My heart is racing but my hands are steady and my mind is clear because I've forced it to be, because falling apart happens after she's safe, not before.
We reach the door.
I hold up my hand and everyone stops.
"Two flights down," I whisper. "Narrow corridor at the bottom. Cells on the left. She'll be in the back one. Probably two guards minimum between us and her."
"How do you want to do this?" Matteo asks quietly.
"Fast and quiet until we can't be quiet anymore. Then overwhelming force."
He nods. "Lead the way."
I open the door and start down.
I'm coming, Isabella.
Hold on.
I'm coming.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
The basement stairs are exactly as I remember them.
Narrow. Concrete. The kind of tight space where one person with a gun could hold off five if they knew what they were doing. I move down carefully, my rifle up, my breathing controlled, Matteo right behind me and the rest of the team following in tight formation.
The first landing comes and goes without incident.
Second flight.
At the bottom I hold up my fist and everyone stops again.
I can hear voices now, low and indistinct, coming from somewhere down the corridor ahead. Male voices. At least two, maybe three.
I signal: two guards, straight ahead.
Matteo nods and signals to Dante and Luca. They move forward, silent as shadows, and I count the seconds in my head.
Three.
Four.
Five.
The sound of impact. A grunt cut short. A body hitting the floor.
Dante's voice, barely a whisper: "Clear."
We move forward into the corridor and there are two guards on the ground, both unconscious, both disarmed, and the hallway stretches ahead exactly as I drew it. Cells on the left, storage on the right, and at the far end, the back cell.
We move quickly but carefully, checking each cell as we pass. Empty. Empty. Empty.
The back cell door is closed.
I can see light under it, the bare bulb kind, and my heart is hammering so hard I can hear it in my ears, but my hands are steady on the rifle.
Matteo moves up beside me and looks at the door, then at me.
