Free Into the Devil's Underground by Stacy Green Page B

get this taken care of right away, you’re going to scar,” the doctor said. “You’re lucky it didn’t hit any muscle.”
    “Good deal.” Nathan managed just as the curtain was yanked back. Special Agent Sia Ronson, smartly put together in a gray pantsuit, shook her head at him.
    “Big hero.” Ronson had cropped her hair since Nathan last saw her. The short style suited her.
    “Just doing my job. I’m damn glad you caught the case.” Nathan worked with Ronson over a year ago during a major investigation of a child sex ring. She knew how to handle big cases and still have compassion for the victims, two qualities Dalton Avery lacked.
    “It’s bizarre.” Ronson propped herself against the small counter. “What can you tell me about the partner?”
    Nathan frowned. “He wasn’t there for the money. I don’t think he ever intended to steal the money. It was all about Emilie.” He detailed the man’s constant watch over Emilie, the way his body language suggested ownership. “Sia, you haven’t seen the tunnel under the bank yet. He took some time. Made it safe. Right under the bank’s nose.”
    “No question he had inside help,” Ronson said. “Davis suggested Lisa Craig, an employee she’s had issues with and who wasn’t working today. But I’m damned sure going to check into everyone.”
    “She’s not safe.” Nathan wished he had a shirt that wasn’t covered in blood. The doctor finished wrapping his arm in clean gauze, instructing him to change the wrapping twice a day and keep it clean. He’d need the stitches checked in two weeks.
    “Davis?” Ronson said.
    “There’s no way this guy will stop.” Nathan reached for his things. “Not after all the effort he put into today. You guys are going to have to assign a patrol to her.”
    “I plan to.” Ronson followed him out of the small room. “You need to get home and get some rest. How long will you be off duty?”
    “No idea. Depends how much Johnson wants to punish me for letting myself become a hostage.” Nathan shrugged into his clothes.
    “Why’d you do that?”
    “He was going to kill the guy. What was I supposed to do?” He could have tried to keep Joe talking. Joe, who turned out to be just as much of a victim in the partner’s game. How different were he and Nathan, really? Events in Nathan’s childhood—Jimmy, bleeding from a gaping stab wound to the chest and dying in Nathan’s arms—led Nathan to take risks as adult. His role in Jimmy’s death made Nathan go inside that bank. What horrible childhood moment sent Joe inside?
    “I get it,” Ronson said. “That’s a lot to have on your back.”
    Nathan didn’t want to think about the reasons behind his decision. They didn’t matter now. “I’m telling you, Sia. I’ve only been a cop for eight years, but there are things I’ll never forget.”
    His rookie year, he and his partner had interrupted a robbery in progress. The suspect was apprehended, but the damage had already been done: the forty-nine-year-old cashier lay dead on the cracked tile floor behind the counter, blood streaming from the bullet hole in her forehead. The most haunting image of the night had been the woman’s daughter running up to the ambulance begging to know why there was no hurry to get her mother to the hospital. The sound of her grief remained in Nathan’s head for weeks.
    “This isn’t like anything else I’ve seen. This guy is so obsessed with her he involved the lives of innocent people just to get to her. And he didn’t exactly choose the easiest route.”
    “Agreed,” Ronson said. “I’m going to check anyone with any kind of access to the bank. Contractors, repairmen, cleaning service, ex-employees. And Davis said the bank had been built on top of an older foundation, so anyone with knowledge of the original building needs to be contacted.”
    “God,” Nathan said. “Who knows how many people that is? And you got stuck with Avery.”
    Ronson sighed. “What’s his