“How much longer?” It was the second man and he was close behind them.

“We’re somewhere under the street. Keep your damn voice down. The stairs are ahead and there’s a seal on it. We won’t have to worry after that. We’ll be free and clear.”

“Are you sure they don’t know about this place?”

“No. That’s what the boss said. He said he stole the building plans and they have no clue or they’d have installed security. We were able to get this far without coming up against anything but some padlocks. Do you want to carry her? She’s getting heavy.”

“I breached the house because you’re too big so you can make sure she doesn’t slow us down.”

They stopped and the one holding her eased her down onto her bare feet. He didn’t let go though. He bent enough to put his lips near her ear.

“Listen to me. There’s a hole two feet in front of you. There’s a ladder. If you don’t do exactly what I say, you’ll plunge about thirty feet to your death. Do you understand me?”

Jeanie managed to nod.

“If you run, you’ll fall right in the damn hole. You have a chance of surviving this so be good and don’t get stupid. I’m going to let go of you but steer you with my arm. Just turn and face me.”

“Should we give her a light?” The other one was close.

“Nah. This is funnier. Maybe she’ll fall. We get paid for her whether she’s dead or alive.”

“The boss prefers her alive. He wants to know what she told the NSO.”

“But dead is good too.”

“You’re mean.”

The guy gripping her snorted. “Tell me something I don’t know. Turn around, princess. You better be real smart and listen close.”

She turned when he let her go, very careful not to move her feet much. The floor was cold and she was pretty sure they were in some kind of tunnel system since they’d said they were under the streets. A drainage system? Why wouldn’t the NSO know about it? It wasn’t a mystery who would hire them to kidnap her. She really wanted to live because that meant coming face-to-face with the man who’d lied to her and used her.

Her kidnapper fisted her upper arm. “Take one step back and remember it’s a hole. You want to step down about ten inches and you’ll feel the first rung.”

The next few minutes were terrifying as she blindly took instructions from a man she didn’t trust. The metal ladder was rough, the rungs spaced apart the way he said they would be. Each one dug into her bare feet in the center when she carefully placed them as she lowered into the unknown. It was so dark she couldn’t make out a thing.

Her foot finally landed against solid ground and she stepped down, stood still, too terrified to move. Was she on a ledge? The air was colder but she couldn’t smell anything but dirty water from the gag. It tasted bad too. Composing a list of diseases she could catch from stagnant water helped distract her from the danger she was in.

“Move two feet to the left,” her captor demanded from above. “Otherwise I’ll step on you.”

She inched to the left, her feet carefully dragging on the surface she stood on to make sure she didn’t step into a void. The bastard laughed as if it amused him. His boots echoed loudly when he brushed against her. He must have jumped the remaining distance and landed next to her. He grabbed her arm again.

“Make sure you seal that good, up there.”

“Got it.” Something metal protested before thumping loudly high above her head.

The one steering her shoved her again, forcing her to walk ahead of him until he reached up and planted his hand on the top of her head.

“Duck. Keep bent a bit. Otherwise you’re going to slam your head on the tunnel. It gets narrow here until the next chamber.”

A faint light shone down the rounded tunnel when they turned. She could make out more as they walked, horrified that she’d been right. They were in some kind of drainage system. Dirt stained the concrete but unlike the one other time she’d ventured into one as a teenager, this one had no signs of graffiti of any kind.

The tunnel ended and she stared at the open chamber that was a few feet down. Camping lanterns had been placed on the floor around the space and a metal lawn chair placed in the center. The jerk gripping her lifted his hand off her head and straightened, reaching for his face. She turned her head to peer up at him as he removed night-vision goggles and shoved them up, on the top of his head.

It was the blond who’d tried to kidnap her from True’s apartment. She was positive it was the same man. He was wet, his hair plastered to his head and face, but there was no mistaking it as he frowned at her. “The chair.” He jerked his chin. “Walk there or I’ll put you there.”

She raised a hand and pointed to the gag, too afraid he’d hit her if she tried to remove it.

He shook his head. “That’s up to the boss.”

He pushed her forward, almost making her fall down the two steps. She regained her balance with no help from him and collapsed into the chair. The T-shirt she wore was plastered to her body. She reached down to tug it to cover her knees—grateful she wore True’s big shirt—and got it done just before the blond grabbed her wrist and slapped on handcuffs. He locked one end of the cuffs to the side of the chair and stepped back.

She turned her head when boots sounded and watched another man come out of the tunnel they’d just left. He yanked off his night-vision goggles completely and frowned at her as he walked closer and down the steps.