“Will she let a large man wrap his arms around her and constrain her?” I rephrased Mac’s question. The answer was obvious, but this was our chance to prove to Cady that my girl and I could work with a team.

“She trusts you,” Mac responded. “You need to trust me.”

“Kira has a counteroffer,” Gabriel started to quip.

I shot him a disgruntled look. “Shut up, Gabriel.”

Gabriel seemed to prefer being told to shut up to being thanked. As I turned my attention back to Mac, my pulse jumped slightly, and I tamped down on the part of me that had gone vigilant. Cady trusts Mac, I told myself. I pictured the photograph Free and I had found. Cady knows him.

My breathing evened out, and I knelt in front of Saskia. “Sit,” I said. I gestured, palm to the ground. “Down.”

Saskia went to the ground. I went with her. I pressed my belly to the cave floor, nose to nose with my K9 partner. It went against every instinct I had to stay there, with Gabriel and Mac standing over us, but I wouldn’t ask Saskia to do something I couldn’t.

“Stay,” I said softly. I could do this. She could do this.

Mac slowly knelt and got into position beside her.

“Stay,” I repeated, my eyes on Saskia’s and hers on mine. The cave floor was damp. My heart was racing. Saskia didn’t so much as look at Mac. She looked at me. She trusted me. I lay there, vulnerable with no line of defense. With liquid grace, Mac made his move. One second, Saskia was on the ground, and the next, he had the husky in his arms, over his head, and out.

Even once she was back on solid ground, Saskia held the down position. For me. I was on my own feet in an instant. Mac boosted me up. I barely even felt the contact.

The second I was on solid ground, I dropped the stay signal, and Saskia came barreling into my body.

“Are you hurt?” Cady asked me. “Is Saskia?”

I let her run her hands over me, assure herself I was okay—and then I shook off both her worry and her touch. “We’re fine.”

“You’re better than fine.” Cady looked down at Saskia. “I can’t believe she let him do that.”

“I can.” I allowed myself one moment of victory, and then I got down to business. “Gabriel and I aren’t sure how big the cave system is, but it wasn’t on any of the maps. There could be other entrances, other exits. I’m fairly certain there’s running water down there.”

“And how exactly did you find this place?” The sheriff announced his presence. A half dozen deputies and rangers began making their way down into the cave as Mac boosted Gabriel out.