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even the slightest bit, a new wave of dizziness assaulted her. Lisa wanted her to get the tape off with her teeth? That didn’t quite compute, but Katharine obediently ducked her head in the direction of Lisa’s hands. Big mistake. Pain exploded behind her eyes. Reality began to recede again. The ringing in her ears turned into an almost soothing buzzing sound. Suddenly the kitchen seemed to be shimmering around her like a mirage in the desert. There was nothing solid left in the world. . . .
    “Katharine.”
    Except Lisa. Lisa, whose bound hands were bouncing up and down in the small of her back with unmistakable urgency. Lisa, whose bound heels were kicking her hard in the thigh. Lisa, who was directing a killer glare her way.
    Lisa, who was doing her best to drag her back from the threatening mists of unconsciousness, even as Katharine longed to succumb.
    “Katharine. You’ve got to do this, understand? Tear the duct tape around my wrists with your teeth.”
    The fierceness of the whisper penetrated the fog that was clouding Katharine’s mind, sapping her muscles of their strength, turning her limbs to lead. Lisa’s words finally registered, and Katharine deliberately widened her eyes and took a deep breath and fought for clarity. Then, before she could otherwise move or reply or do anything else at all, a loud thud from the direction of the den, followed by a string of vicious male curses, made her heart leap.
    “You dropped it!” The roar rose accusingly over the cursing.
    “Well, shit, it was heavy!”
    Lisa, who’d been in the act of kicking her again, froze with her heels scant inches from Katharine’s thigh.
    Katharine froze, too.
    Fear shoved out the last of the fog as realization burst on her like a bomb: They didn’t have much time. The bad guys were still there, just a room away. They could be coming back for her and Lisa at any moment.
    She really didn’t want to be here for that.
    “Do it.” Lisa completed the kick.
    Katharine still felt as if half her brain had turned into cotton candy, but now that she remembered what had happened and that both their lives were at stake, the other half of her brain, along with the rest of her, was definitely with the program.
    If she and Lisa didn’t get out of there soon, they were going to die. It was as simple—and as galvanizing—as that.
    “Yes, okay,” Katharine whispered.
    Focusing required painful effort, but Katharine did it. She attacked the duct tape around Lisa’s wrists with her teeth, ignoring the shaft of fire that shot through her excruciatingly sensitive nose as she accidentally brushed it against the warm firmness of Lisa’s forearm. The pain was bad, bad enough to make her want to pull back and lie very still for a very long time, waiting for it to subside. However, death was worse. With that thought lodged at the forefront of her mind, Katharine ignored the pain and went after the tape with a ferocity born of desperation. Lisa kept her arms as stiff and still as possible, stretching them backward, straining against the tape with all her strength to take advantage of the tiniest rip.
    There wasn’t one. Despite Katharine’s best efforts, the tape remained intact. It was gummy and acidic-tasting and just plain nasty. Getting any kind of purchase with her teeth was difficult. She kept hitting her nose on Lisa’s arms. The resulting pain would have been disabling under any less dire circumstances. The appendage was as sensitive as an exposed nerve. It was so damaged that she couldn’t breathe through it; she had to gasp for air through her mouth. She was almost positive it was broken.
    Not that the state of her nose mattered at all under the circumstances. They had only this brief window of time. . . .
    “Hurry,” Lisa breathed.
    It seemed like hours passed. Days. Weeks. Months. But when she caught a glimpse of the microwave’s clock, she realized that she was wrong. It was only one-fourteen. Impossible to grasp that only seven