Page 36 of If This is Love

Gunner whined and pushed his face against my hip.

“Tcht,” I snapped, and he backed up to sit down next to Luke, watching intently.

I wrenched the crowbar back and forth a few times, giving it one last firm push before the wood split with a loudCRACK,and the door swung open.

Dust and splinters exploded into the air, and a few people coughed behind me.

“Gabe,” came Chloe’s voice.

I turned to see her holding up her clunky phone, and then I tried to avoid scowling at her and failed miserably.

She gave me a wide but sheepish grin. “I was thinking if it’s too bad for the rest of us, you could take it with you? Maybe?”

“Uh,” I stammered, turning back toward the door. I pointed the flashlight into the inky blackness of the building and skimmed it across a minefield of mud-stained, rotted furniture and flood-damaged walls, and I saw the pile of drug paraphernalia immediately. “Not right now.”

This was such a nightmare.

I wasn’t even inside yet and already knew this wasn’t only not salvageable, it was also too dangerous for anyone to go in here. Not just because of its toxic state, but also because junkies had obviously been in here, and there was no telling if they were still in here or how they might respond to people barging in on their hideout.

“I want to go in.”

I turned, and Skye was standing right next to me.

I shook my head. “Skye, you can’t go in there.”

One auburn eyebrow cocked like a pistol. “Oh yes I can.”

I clenched my jaw. “Yourhusbandwouldeviscerate meif I let you go in there and—”

“Neither of youlet medoanything, because neither of youcontrol me,” she snapped. She pointed at the darkened doorway. “You think I haven’t been in a place like that before, Gabe? And I do meanexactlylike that. I’m going in there with you. I own this property, and I’m going inside.”

I just stood there slack-jawed for a second or two. “I only have one mask.”

She reached to unloop her scarf from her neck and then tied it around her face like a bandit.

I stood up straight, dropping my arms at my sides. “You’re fucking serious?”

“A hundred percent.”

I turned to shine the flashlight at the mess again. Beyond the front area, the building had long hallways that extended farther than I could see. The only light was from the umpteen dirt-caked windows. There could be literallyanythingin there.

“Skye…”

“Gabe.”

I huffed, my shoulders slumping again. “Fine.” I waved the flashlight at the ground in front of me. “If youhave togo in there, this is how we’ll do it.” I grabbed her shoulders and gave her a push to arm’s length in front of me. “You will walk in front of me,” I clipped in myStaff Sergeant Martinellivoice. “When I say move, you walk. When I say left, you go left. When I say right—”

“I got it, Gabe.”

“Do not try to get around me or step away from me,” I went on. “This position is called your six, and it’s your most vulnerable point. We don’t know what’s in there, and we have no protection from it. Your job is to keep me at your six so I can keep whatever’s in there from killing you. Is that clear,Mrs.Riley?”

Skye’s head canted to one side, sending her shiny red ponytail swinging. “Yes,sir.”

“Gunner.” I snapped my fingers and pointed at Luke. “Go to Luke andstay.”

His ears perked forward while he studied me for a second, and then he moseyed to sit next to Luke.

I looked at Luke. “Don’t let him come in here. Leash him if you have to.”

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