“He could have fallen down the staircase. Or the catwalk,” she conceded. “Dammit. They were all here, weren’t they? I saw blood—what I thought was blood—in the bathroom.”
“Either Reid has skills we don’t know about, or his partner is an engineer.”
“Reid worked in Maintenance. He could fix anything, remember? When we looked at the short list, we noted that Brian Valdez said Reid was their go-to guy for mechanical repairs.”
“The elevator was set to fall with you in it,” Matt said, his voice catching. “They couldn’t do that multiple times.”
“Why not?”
“I think the damage to the shaft would be too great. It hit hard.”
“Maybe they set up different... oh, I don’t know, traps? Like... an escape room. But this is an escape building. There has to be a way out, because there was a wayin.”
“Promise me that any exit we find, we don’t rush through it,” Matt said. “We investigate first, think through every possibility, no matter what.”
“Agreed.”
She tried to relax again. She wanted to sleep. The idea of staying awake for the next six hours, thinking through everything they’d done over the last week, made her dull headache worse.
“We’ll get out of here,” he said with more confidence than she felt.
“Yeah,” she said.
“Wewill,” he insisted. “There has to be a road directly here, a way for Reid’s partner to bring us in.”
“You’re right,” she said, leaned back into Matt. “Why not just kill us?”
“Ransom, most likely.”
“They’d better not let that bastard out,” Kara muttered.
“They might play along, but they’ll have a plan. Our team is the best,” Matt reminded her.
“I know.”
“You don’t sound like you believe it.”
“I do, I’m just—tired.”
“Sleep some more.”
“I’ll try.”
She closed her eyes and breathed in Matt. He smelled awful, but so did she. Sweat, dirt, mold. She was glad she wasn’t alone.
“I love you, Kara.”
“Don’t.”
“Why?”
“Because you sound like this is the last time you’re going to say it.”
“I love you. See, not the last time.”
She grunted a small laugh. “I love you, too.”
“We’re getting out of here. I promise. We, you and me, are in a good place, and nothing is going to screw with that.”
