I watched his jaw tighten as he listened to the voice on the other end.

“When?” Gabriel asked.

He looked up at me, his eyes wide with a sudden, sharp alarm.

“Get your coat,” Gabriel said, hanging up the phone.

“Gabriel, what happened?” I asked, my heart hammering against my ribs.

“Your father,” he said, grabbing his keys from the dresser.

“Did he try to appeal?”

“No,” Gabriel said, opening the door to the hallway. “He just escaped from the transport van.”

The phone in my own pocket began to ring, the screen flashing an unknown number.

I stared at the screen.

The caller ID was blocked.

My thumb hovered over the green button before I slid it across.

“Claire,” a voice rasped.

It was my father.

He sounded breathless, his voice hoarse against a background of rushing wind and the distant wail of sirens.

“Don’t hang up,” he said.

“Where are you, Richard?” I asked, using his first name for the first time in my life.

“I’m not going back to that cell, Claire,” he said. “You think you won. You think you and Gabriel can just walk away with what is mine.”