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“Halt,” Lake snapped, receiving instant obedience.

He held up a fist for silence.

“You hear that?” Lake asked quietly.

A voice.

A female voice.

Sarah.

They picked up speed, and the voice became louder.

“Is she…singing?” Dimitri asked. “And keeping a weird beat?”

Ryan grinned as the lyrics to Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall drifted toward them.

“Head injury?” Dimitri asked Lake.

“She’s letting me know where to find her.” Ryan ran around the corner, and his flashlight landed on Sarah.

He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. And he sure as hell didn’t know what she was doing. As well as singing at the top of her lungs, she was stamping randomly while swinging her arms wildly.

When the light hit her face, she covered her eyes. “Ryan?” she said, sounding shaky. “That’d better be you. I’m sick of singing this song, and there are spiders trying to eat me.”

He rushed to her, scooping her up into his arms and clamping his mouth over hers. Their kiss was long and hard and kind of frenetic.

They broke apart and Ryan ran his hands over her, checking for injuries. “I thought…I was worried you were…”

“I’m fine. I knew you would come back.” She stroked his cheeks, and he felt like he was drowning in her eyes.

Alive.

Safe.

Well.

At last, it felt like he could breathe again.

Someone cleared his throat, and Sarah’s head shot around, her mouth dropping open. “Uh, Ryan?”

“You want to introduce us?” Dimitri was grinning like a demented chimpanzee.

“Sarah, this is Dimitri, my teammate, and Lake Benson, he owns the company. You know the teenage arsehole already.”

She pushed at his shoulders to get him to put her down. Yeah, that wasn’t happening. Not yet. Not until he could handle having space between them. Maybe in a year or two.

“Uh, hi.” Sarah ducked her head shyly.

“Nice to meet you, Sarah,” Lake said, his lips twitching.

CHAPTER THIRTY

They climbed out of the catacombs under the hospital just as the rescue services were ready to go in. To Sarah’s uneducated eye, the scene seemed chaotic and far too bright after being underground for days. There were police, ambulance crews, official-looking men in hard hats, a woman shouting instructions—and even a camera crew from the local news.

One group of people, relief on their faces, beelined straight for them.

“Ryan!” A tiny blue-haired woman bounced on the spot before rushing him.