Domenica freezes, staring at the gun.
My pulse roars in my ears.
Indiana glances pointedly at my waist.
Now?I mouth.
He nods.
But what if Luke isn’t back from planting the C-4 yet? What if he’s still too close?
“Wait.” Genesis pushes herself to her feet, hands held up, palms out. “Domenica has nothing to do with this.”
I step behind Indiana and pull the phone from beneath my shirt. Which is when I remember that I don’t have Genesis’s number memorized. I don’t haveanyone’snumber memorized but hers isn’t even in my favorites list.
Fear paralyzes me for a full second. Then I realize I’mholding Holden’s phone. The Eminem quote on the back of the case is a dead giveaway.
“I’m going to count to three,princesa, then I’m going to start shooting,” Silvana warns, and the tension in the clearing is so thick that I’m afraid to move.
Domenica takes panicked, gasping breaths.
“Silvana. Point that at me,” Genesis insists softly.
They made us disable our pass codes when they took our phones, so I tap the contacts icon. But my hands are shaking. I miss.
Silvana cocks her gun, and I jump. Penelope whimpers.
Desperate, I jab the contacts icon again, and the favorites menu opens. My cousin’s name isn’t there.Damnit.
“Last chance,” Silvana says, and the phone trembles in my hand.
The third entry in Holden’s favorites is “My Bitch.” I tap it once. Twice. Over and over again.
Nothing happens.
I have no signal.
But Isawa guard on his phone earlier. Iknowthere’s reception.
Silvana’s arm tenses on the edge of my vision. Genesis lunges as Silvana pulls the trigger, throwing her arm up. Gunfire explodes, and the shot goes wild.
I spin and hold the phone out from my body, too low to be seen.
One bar.
I almost cry.
I stab the call button once. Twice. Three times.
The call goes through.
For one terrifying moment, I can’t move.
The jungle explodes into fire.
GENESIS
The ground shakes beneath me. I stumble away from Silvana. A pillar of flames and smoke rises over the treetops, half a mile into the jungle.
