3

At five that afternoon, I got a text from my advisor.

It said I had to go to the underground wine cellar on the old campus right away to help pull video evidence from Lucas's part-time job.

I knew it was one of Celine's traps.

But she had the comm device. I had to get it back before it caused a security disaster no one could contain.

The cellar on the old campus had been abandoned for years. Hardly anyone went down there anymore.

I had barely made it down the steps when the iron door slammed shut behind me.

I heard metal scrape as the lock slid into place.

"Celine, what are you playing at now?"

I stood by the iron door and spoke evenly.

On the other side of the door, Celine laughed.

"Not so fun being broke and powerless, is it, princess?

"Lucas stood in the pouring rain for two hours as punishment.

"Tonight, you can stay in this cold room and get a taste of what he went through!"

As soon as she finished speaking, the exhaust fan roared to life. Cold air rushed in from every direction.

I checked my phone. The signal was completely blocked.

"Unlawful confinement is a felony."

I kept my voice calm as I called through the door.

"If anything happens to me down here, the Lawson family will pay for it."

Celine just laughed harder.

"Stop trying to scare me with your lies!

"Tonight is the business school's centennial charity gala. Everyone there is going to get justice for Lucas.

"You stay down here and think about what you've done. Without your money, you're worth less than a dog!"

Her footsteps faded, and the basement went dead quiet.

The temperature dropped fast. Within ten minutes, my hands and feet had started to go stiff.

This had once been a climate-controlled room for storing expensive ice wine. As soon as the cooling system kicked in, no one could last more than three hours.

I looked around. A few empty barrels were stacked in the corner.

Crying and begging had never been options for me.

I grabbed an empty wine bottle and smashed it against the vent's louvers.

Glass shattered. The fan jammed, and the cold air slowed a little.

But it barely helped. The oxygen level kept dropping.

I slid down the wall, wrapped my coat tight around me, and tried to conserve my strength.

"Idiot."

I muttered it into the dark and gave a thin smile.

"You'd better pray I don't die down here tonight."

The cold cut straight to the bone.

Two hours later, my vision blurred and my lips turned purple.

I dug my nails into my palms until they bled.

Can't fall asleep. If I do, I'll never wake up.

I tore open my collar and felt for a tiny patch no bigger than a fingernail.

Lucas had insisted on sticking it over the artery in my neck. It was my last line of defense.

A military-grade heart-rate alarm.

If I crushed it, it would send a high-frequency signal through any civilian jammer, straight to the international security agency.

I'd never wanted to drag the military into this unless I had no other choice.

But Celine had crossed the line.

With my stiff, frozen fingers, I crushed the patch.

A red light blinked in the dark for a split second, then went out.

On a road two miles from the gala.

Inside an SUV.

An alarm tore through the silence.

Lucas jerked his head up. He'd been sloppily wrapping gauze around a wound on his arm.

On the screen, the readings for my vital signs were dropping fast.

"Target location, old campus basement."

The ops team's flat voice came through his earpiece.

Lucas tore off the bloody gauze, his eyes red.

"Full speed.

"Anyone gets in the way, take them out."

Meanwhile, the charity gala was in full swing in the ballroom.

Celine, dressed in an evening gown and holding a glass of red wine, soaked up praise from the school and every VIP in the room.

She had no idea that what she'd set in motion wasn't some righteous trial at all.

It was a deadly countdown.