Jaci rolled her window down and mimed a phone to her ear. “I’ll call you!”

Amanda nodded, chewing on her lower lip. “I’ll be waiting! What if Ricky asks me? What am I supposed to say? Do I tell him the truth?”

That knot of anxiety in Jaci’s stomach hardened into a rock. She hadn’t gotten the chance to tell him. And Ricky had to know the truth. “No. I’ll find a way to talk to him.”

“We’ve got to go,” her father said, giving her a split second warning before the window rolled up and the car pulled away from the curb.

Jaci fell back in her seat and stared out the windshield, a bit shaken. They’d done it. She’d made her getaway. Now what? She couldn’t bear to think of her mother’s reaction when she found out Jaci had gone, nor of Ricky’s for the next few hours when he didn’t know the truth. Nausea rolled up in her gut, rising to the back of her throat. She swallowed it down. She was here for a reason, and their temporary hurt feelings were necessary sacrifices.

The thought jolted her. Who was she, that she was willing to consider other people’s feelings as collateral damage?

She understood Joey a little more.

Jaci didn’t say a word at first as her father drove them through the downtown area and out of the city. She wasn’t sure what to say, especially with Finn—if that was really his name—sitting there in the car with them.

Finally, when they had driven in a stifled silence for nearly twenty minutes, Jaci ventured, “Where are we going?”

“My place,” her father said. He looked at her, then reached over and squeezed her hand. “You are here with me. I can hardly believe it,” he said, switching to Spanish.

Jaci squeezed his hand back, her body relaxing slightly as the cadence of the familiar language washed over her. “I am worried what Mom will think,” she admitted, continuing in Spanish. At least it gave her a sense of privacy, though for all she knew, Finn was fluent in twenty different languages.

“Can’t you tell her?” her father asked.

Jaci considered this option at least once an hour. “No. I don’t know how she would react, and I’m worried she might tell the wrong people. You’re not exactly safe, are you?”

He gave a chuckle. “Nobody will catch me until I want to be found.”

Jaci didn’t respond. That was also part of the problem. What if her mom begged for him to come home, even if it meant incarceration, even if it meant facing the music? She pulled out her phone, anxious to call Amanda and give her an update. She wished she could call Ricky.

“But you are probably right,” her father said, continuing their conversation. “The fewer people who know, the better.”

Jaci glanced behind her to the boy in the backseat. He sat directly behind her father’s chair, staring out the window at the scenery as it flew by. “And who is he?” she asked. “Does he work for you?”

“He is the son of a comrade. You will meet his father soon.”

That statement sparked Jaci’s curiosity. So she wasn’t the only child to have a father involved in this craziness. How did that affect Finn? Was he actually spending time with his father? She found herself eager to corner him and ask him questions.

Another half an hour passed before her father turned off of the busier streets and into what looked like a residential area. These apartments were not as well kept as the hotels and apartments in Zürich, and some of them showed signs of life, like potted plants in the windowsills and clothes lines stretched between buildings, desperate to take advantage of the sunny day in spite of the colder temperature.

Still her father drove on, past these high-rise complexes to a series of smaller, squat apartments only three stories high. There were no parking garages, and the vehicles studded the streets like the spikes on a dog collar. Her father slid his dark car into one of these parallel parking spots and turned off the engine.

“We are home,” he said in English.

Home. Jaci found his word choice odd. This wasn’t her home; it wasn’t even his.

“Thank you for the ride,” Finn said, speaking for the first time since getting into the car. He opened his door and climbed out, pulling his beanie down tighter over his ears as the wind blew at them.

“Thank you for your help,” her father said. “You were critical to my plan.”

Finn looked at Jaci as she climbed out of the car and shot her a grin. “It was my pleasure.”

Jaci remembered their illicit kiss, forever caught on camera, and her cheeks burned. She shouldered her purse with her laptop inside, ever more anxious to get online.

She followed her dad into the apartment, taking in the sparsely furnished living room and the aging, yellow tone to the kitchen. Hardwood floors lined the entire space. He led her down the hallway that broke off into three bedrooms and a bathroom.

“You can stay in my room,” her father said, turning slightly in the narrow hallway so Finn could walk past him. Jaci watched him disappear into the last bedroom and then turned her attention back to her father.

“Where will you stay?”

“I’ve already moved my things into Finn’s father’s room,” Mr. Rivera said. “I’ll stay with him for a while. Until we find something bigger.”

Something about the way he said that didn’t settle right with her. But before she could ponder it, he pushed open the bedroom door.

Jaci stepped in. It hardly looked as though someone lived there. Two twin beds sat against opposing walls, leaving a three-foot space between them. Even in here, hardwood floors ran from wall to wall, not even a rug to soften the angles. A window overlooking a concrete lot behind the building illuminated the room with sunshine.

“Can I get you anything? A drink of water, maybe?” her father asked, and Jaci turned around to face him. He still stood in the doorway.

“No, thanks,” she said, wondering at the oddness of the situation. “When can I call Amanda?”

“Call her now.”

Jaci dug her phone out of her purse with relief. At least there was one person she would not have to pretend to.

“Not on your phone. Use the one I gave you.”

“Oh. Of course. I can’t call anyway. I don’t have international service.” She let her phone fall back into the purse and fished around for the burner he’d given her. When she looked up again, he’d left the doorway.

Amanda answered on the second ring.

“Hello?” she said, drawing out the word.

“Amanda, it’s me,” Jaci said.

Amanda let out a little squeal. “I thought it must be, but I wasn’t sure. It’s not like anyone else from Switzerland would call me.”

Jaci heard Amanda’s father’s voice in the background, his tone anxious, rushed.

“Hang on, Dad,” Amanda said.

“Is your dad there?” Jaci asked.

“Um, yeah, he’s right here,” Amanda said in a falsely cheerful voice. “He’s kind of upset with me for letting you go off with Finn. Are you guys coming back soon?” Her voice was too high and too loud to be natural, but Jaci doubted Amanda’s father would realize it was an act.

“Put me on speaker,” Jaci said, a sweat breaking out on her brow. Acting time.

“Okay.”

“Mr. Murphy, are you there?”

“I’m here,” he said. “Jaci, you didn’t get permission to leave with the tour guide.”

“I’m so sorry,” Jaci said. “His name’s Finn. I didn’t think it would be a big deal. We’re going to catch a movie and then he’ll bring me back to the hotel, okay?”

“Jaci!” Amanda said, sounding excited. “Are you guys dating?”

“Something like that,” Jaci said, putting her own fake cheer in the response.

“What movie theater, Jaci?” Mr. Murphy asked. “We’ll meet you there. I don’t like not knowing where you are.”

“Dad!” Amanda said, her tone chastising. “They don’t want us there!”

“Mr. Murphy, it’s okay,” Jaci said. “You can call me on this number any time. We’re with lots of people, not getting in cars or anything.” Lies, lies, lies. But he couldn’t see her face and didn’t know how badly she was trembling.

“Tell me what theater you’re going to. We’ll sit in the back.”

“I’ll call you when the movie’s over,” Jaci said. “Bye.” She bit her lip and hung up, then lifted her eyes to find her father scrutinizing her.

“Will he call your mom?”

She lifted a shoulder. “Don’t know. Probably not yet. When I don’t come home tonight, yes.” She tried to smile, but it fell short.

“Call them again in two hours. It will help keep their anxiety down.”

She surveyed the room again, her eyes falling on a dresser against the wall. It suddenly dawned on her that she had no clothing. “Dad, I didn’t bring anything to wear.”

“I’ll have Finn take you out to buy what you need. His father and I have a meeting this evening.”

A part of Jaci didn’t want to know, but the other part of her was insanely curious. “What kind of meeting?” she asked, in spite of herself. Was there some kind of criminal overlord here in Switzerland her father was planning on taking out?

“We are discussing our next travel arrangements. Switzerland is a very safe and clean country, perfect for a haven; most of our work takes us elsewhere.”

“Who pays you? Where does your boss get his money?”

Her father waved off her questions. “We can discuss the details of my job later.”

The answer did not satisfy Jaci in the least. Surely her father didn’t bring her here to go shopping and show her his little apartment. “Why am I here, Dad?”

He hesitated, and when he did, Jaci knew she was right in her gut feeling that this was not a family reunion.