He really didn't have a chance, but getting away and making the call was HUGE. And then he had the whole bluff going in Dareh's living room. He's fighting his way back in more than one way. And I'm glad that the resolution with Dareh worked for you. He is just too smart to be taken the way Lirowaus was. He's too methodical and too careful for that, which is why it's probably good that Spike and his head-on assault style rescue didn't show up this chapter.