Page 116 of Love Me Fearless

That smug look said it all. It’s why Jeremy surrendered so easily. He thinks we won’t find her.

I break free and race back inside the house. “Ava!”

Where could he be keeping her?

Zach enters the house from the back, the screen door slamming behind him. He steps into the living room, his eyes flashing with a warning. “Hutch, we gotta?—”

His radio bursts with chatter, and he raises it to talk, his jaw tense.

I tune him out.

She’s here. I will tear down the fucking walls to find her.

“Remember Aleppo?” Luke says from the doorway behind me.

I spin around as an old memory fires. Luke and I were sent to extract a diplomat from his home in the middle of a military coup that had escalated. The streets were a war zone, and the house was partially cratered thanks to the bombing campaign that had started the night before. We had exactly seven minutes between patrols to get in, find him, and get out.

At minute five, we found the entrance to the basement.

“Where?” I scan the room but there’s no evidence of an entry here. I walk the short hallway to the kitchen, my eyes glued to the seams and corners in the floor and walls.

Zach comes out of the bedrooms, shaking his head.

I step into the center of the kitchen, my insides churning. The entrance has to be here. I scan the walls while I try to formulate a 3D map of the house. Where are the voids?

Something catches my eye in the corner of the floor, where the carpeting meets the linoleum. It could be the carpet is peeling back from the wall, or…

Before I know what I’m doing, I’m on my hands and knees.

“Something under here?” Zach asks, joining me.

The carpet is held down by a magnetic strip, and when I peel it back, it reveals the outline of a door in the plywood.

Heat flushes over my skin.

Zach gets on the radio, but I’m not listening. I peel the carpet all the way back, then lift the O-ring. The trapdoor opens to a narrow, open space below. It’s pitch dark, but the light coming in from the kitchen window is enough to make out the beginning of a steep staircase.

“Hutch, let us handle this,” Luke says behind me, breathing hard.

Ignoring him, I shove the trapdoor all the way open and vault into the space. “Ava!” I call down.

Sheriff Olson barks an order at Zach, but I’m already feeling my way down the stairs, searching for the door I know is here.

“I need a light!” I call out. “Ava!” I bang on the wall. From the other side, I hear something. Is it her?

“Ava!” I shout but my voice cracks.

I pound on the door again, but it’s solid, like it’s reinforced. There’s no doorknob. How do I get in?

A beam shines behind me as Zach enters the space. “Hutch, I need you to come out of there. We don’t know what we’re going to find.”

“No fucking way!” I shake my head, like I can clear the implication. Because we’re not too late. I won’t believe that. I heard something from the other side of the wall. It’s her. She’s here. She’s alive.

“Ava!” I shout, pounding on the door. “We’re coming!”

From above, boots scuff the flooring, like more officers are entering the house.

Zach stops at the last step behind me, his flashlight beam washing up the walls of the tiny space.

---