But how soon?
She literally had five percent of battery left on her phone. The live tracking, that she hoped was working, was draining it. Communicating with the satellite tracking device was draining it more.
She might have only a minute left.
Which would happen first?
If the phone died, it would be a catastrophe. The live locator would stop. Ethan wouldn’t find her. Cami had no doubt this would signal her death. She had to get the satellite tracker to stop the car. She willed him to stop, visualizing a traffic light, a stop sign, some reason for him to have to pause this murderous ride.
And then, she felt the car slow, felt the brakes activate.
Stop, stop, she pleaded, breathing the word as she watched her phone’s screen, now in battery saving mode, dimmer than it had been.
The car slowed further. And then, it stopped.
Like lightning, Cami’s finger was on the button. And she felt the engine cut. She felt the car power down. She’d done it! She’d gotten control and had brought the vehicle to a halt.
Now, could she get herself out of here?
Auto unlock. There it was. That was the command she needed.
Cami slammed her finger against the button.
The trunk flew open, daylight blinding her. She scrambled out and slammed it. She was in a practically deserted industrial area. He’d stopped outside a garage that he must have been intending to open, a garage that would have been her grave.
And, in the blinding light, she saw that he’d seen her. She saw his face, pale through the window. And she saw the door start to open.
He was coming for her. He was coming out.
“No!” Cami screamed. “No!”
She lunged for the door and threw her full weight against it, wrestling it shut, hearing his angry cry and knowing that now she needed to do the final thing that could save her, in the split second she had left.
With almost no battery left, Cami pressed the system command to lock the doors again.
They snapped shut.
She breathed a sigh of relief. In emergency mode, she knew the driver could not reactivate the door opening. This car was now locked down solid, and he was inside.
Just before her phone died, she saw a message from Ethan had come through.
“Got signal! On the way!”
Cami breathed deeply. She was shaking all over. She couldn’t believe she’d escaped death by such a narrow margin. She felt lightheaded from shock. Her legs felt like cotton wool.
And then, Cami heard a hammering noise coming from the front of the car.
Curious and hesitant, she peered around.
There was Lucius. With a face contorted in rage, he was hammering on the window glass, trying desperately to force his way out of the car that had become his prison.
Already, Cami could hear sirens in the distance. Her backup was arriving.
She walked over to the window and stared through the tinted glass at the face of the killer, taking in his ineffectual rage, watching him bash futilely against the window.
And then, Cami moved around, sitting on the car’s bonnet, hearing him yell aloud in fury as he saw her, so close but so far, and realized how trapped he was.
Feeling calmer now, feeling as if he deserved every minute of his rage and fear and helplessness, she perched on the bonnet, watching him through the windscreen as she waited for the FBI team to arrive.