If You Know Her: A Novel of Romantic Suspense

part of a case, it could compromise a case, right?” Law gave him a thin smile. “But me? Being a nosy bastard who was just checking something out while you two caught up with me? If I find something and tell you about it, that’s a different story, isn’t it?”
    Ezra glared at him.
    “I’m going. Just me,” Law said softly.
    “No fucking way,” Nia snarled, twisting her arm and breaking free from Ezra. She shot forward, but Law blocked her.
    “Wait here,” he said. “For now, just wait. There might not be anything down there, and even if there is …”
    His voice trailed off.
    Ezra stepped up. Curling a hand over Nia’s shoulder, he said, “If there is anything down there, the fewer people inside the better
—you
being in there is going to make it even more complicated. It’s bad enough with Reilly, but at least he’s local and I can use his nosy ass and those maps as a reason why he was out there. People are used to him doing crazy things. But if you want justice for your cousin, you need to back away from this now.”
    Justice—
    “Back away?” she said softly, arching a brow. She looked between Law and Ezra. Then she shook her head. “Damn it, neither of you would have even bothered trying to
look
for anything if it wasn’t for me and now you want me to back away? Fine. You know what? Go fuck yourself.”
    Jerkily, she pulled away and stormed off. She was tempted to take off, but if she did, either Law or Ezra or both would come after her, she suspected. And even if she was pissed about this, she wanted to know if there was anything beyond that door—
    There was a faint screech as metal protested. Swinging her head around, she stared, watched as Law peered down inside. He pulled a flashlight from the backpack he’d brought along and flipped it on, peering down inside. Then, just like that, he was gone, leaping down into that maw of darkness.
    Her breath lodged in her throat until she heard his voice floating up.
    “One big room—a cot, an area that looks like somebody could shower or something. Lights on the wall … don’t work. Gas, maybe.”
    There was silence, for the longest time.
    Then, he spoke again, his voice strained. “I’m coming back up—there’s a ladder.”
    The first thing she saw was his face, pale and gleaming under a fine sheen of sweat. His eyes too dark, almost glassy. He climbed out of that hole but before he could say anything, he shoved past them.
    She watched, stupefied as he stormed away and bent over, hands braced on his knees, like he was fighting the urge to be sick.
    “Law?”
    He straightened slowly, shaking his head.
    “Damn it, Law, what is it? Did … was there something of Joely’s down there?” she demanded.
    He shook his head again. Then he held out his phone, but not to her. Ezra took it.
    Whatever the sheriff saw caused little reaction. Tucking the phone into his pocket, he looked at Law. “It might not be for what you think,” he said quietly.
    “Fuck that,” he muttered. He looked a little less pale.
    Good, because Nia was about to kick his ass. “What did you see?” Storming up to him, she drilled a finger into his chest, about ready to pummel him.
    He caught her fist, his grip tight, almost too tight. Eyes half wild, he stared at her. “I’m not telling you, damn it,” he growled. “I don’t want to live with that in
my
head. I’m sure as hell not putting it in yours.”
    She jerked away. Fine. Fuck this—she’d go look—
    And he caught her by the waistband of her jeans before she took two steps.
    Shrieking in frustration, she rounded on him and hit him, full force, her fist plowing into his jaw.
    His head snapped back. When he looked back at her, there was next to no emotion in his eyes. “Go ahead and do it again if it will help,” he said. “But I’m still not telling you and you are
not
going down there.”
    “Kids.” Ezra stepped up, pushed between them. “I hate to break up this lovely scene … but we need to get back. Law, we need to figure out how we’re going tospin this. For now, we’ve got lousy reception so that plays into our favor. If you want to try that shit, we were hiking and you got ahead of us, ended up finding that spot while you waited …? I need you to e-mail me that photo …”
    Staring at Law, she backed away, shooting another look at that dark hole.
    Answers … so close.
    “There aren’t any immediate answers down there, Nia,” Law said quietly. “If you go there, all