Chapter 53
“You don’t have to do this, Zeke. Please.”
The kid had gone mad. Lost his fucking mind.
And he’d killed someone.
More than one person? The people in the barn?
Rebecca?
Ivy had heard stories about people in dire situations such as this. How victims had humanized themselves, even went as far as to sympathize with their captors.
Do anything and everything to avoid becoming a victim themselves.
Ivy considered what Vaughn had told her about the 100 prisoners problem and the prisoner’s dilemma. How the detective had just assumed that these were random guessing games.
Thought of Penney’s game for some reason, too. The coin flip sequence contest that she’d exploited to win countless times in a row.
And Blake.
Six-foot-five, blue eyes, trust fund.
If Blake was here now, he’d have no problem taking the knife away from this psycho.
“Those people? The ones who were gassed? If they’d been smarter, if they’d been smart like you and I, they would have made it. It’s their fault they died.”
It pained her to say this, but she was desperate.
Zeke’s lips twisted.
“Gassed?”
“The prisoner’s dilemma, the 100 prisoners problem. They could have gotten out. If only they’d—”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“The—”
“You and your stupid fucking math. I didn’t want to hurt her. I just wanted to talk. Tell her I was sorry, that I didn’t mean to . . . oh, fuck . . . this is so fucked up. So fucked—”
“Zeke—”
The door that Zeke had barged through was still hanging open.
Now it flew inward, and as much as she tried to resist, Ivy couldn’t help but scream again.