Heads nodded and Grant keyed his mic. “Team One, going for extraction.”
“Copy that,” Chase replied, his voice hollow-sounding through the earbud dangling from her vest. “Team Two on standby.”
For a moment the world stopped spinning, and then Adam gave the signal to go.
Grant opened the unlocked door and went through first, Adam close behind. Legs trembling, Eve followed. Her heart skipped more than one beat in the time it took her eyes to adjust to the tactical lights used by the team.
Guns up, they moved fast, checking between parked cars as they went past. The chrome bumper of her father’s GTO flashed red for the briefest of moments, and then they were at the entrance to Eve’s nightmare.
Left open, the square metal grate leaned away from the hole in the ground. Grant didn’t hesitate, and not long after his head disappeared below the surface, she heard the muffled clunk of his boots hitting the concrete as he dropped to the ground.
“Clear.”
“You wait here,” Adam said before he followed Grant down, and a fear like she’d never known twisted her stomach into a mass of knots.Let him be okay. Let them be okay.She pressed her shaking palms together, squeezed her eyes shut, and listened.
Silence greeted her, and she lived an eternity in every passing second.
A loud bang made her jump half out of her skin, and she choked on her fear.
“Put the knife down,” Grant shouted.
“I didn’t hurt them!” Bryan wailed. “I swear.”
“Stop!” Grant ordered. “Not another step until you drop the knife.”
“I didn’t hurt them, those women. I didn’t hurt them.”
The depth of Bryan’s anguish tore Eve apart with every word he sobbed.
“Bryan, listen to me.” Calm and in control, Adam’s disembodied voice floated up from below. “Eve sent us. We’re here to help. But you need to put the knife down first.”
“Eve?”
“Yes.”
“She’s here?” Bryan snuffled, long and hard.
“Yes.”
“Eve!” he cried. “Are you here? Tell them. Tell them I didn’t hurt those women. Please!”
“Back the fuck up,” Grant shouted. “Or I swear to God, I’ll shoot you in the leg.”
“Eve!”
At the sound of her brother’s desperate plea, she dropped to her hands and knees, her tears blurring her vision. “I’m here, Bryan.” Her voice shook.” I’m here. Please. These men don’t want to hurt you. Do what they say and drop the knife.”
“Will you come down?”
“Yes.” She tasted the bile at the back of her throat as a shot of terror slid up her spine. “I’ll come down, but you have to let go of the knife first.”
“Okay. Come down now.”
“She can’t come down until you drop the knife,” Adam said.
Eve heard the clatter of metal against concrete, and she scrambled on boneless limbs until she had a good hold on the first rung of the ladder. When she reached the bottom, she turned, and the earth fell away from her feet.
Under the harsh glow of the LEDs lighting the space, the walls of her former prison warped. The handcuff rail and stainless-steel toilet had been removed. The padding taken down from the walls. And the single bed, with the initialsKA,DE,WM,JC,MHscratched into the white paint, no longer occupied the far corner.
