I stared in shock for several minutes, my legs frozen stiff before Christian finally grabbed my arm and force me to start moving.

"We don't have much time!" he yelled.

I stumbled behind him, still too blindsided by the gravity of the situation to respond. Kate was fine, right? This wasn't as serious as it sounded. It couldn't be. This wasn't a movie.

I followed Christian as he elbowed his way through the crowd and plummeted out into the darkness.

"They didn't get too far. There's a chance we could catch up to them still. Black BMW with rims. Black BMW with rims…"

My legs kept moving until Christian stopped pulling me. We stopped in front of a beautiful blue sports car, the type I couldn't even guess. It was sleek and shiny, looked like it had just been drive off the lot. The likeness of a jaguar leapt from the front of the hood.

"Get in!"

Suddenly reality hit. Wait, I was in a strange country with a strange man with no friends around, I'd had a few drinks, and I was about to get in a car with him?

I backed away a step.

Christian, already halfway into the driver's seat, pulled himself back out. "We don't exactly have time to kill here, Bella," he said with clenched teeth.

I ran my hands through my hair, darting my eyes across the parking lot - where was Kate by now? Was she really in trouble? Was this worth the risk?

Christian walked over to me, his eyes on a black vehicle exiting the other end of the parking lot. "Bella, I get it. You don't know me. At all. But we have one chance to keep up with those guys, and this is it." His eyes blazed. "Get in the fucking car or don't, but either way, I'm going after your friend." He spun around and raced back to the driver's seat.

Ah hell, I couldn't leave Kate hanging, even if it meant getting in the car with a potential mass murderer. What's the worst that could happen? I had a cell phone.

I dove into the passenger's seat just before he pulled out.

The tires screeched so loud I had to cover my ears. Looking up at Christian's intense, livid expression, I started to wonder if my split-second decision had been wise.

"These fuckers have messed with innocent women for the last time. This time, they're not getting out alive. And Peter is going to be the first to go." I could tell his face was flaming red, even in the darkness. He wove through the parking lot like a professional go-kart racer, each time narrowly missing a parked car or light pole. I shivered and sunk lower into my seat.

He eyes flitted over to me as if he'd just remember I was there. "You okay?" he asked, very little empathy in his voice.

I nodded and somehow found my voice. "Do you know where they are?"

He hit the gas to kill a stoplight. It felt like we were going at least three or four times faster than every car on the road. "We're not far behind. I saw them make turn not too far ahead."

I pulled my knees up to my chest. "Who are they?"

Christian slammed the breaks to avoid hitting a Ford Fiesta that cut him off. I flew into the dashboard, just narrowly missing a faceplant into the windshield. He hit the horn and didn't let go until he'd found a way to weave around through the other cars and got at least half a mile in front. My body took a good bruising being tossed around by his antics.

"Put on your seatbelt," he barked.

I obeyed magnanimously, buckling my belt more fastidiously than ever before. I clasped my hands and wedged them between my tense legs.

"They're a bunch of fuckers is what they are. Got 'em!" The car lurched again, this time to the left and we plowed right through the middle of a roundabout, attracting all sorts of screeching tires and honking horns. I gave a petty wave to the pissed off drivers as we passed, but it was of little use considering they barely had time to see me.

I gripped my seat. "I get that we're in a hurry, but...I think I might puke."

Christian reached in the back and handed me a paper bag. "Do it in there."

I scowled, but it melted quickly into worry as the dire straits we were in truly hit. God, I had a horrible thing with delayed reactions. "What are they going to do to Kate? What if they rape her? What if they kill her?"

Christian placed his hand softly on my knee. "We'll find her before anything like that happens." His face seemed to have calmed just slightly and it gave me some essence of hope. "These guys are human traffickers. I don't want to scare you - because we will find her, I always do - but they sell women and children into slavery. So far, my record in recovering victims I witness them kidnapping is 100%. And I'm not about to change that."

I buried my face in my hands, my heart pounding right out of my chest. "I assume you're not referring to the kind of slavery where women go work in the rice fields all day…"

He didn't say anything at first. When I looked up he gave me a more reassuring glance. "100%. Don't forget. 100%."

I placed my hand on his and he pulled it into his grasp.

We pulled onto a long, narrow road that looked similar to a 2-lane highway in the states. Far ahead I could see the two rear lights of a car. "Is that them?"

"Yes. They'll be on this road for a while. They have a pretty regular drop-spot just outside Frankfurt, Germany." He ran his thumb over my palm. "We'll be on the road for a little while, babe."

I couldn't shake the tingles that ran through me upon hearing him call me 'babe.' I'd never had a pet name before. It hardly seemed real, and my terror for Kate's situation made it difficult to appreciate the moment, but it was nice - even for just those few seconds - to feel like maybe something good could come out of this nightmare I'd been thrust into.