When they got back on the road, the journey quickly became less and less desolate as they drove through towns. Traffic increased, and the freedom the open road offered was lost. It meant they were getting closer, but it also put them at more risk of someone taking interest in them. If the police stopped them, even routinely, it was over; Morgan would be taken into custody too, and likely bailed by his captor.

"Derek?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you believe in God?" Spencer asked.

Morgan answered honestly. "No."

"You kept touching the crucifix brand on my groin this morning."

"Sorry."

"It's okay. I just wondered if I was giving you a crisis of faith."

"No risk of that," Morgan sighed.

"He was religious," Reid said. "The man who owned me. And I knew the Bible; I have a good memory, an eidetic memory. His father used to ask me for passages, and if I got them wrong he'd punish me. But I didn't get them wrong, so he started only quizzing me after I'd been forced to stay awake for days. Once I was confused enough I'd have to get them wrong. I didn't believe. But I prayed for a while. Prayed to die. Nobody answered."

Morgan shifted in his seat; he knew what it was like to pray to a God he didn't believe in out of pure desperation. He knew what it was like to not get an answer.

"This morning, when you said you knew what it was like to want to get something over with," Spencer paused, turning his blindfolded face towards the driver's seat, "get sex over with, what did you mean?"

Morgan took a long drag of his cigarette, briefly considering the man. "When I was a kid..." he said finally, unable to elaborate further, and regretting saying anything immediately. He was making himself vulnerable, more vulnerable than he'd ever been. To his credit, Reid seemed to understand what he was getting at, and he reached out for one of Morgan's hands, dragging it towards him so he could gently kiss the palm.

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet," Morgan said as he checked the wing mirror again, frowning. "There's a car that's been following us for the last forty minutes."

"Are you sure?" Reid sat up straighter, reaching to touch the gun wedged under his leg.

"Yeah."

"Can you lose them?"

"If I start driving erratically, they're gonna know we've spotted them. But they're not gonna do anything with this much traffic around, or the cops'll swoop in."

"We need to lose them." Reid's voice had a new note of panic, and his hand was still on the gun.

"We're almost into the city, we might be able to shake them." He reached across, and squeezed the man's knee. "Don't panic yet, kid."

That was easier said than done in a city he didn't know, and every turn he made the car was still following, a few cars behind. He made several quick turns, and found himself entering an underground parking lot.

"We need to change cars again."

"How are we meant to do that?"

"We're in a garage. They didn't see us pull in, but they'll double back when they realise they've lost us. If I park the car and we hotwire one we can get out of here, and then we'll dump it as soon as we can."

"You know how to hotwire a car, right?"

"Of course," Morgan said, turning into the first empty parking space. "Get out, we've gotta move."

He grabbed the bag from the backseat and hurried around the other side, taking Reid by the upper arm and leading him away from the car, keeping his eyes open for a model of car he knew he could hotwire quickly. He saw one that looked promising at the opposite side of the parking lot, and ducked between two cars, urging Reid to stay low. They'd have to hurry across an open area to reach it, and they didn't have time to waste.

"C'mon," Morgan urged, hurrying out into the roadway.

The first gunshot hit something metal; Morgan realised it was an elevator door before he wheeled around, faced with the car that had been tailing them with a man aiming a gun out of the window; aiming at them. He knew what was coming, and blocked from their sight he grabbed the gun Reid had in the back of his pants and then pushed him so hard he went tumbling to the ground with a yell.

"Mr Breitkopf sends his regards," said the anonymous armed assailant.

After the first bullet hit him in the arm he wasn't sure how many times he was hit again, forced back against the metal door, noise and pain the only thing he could register. The elevator door. He reached out blindly until his fingers caught on something, and mercifully the doors dinged open, and he tumbled backwards into the elevator, hitting the bar hard with the small of his back. Another shot rang out as he smashed his palm against the elevator buttons, the effort forcing him to his knees as the doors shut and the elevator began to move.

He looked down at himself, saw the blood seeping from his arm and thigh, and his shoulder seared with pain. But Reid was blindfolded and unarmed, and he hoped savvy enough to pretend he'd been Morgan's prisoner, so they wouldn't kill him for trying to escape. He didn't want to dwell on what he'd condemned him to.

When Morgan had managed to pull himself to his feet and the elevator doors opened, he was at a lower level, in some kind of service area. He stumbled out, reaching for the phone in his back pocket. He dialled the first number he could think of as he slumped against the wall, clutching at the wound on his leg.

"I need your help," he ground out when the phone was answered.

"Morgan, are you okay?"

"I'm hurt."

"Where are you?"

"I don't know."

"How badly hurt are you?"

"I've been shot. Twice, I think."

"Keep this call going, I'll find your location. I've got your back, stay put."

Morgan couldn't keep hold of the phone, because he was still bleeding, and let it clatter to the cold floor beside him as he kept putting pressure on his leg, and then his arm. His shoulder hurt badly, and he suspected he'd been shot three times instead of the twice he'd originally thought. Every second that went past, he expected the men who had followed them to come down in the elevator to finish the job, and every second he felt weaker. He tried to get up, but his body was having none of it. He gritted his teeth against the pain and waited, trying not to linger on thoughts of what was happening to Reid.