to end.

“Hey, Cam?”

“I’m here, babe. I love you and I’m here.”

My heartbeat kicks up in my chest again, battering my ribs like a trapped animal. “When you get to the house, come up to the playroom. The alarm is on so make sure you come through the front doors, and turn it off before you come to the playroom. We’ll be upstairs, waiting for you in the playroom.”

Playroom. Playroom. Playroom. If I say it often enough, if I lean into the word hard enough, maybe something will click in Cam’s head. A memory of the cameras, all three of them, recording everything we say and do here. Beatrix’s escape. The yards and yards of duct tape. This very conversation. I need Cam to know what he’s up against, give him the only advantage we have left.

“Alarm. Playroom. Got it,” he says, but does he? Nervous energy crackles in my bones because I don’t think he does.

Come on, babe, remember. Pull up the app on your phone and look.

I get another finger in my shoulder, another prod urging me to say the word he mouths for a second time. If it’s so important, why doesn’t he just ask it himself?

And then something else occurs to me: this is twice now he’s gone silent while Cam is on the line. Why? Is he worried Cam will recognize his voice?

“Hey, Cam?”

“Still here.”

“I’m supposed to remind you, no police, okay? I need to know you didn’t call them.”

I don’t miss the gun of an engine, the way his voice dips with both warning and promise, how his answer isn’t really an answer at all: “Hang tight, Jade. Be there as soon as I can.”