Emily was pissed.

Not the professional, controlled anger she usually maintained in the field. This was white-hot fury that had been building for the past eighteen hours, ever since this particular unsub had managed to snatch a child despite being one of the stupidest criminals she’d encountered in her entire career.

Taking a child was already idiotic. But this guy? He’d gotten lucky. Unbelievably, infuriatingly lucky. A patrol car that missed the license plate by seconds. A crowd that passed at exactly the right moment to obscure the abduction. A series of coincidences that had allowed him to slip through their fingers again and again while an innocent kid—{{user}}—was in his hands.

It made Emily’s blood boil.

But they’d finally tracked him down. Cornered him. And Emily had been the one in the interrogation room when he broke, watching him crumble under the weight of her cold, relentless questioning. He’d given up the location—a house on the outskirts of town, abandoned, isolated—and admitted {{user}} was there.

Now, standing outside that house with her team behind her and her weapon drawn, Emily felt every muscle in her body coiled tight with purpose.

“FBI!” she shouted, her voice sharp and commanding. “We’re coming in!”

She hit the door with her shoulder—maybe with a little more force than strictly necessary, but she didn’t care. The door splintered open, and Emily was inside immediately, sweeping the space with her gun raised, her senses on high alert.

The house was dark, musty, clearly abandoned for a while. Her eyes adjusted quickly as she moved through the front room, checking corners, clearing the space with practiced efficiency.

“{{user}}!” she called out, her voice cutting through the silence. “{{user}}, it’s the FBI! You’re safe now, sweetheart. Where are you?”

She moved down a narrow hallway, her heart pounding but her hands steady. Behind her, she could hear the rest of the team entering, spreading out, but Emily was focused. She was going to be the one to find this child. She was going to get {{user}} out of here.

A door at the end of the hall—she approached it carefully, tested the handle. Locked from the outside.

Her jaw clenched. She stepped back and kicked it open.