Page 34 of The Pleasure of Panic

Finally he says, “Listen. I’m FBI. Whoever this Caleb person is, I’m not a part of that. Whatever this game is, I’m not a part of that either.”

I don’t know what to think, so I keep quiet.

“Someone called into… somewhere earlier today….”

“Somewhere?” I ask, forcing a laugh as I try to calm down. “What do you mean somewhere?”

“I mean, the call was real, it came in—but beyond that I don’t know much. I wasn’t really…” He sighs. “I wasn’t really paying attention earlier today. I had shit on my mind, OK? So I’m not clear on the details, but however it happened that you got on our radar, that was real, Issy. There was chatter.”

“What chatter?” I’m really not doing well right now. My heart is skipping beats inside my chest. My breathing is picking up and starting to become erratic.

“Look,” he says. “I’m not the best FBI agent, OK? The reason I’m in Denver was because I was demoted. I lost my father a few months back, I’ve been drinking too much, sleeping too little, and… and… yeah.” He lets out a breath that says all the things he couldn’t.

I think about that for a few seconds, but my mind is racing, and my heart is pounding, and my hands are shaking and… I hate this. I fucking hate this. I hate that I’m rattled, I hate that every fiber of my being is screaming RUN!

I don’t run. I don’t run, I don’t run, I don’t run…

“Untie me, Issy.”

“No,” I say, swallowing down the fear. “No, I’m leaving you here. I’ll make an anonymous call telling people where you are and—”

“No,” he yells. “You can’t leave.”

“I can leave.” I laugh. “I’m going to leave. So you better just come to terms with that, buddy.”

He rests his head on the floor, craning his neck to look at me. Then he laughs.

“What’s so funny?”

“I mean that literally.”

“Meant what?” I snap. I’m busy running probabilities in my head. Probabilities of getting out of this alive. What are my chances of survival right now?

“You cannot leave here.”

“Watch me.” I laugh.

“Go ahead and try.”

“What?”

“The door is made of steel. It’s on a digital lock and you don’t have the code to open it.”

“I can go through a window, genius.”

“Like I said. Go ahead and try.”

What the fuck—? I walk over to the window, tear open the curtains and see—

“Reinforced security shutters, Issy. On every single window. Also on a coded lock. This is a goddamned safe house, OK? No one can get in without blowing a hole in the wall. Which means no one can get out, either. And if you’ve got some harebrained scheme for giving that a try, I’d like to take this opportunity to caution you against it. They will make you pay for damaging government property. So I hope you’ve got money stashed away for that. Because fucking up a priority one safe house is gonna cost you dearly.”

A sharp pain fills my chest, making me double over. My breathing is far, far beyond erratic now. I start to hyperventilate. My whole body begins to tremble. My knees buckle, and reality flickers, and before I know what’s happening—

CHAPTER TEN - FINN

She falls to the floor. Like collapses into a heap. Her head misses the coffee table by mere inches. “Issy!” “I yell. “Issy?”

I struggle in the zip ties, but my hands are secured behind my back and I’m not in the right position to break out of them. So I don’t bother. I’m a little more worried about her right now than myself. I wriggle across the floor until I am close enough to get a good look at her face. “Issy?” I whisper, trying to see if she’s breathing. “Issy?”