Page 43 of Vow of Vengeance
While she's completely correct, I doubt the reason her husband didn't want security cameras was as innocent as that. It's more likely he just didn't want her to see him coming home at odd hours and whatever other shady shit he did.
She barely gets the door unlocked before she flings it open and pushes her way in without even bothering to turn on a light. Khan does that for us, shutting the door behind us when he's the last to enter and flipping the switch that lets the dingey room illuminate.
After hours in the din of my car watching this place from afar, the light seems particularly offensive, but Soren doesn't pay it any mind as she stalks decisively toward the wall where the supply rack is pushed against a wall, mostly barren.
She's already trying to push it herself by the time I catch up to her and move her quietly out of my way. Soren frowns but lets me relocate her a few steps away so I can pull the rack away from the wall.
I see it just before she rushes toward the wall, running her hand down it like she's looking for something.
"I don't understand." Soren's frown deepens, panic rising in her voice as she searches frantically for the entrance she swore was there. "It was there. I swear, Declan, there was a door." When she turns to me, bewildered and distraught, I see her anxiety rising. "I don't understand."
Soren takes a step back to appraise the wall, blinks, and then turns back to me. "Dec..."
"I believe you." I assure her. "It looks like they plastered over it. Look at your hands."
She does as I told her to and is surprised to find them sticky with paint in places where it hadn't yet dried.
"No." I watch her throat bob as she swallows, desperation making her frustration visceral.
They're sure as fuck hiding something here, and we're going to find out what. Inching closer, I look for the spot where the new drywall joins with the existing wall. I'll put my damn fist through it if I have to.
But I don't have to because I notice Soren turning away from me.
"I've got this." I assure her. "Just give me a minute to find the right spot."
"Fuck that." She says, her voice breathy. It takes me off guard just enough to turn and see what she's doing only to find her strutting back toward me with a fucking sledgehammer hefted over her shoulder. "Move."
"Where the hell did you get that?" I puzzle, looking around for where they're keeping random construction equipment in this now-seedy bar.
"This is insurance." She says, as if that makes any sense at all. "Now get out of the way so I don't hit you."
"I'm more worried aboutyouhurting you." I scoff.
I love her, but she's not lifted anything heavier than the plates she smashed against the floor in all the time I've known her, and the sledgehammer looks like it weighs half of what she does. The last thing we need is her faltering on the swing and dropping that thing on her toes.
"I'm fine. And if you don't get out of my fucking way, Declan, then this is going right where your hand is."
I can't suppress a smirk at that, and when I catch Khan's gaze, he's wide-eyed and as doubtful as me.
"Go ahead, little bird. Show me what you got."
Soren licks her lips as I step aside, her eyes fixed in determination. I watch her fingers flex on the handle, and then she swings.
The drywall splinters easily under the power of her strike, and I find the smirk slipping off my face as it's replaced by awe. Herlean arms flex as she hefts it back again, readying for the next strike.
It's somehow more powerful than the first as the hammer hits something hard behind the drywall.
The door she knew was there.
Her third strike lets some of the wood show through, dark brown and weathered but stark against the drywall crumbling around it.
Soren heaves as she prepares to lift the sledgehammer again, but I stop her with a hand out and she relents easily this time. Instead, she leans against it, watching as I kick the rest of the drywall down, letting it crumble around our feet. They used a thin sheet of it to blend better with the existing facade, which makes it easy to pull away what remains until we're faced with the door.
"Fuck." Khan sighs. "It's really there?"
I decide not to give him hell about not believing her, and Soren doesn't seem to hear him anyway.
The sledgehammer teeters a little as she pushes off of it, but I cut her off before she can get ahead of me.
