Page 32 of One More Chance

She turned around.

Jax had his head under the desk. “There’s something down here.” His body jerked, and he bumped his head on the underside of the desk. “Ouch.” He backed up and stood. “It was a spider.” His cheeks had pinked.

“I’ll kill it for you if you want.”

He chuckled. “It’s already dead. Did you find anything?”

Rather than saying no, she said, “Maybe.” And turned away, only to hear him chuckle.

“Whatever it is, I’ll kill it for you.”

Kenna grinned to herself, looking back at the file cabinets. She opened a drawer, but there was nothing in it or in any of the others. She grabbed the top corners and muscled it over, wiggling it on the corners and fighting the drawers when they slid toward her.

“Huh.” Jax grabbed the cabinet and shifted it a little more. “We need to move the other as well.”

“It’s just a panel. It might be nothing.”

“You’re more curious than that.”

Kenna shook her head. “Didn’t curiosity kill the cat?”

“Jolene will be fine. If we can get out, we’re going in.”

“Assuming there’s an in to go to.” She pushed on the panel and found it slid to one side. About three by three feet. She climbed in because she spotted a wooden set of stairs. She flipped on her camera flashlight. The stairs ended at a closed door several feet below. When she looked back at Jax, he had his gun out.

“I’ll go first,” he said.

“My hero.”

Jax kissed her. “I know you’re joking, but I don’t care. I go first.”

“Is this one of those macho, protective guy things?”

“Yes.”

“As long as you give me some of your fries, I guess it evens out in the end.”

“Glad you agree.”

She admired the breadth of his shoulders in the light of her flashlight while making her way down behind him. Gettinga little distracted. But he was her husband. There could be a million ways that might go wrong. Anything could happen to either of them. Health scares. Bad guys. Accidents.

She could choke on a peanut tomorrow and croak.

No one knew what the future held. Unless she suddenly developed precognition or clairvoyance—or whatever word meant she could see the future—as a new ability along with the strength she seemed to have. That could be cool. But it could also feel like a curse.

A terrible gift.

Better to trust the Lord with the future she wanted, which included the man God had given her.

He hesitated at the bottom, reaching for the handle. “Just locked.” He let go. “Not…whatever happened upstairs.”

“It felt like it was electrified.” She touched his shoulder, eased by him, and tried herself. “I guess we could go back upstairs and try to break the door down somehow. Get out that way.”

“Sure, but this is date day, and you’re treating me to the full Kenna-on-a-case special.”

She grinned. “Glad I amuse you.”

“I like seeing you do your thing.”

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