When I’d finished, he took out his gun again. I’d been right: I was no more use to him, now. I closed my eyes and thought of Danny’s garage and the feel of his arms around me as we’d danced.

“What the hell are you doing?”

My eyes snapped open and I saw the woman with the British accent from before standing in the doorway. “I’ve just found one of the maids in tears. What did you do to her? Now I’m going to have to pay her off! And what’s this?!” She scowled at Becker. “We have rules at these events, Mr. Becker! If you need to kill her, do it after you leave here!”

Becker glowered at her but the woman just stared coldly back at him and, eventually, he dropped his eyes. Whoever this woman was, she had serious power.

“I’ll lock her in here until the deal is complete,” said Becker. “Acceptable?”

“Don’t leave her tied to a chair,” snapped the woman. “You’ve already got blood on the carpet, I don’t want her pissing herself, too.”

She stalked out. Becker moved around the suite, checking there was no way for me to escape. He checked there was only one door. He tried the windows: they didn’t open. Besides, we were a hundred feet up.

Then I saw the phone. A landline one, on a side table in the corner, almost hidden by a houseplant. If he didn’t notice it…

Becker bent and untied my wrists, then my ankles. He dug in his bag and pulled out a first aid kit, then tossed it on my lap. “I don’t want you bleeding out while I’m away.”

I nodded meekly. Please don’t see the phone, please, please—

He put his hand on the doorknob, ready to leave. Then he turned and took a last look around the room. Suddenly, his face soured. Shit.

He marched across the room, grabbed the landline phone and wrenched, snapping the cable. Then he left, taking the phone with him and locking the door behind him.

I put my head in my hands and wept slow, silent tears, feeling myself sink down and down into absolute despair. I didn’t even bandage my foot. What was the point? In a few hours, when Becker’s deal was done, I’d be put in the trunk of his car again and driven off to a shallow grave.

I stayed like that for a long time, sinking lower and lower, until I was where it’s black and cold. And right down there, in the darkest pit, I felt something. Green eyes, glittering. This sort of situation was where Danny flourished, where he lived. Because when you don’t have anything left, when all’s lost…the only thing you can do is to be cockily confident, to grin and give Death the middle finger.