‘I’m not stupid,’ Ethan suddenly said. His eyes were still fixed on Dani’s, but she realised straight away that his words weren’t aimed at her. ‘DI Barnes. I’m talking to you.’

Dani’s heart pounded. Before another word was spoken, Jason jumped to his feet. Dani was still looking over at Ethan. She saw his hand move for the jar.

‘No!’ Dani screamed.

She wasn’t sure if her instruction had been for Ethan or Jason, but she knew what was coming. Ethan’s hand reached behind the jar and he swept it forwards. The open container hurtled off the workbench. All manner of horrors flashed before Dani’s eyes. Jason was no slouch though. He must have known what Ethan was planning.

Jason ducked, sidestepped and held up his arm as the jar flew through the air towards him. The glass brushed his side and smashed to the ground and acid sprayed everywhere, fizzing and spitting against anything it touched. Jason roared in pain as his clothes sizzled and frothed, but he didn’t stop moving. He barrelled into Ethan and the two of them tumbled to the floor, knocking over the spotlight in the process. For the first time Dani could properly make out the small, dank space in front of her again.

Dani felt burning and looked down at her foot. Her shoe was sizzling, the leather bubbling up and melting. Dani screamed and heaved her legs into her body, away from the creeping acid on the floor. She kicked her shoes against each other, trying to remove them. She managed it, but the deadly mixture had already eaten a patch of her sock underneath and all that remained of the skin below was a bloody red mess.

The pain was immense, but Dani was in pure survival mode. Superficial acid burns wouldn’t stop her, and it seemed they weren’t about to stop Jason either. He was grappling with Ethan on the floor. Dani couldn’t tell how badly burned Jason was, but he was fighting with animal instinct. He somehow wormed his way on top of Ethan and, despite the younger man’s attempts to get him off, Jason rained blows down onto Ethan’s head.

Then, as it looked like Ethan may have the strength to shake his foe off, Jason decided to fight dirty. He grabbed Ethan’s head and slammed it on the concrete floor beneath them. Once. Twice. Three times.

Ethan’s eyes rolled. He was either dead or unconscious.

The next second Jason jumped up. He remained where he was, staring down at Ethan while his chest heaved in and out. He was in a trance. But they had no time to dwell. Mary would be back any second.

‘Jason, get me the fuck out of here!’

Chapter Sixty-Two