Sloan — I need evidence.”

And in the dark of that locked kitchen, I smiled, for the first time all night.

I want to be honest about that smile, because it was not a happy one.

It was not the smile of a woman who had just been rescued, or comforted, or told that everything would be all right.

Darcy had not offered me any of those things; she had offered me something better and harder, which was a plan.

The smile was the specific expression of a person who has been drowning for so long that she has forgotten what solid ground feels like, and who has just, in the dark, felt her foot touch bottom.