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“And yet here we are.” He spread his arms wide.

“Here we are.” A shiver went down her spine as she held up her bound hand. “Do you have any idea how to remove this?”

“I can try picking the lock.” He tugged his keys out of his pocket and removed the Swiss Army knife attached to them.

“You can pick locks?”

“Don’t remember. Here’s hoping muscle memory will kick in when I start.”

“That’s funny. Very funny.”

Gently, Ryan reached for her hand and brought it to him. His touch seared her skin, sending flashes of sense memory throughout her body. Leaving a sadness in its wake.

“Don’t worry.” His smile was playful. “I’m almost certain I’ve done this before. Your wrist is safe with me. We’ll get you out of this cuff and then get both of us out of here.”

“I’m scared,” she blurted her confession. Scared, confused, bewildered, anxious, stunned, shocked, horrified… Her emotions were on a huge roulette wheel and spinning wildly. Who knew where it’d stop or what she’d feel at any moment? It was out of control. And Sarah hated being out of control.

Ryan held her gaze, as though he knew she was dizzy from the spinning and needed an anchor. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“We don’t have any control here,” she felt the need to point out.

He shrugged. “Then we take it back.”

Oh, if only it were that simple. Already, her overactive brain was cataloging all the possible outcomes of their situation, and it wasn’t hard to come to the conclusion that most of their options were dire. Even with her limited knowledge, she could tell him that their chances of getting out unharmed were close to zero.

“What if we can’t get out?” she said. “There wasn’t a way out for those miners trapped in Chile. Or the kids in that cave in Thailand. They all had to be rescued by someone else. At least people knew they were trapped there in the first place. Nobody knows we’re here. We don’t even know where here is. And there’s no one looking for us.”

“Oh.” His smile was blinding. “I wouldn’t say that…”

CHAPTER THREE

Benson Security

London Office

* * *

“Ryan’s missing,” Joe Barone said as he barged into Callum McKay’s office.

Callum let out an irritated growl, slammed his pen on his desk, and glared at his head of training. “When I was in the service, men knocked before they entered my office.”

They’d also cowered outside it until they’d plucked up their courage. Something his team at Benson Security never did—even though he was one of the owning partners. Like that impressed any of them. He mentally scoffed at the thought.

To prove his point, Joe ignored his reprimand and threw himself into one of the guest chairs, making Callum wonder if that’s where he’d gone wrong—no guest chairs, no guests.

The chairs had to go.

“Did you hear me?” Joe rested his ankle on his other knee, his foot wiggling in a rare show of anxiety. “Ryan didn’t turn up for his firearms proficiency exam, and he isn’t answering his phone.”

Callum wasn’t worried. “He probably found a new cut-price buffet, and his mouth was too full to talk.” It’d happened before. More than once.

The tall American shook his head. “It’s been hours. Even he can’t eat for that long.”

“Fine.” Callum pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Take a car and go get him. He’s probably forgotten.”

“He wouldn’t. It’s all he’s been talking about for weeks.”

“I give up.” Callum threw his hands in the air. “What do you want me to do? Do you want me to go find him?”