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Mateo felt a headache coming on.

“Gotta go,” he muttered. “Hang up,” he told Braxton.

Braxton stopped the call. “You okay?” he asked.

“Too much laughter. Lainey’s in trouble. I can just feel it.”

“We don’t know for sure,” Braxton said.

He had Braxton call the Morrisons but it went to their answering machine. Of course they didn’t have cell phones.

Mateo pressed down harder on the accelerator.

How long had it been since she’d opened the door? Lainey watched as the two of them were now sitting down across from her at her dining room table, eating chicken parmesan and gnocchi with bruschetta and sparkling water from her wine glasses.

“You keep looking at our water glasses,” the unhinged harpy said as she poured more water into her glass. “Are you thirsty?”

It had been Friday when she’d opened the door, right? Or was it Saturday?

Was today Sunday?

She watched as the beautiful fall of liquid poured into the glass with a smooth swishing sound. Then she heard a snap and crackle of the sparkling bubbles. The blonde, who she now knew as Amanda, set down the green bottle and slowly picked up her glass and swirled the precious liquid around.

Lainey watched as she brought the glass to her lips and took a sip. A second sip. A third sip. She watched her throat work as she swallowed down the water.

How many hours? How many days had it been since Lainey had had something to drink? Did she open the door on Friday or Saturday? Why wasn’t her brain working? Her head drifted forward but was then yanked back by the duct tape sticking it to the back of her dining room chair.

“Please” she moaned, praying they would understand her.

“Please.”

Amanda laughed as she picked up a piece of bruschetta. “Are you ready to tell us what you did with our money?”

Lainey carefully nodded her head, trying not to hurt herself, but still she felt some of her hair being torn out of her scalp.

“Ivan,” Amanda said as she turned to the man. “You know something?”

He shook his head as he continued to eat his meal.

“I think I believe her. I think she is ready to tell us the truth.”

“Great,” he said as he continued to eat.

If she could just get some water she could think. She just needed to stall for some time. Matt would come. She knew he would. Matt would come and save her, she just needed to stay alive.

“Ivan, you need to go take off her gag.”

“She’s going to make noise. They always make noise when you yank off the duct tape. It rips off their skin.”

“Dammit, do I have to do everything?!”

Amanda picked up one of Lainey’s good white linen napkins and touched it to her lips, then got up from the table and walked around to where Lainey was duct taped to her chair. She tilted Lainey’s chin up.

“Damn, it looks like it’s on there pretty good.”

All Lainey could think about was how the paint came off the wall when Matt tore off the duct tape on top of the extension cord.

“I know you don’t want me to kill your crippled dog, so you won’t scream when I eventually take off your gag. But I’m thinking you’re not going to be able to help it if I just yank this off.” She dug her phone out of the back pocket of her jeans and her fingers flew across the screen.