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finally left the laptop’s screen and traveled to the weapon. If Walter had been someone else—hell, even if he had been the daughter—Jack would never have laid the knife so close to him. But this was Walter, and Jack had no fear at all he was going to reach for it.
    “…your daughter,” Jack continued, “and your girlfriend. Well, they’re a different story. Do I have to keep going?”
    Walter shook his head.
    “Think of it this way,” Jack said. “The faster we get this done, the faster the six of us can go back to our normal lives. You, me, Jerry, and Jones back there, and Allie and Lucy in the other room. You want that, right?”
    Walter nodded. “And you’ll keep your word? You’ll let us go when this is all over?”
    “Of course,” Jack said, and had to fight every instinct to shoot Jones, standing over Walter’s shoulder, a menacing response, because the big man had just snickered. Fortunately, he had done it just quietly enough that Walter hadn’t noticed.
    Dear God, one semi-professional. I would have been happy with just one semi-professional, but you couldn’t even give me that, could you?
    Jack focused on Walter, and pushed the laptop a little closer toward the edge of the desk. “Now, let’s get to work. I hear this is going to take some time…”

Chapter 5
    “We’re going to die, aren’t we?” Lucy said. It wasn’t really a question, more like a statement.
    Allie pursed her lips into a smile and hoped it was at least semi-convincing. “No. We’re not going to die.”
    “They have guns…”
    “A lot of people have guns.”
    She thought about Beckard, about the last time she had found herself in the woods and why she’d promised herself she would never do it again, and how much she so, so regretted going back on that promise right about now.
    “We’re not going to die,” she said. “I promise.”
    “How can you be so sure?”
    There were still dry tears along Lucy’s cheeks, and Allie wet a part of her long-sleeve shirt and wiped at them.
    “Because I’m not going to let them hurt you,” she said. “Or your father. I won’t allow it.”
    Lucy’s eyes remained fixed on hers—probing, as if she was trying to convince herself to believe Allie. “But how can you be sure? ”
    “I’m going to tell you something, and I want you to believe me.”
    Lucy blinked expectantly at her. She looked so much younger than her fifteen years at the moment.
    “I’ve been through this before,” Allie said.
    “This?”
    “Not this, exactly, but something like it. I survived that, and I’ll survive this, too. And so will you. That’s why I want you to believe me when I say we’re going to get out of here.”
    The girl nodded and tried to return her smile, failing badly. She didn’t say anything for the next few seconds. Then, “I’m sorry.”
    “For what?”
    “For being a bitch to you before.”
    Allie smiled. “You weren’t.”
    “Yes, I was.”
    “Okay, maybe a little…”
    Lucy smiled back, and this time it wasn’t nearly as forced. Then she looked across the room at the door. “What are they doing with Dad?”
    “I don’t know,” Allie said, and thought, What the hell have you gotten us into, Walter?
    “I don’t hear anything,” Lucy said.
    “Neither do I.”
    “I guess that’s a good sign?”
    Allie wasn’t sure what the girl meant at first, but then she understood. They hadn’t heard a sound from Walter or the other three men who had taken him, which meant Walter wasn’t being harmed. Or if he were, Jack and his “friends” were being very quiet about it, which was something they had no reason to be. Not out here, not with full command of the situation.
    “That is a good sign,” Allie nodded.
    “I thought Dad works in an office,” Lucy said.
    “He does.”
    “So what do three guys with guns want with him? I mean, he’s just Dad, not James Bond, right?” The girl looked back at her when she said that last part. “Right, Allie?”
    Allie