“Yes, Ms. Thompson said your girlfriend was here and took her to lunch earlier. But she left.”
I point to the driveway. “But that’s her car. Her VW Beetle.”
“Right. Ms. Thompson said Ms. Hopkins’s car wouldn’t start, so she called an Uber to take her home and said she’d arrange for the car to be towed later.”
I rake my fingers through my hair. “And you believe all this crap?”
“Not really, sir, but we can’t go into the house without probable cause.”
“I can.” I stalk toward the door.
“Sir? You can be arrested for trespassing.”
“Do I look like I care? My woman’s inside that house somewhere. And I’m going to find her. By the way, the woman I’m looking for is one of your own. A cop.”
I stomp through the front door, not even attempting to knock. “Rainey? Where the fuck are you?”
Rainey emerges from the kitchen in a cloud of smoke, a cigarette dangling between her fingers. “Hey there, stud.”
I stop a few feet away from her, setting my hands on my hips. “Don’t give me that shit. Where’s Sadie?”
“I already explained everything to the cops.”
“Yeah, and it’s all a bald-faced lie. Where is she?”
“How many times do I have to tell you? She’s not—”
I jerk when a gunshot rings out. Holy fuck.
My heart plummets to my stomach. God, no. Not my Sadie.
I grab Rainey by her shoulders. “It sounds like it came from a basement or something. Underneath here. Where the fuck are they?”
Rainey chokes out a sob in her gravelly voice and points to a door right off the kitchen. “Basement.”
I don’t think. I only react. I race down the creaking wooden stairs to the basement, nearly losing my footing several times, but nothing will keep me from Sadie.
“Sadie? Baby! I’m coming!”
I reach the concrete floor of the basement, let my eyes adjust to the darkness.
Oh, God…
Blood seeps toward me on the ground.
No. God, please, no! Not Sadie, not my Sadie. I take a step, and—
In a flash, Sadie’s in my arms, her small body hitting mine.
In my arms—warm, safe, sobbing.
My Sadie.
I kiss her wet cheeks. Her lips. The top of her head. I hold her so tight that she pulls away from me finally, gasping.
“My God, baby.” I kiss her tear-stained cheeks. “What happened here?”
Then in the corner, I see. Curt Hopkins lies unconscious on the gray concrete floor.