by Kat Martin
Billy looked up at him with eyes full of hope; then he drifted off again. Kade turned to find Maria hovering in the doorway.
“He’s got a concussion. Don’t let him go to sleep for more than fifteen minutes at a time.”
“Sí, Señor Kade. I’ll take care of him.”
Kade just nodded, thinking how lucky Alejandro was to have this woman. Thinking of Ellie and vowing that once he found her, he wasn’t letting her go again.
Kade strode back into the kitchen, his mind clear for the first time since he’d walked into the barn and found Ellie gone.
“Egan’s taking her to the mine,” he said. “The Red Hawk. It’s on the old Diamond Bar spread. Everything comes back to the mine. Billy heard some of what Egan said. He told her it would take more than an hour to get there. He said Ellie should be able to figure it out. The mine’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“All right, I’ll get things rolling,” Carver said.
“Be faster if we had a chopper,” Fischer grumbled. “Doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.”
Kade strode toward the back door. “I’m heading there now. You and your men can meet me there.”
Carver shot up from the bench. “Dammit, Kade. You can’t do this on your own. If you’re sure that’s where she is, we can call in deputies from Summit County, have them head over and intercept him.”
Kade shook his head. “No way. Something goes wrong, Ellie could wind up dead. I’m leaving right now. You want to come along, let’s go.”
Webb Fischer pushed his sturdy body up from the table. “We could have you arrested, you know. For interfering in a sheriff’s investigation.”
A muscle flexed in Kade’s jaw. “You need me, Sheriff. My brothers and I spent half the summer up at the Red Hawk when we were kids. I know my way around up there.” The three of them had loved to explore the old abandoned tunnels. It was dangerous, but things had been more lax back then. They were lucky they hadn’t been injured or killed.
“You go in blind,” Kade continued, “you won’t know where to look. All you’ll do is let Egan know you’re there. Ellie will end up dead and maybe some of your men, as well.”
Carver looked at Fischer. “He may be right.”
Fischer nodded. “All right. This has been our case from the start. It’s our folks who’ve been killed. We’ll bring that fucker down together. Let’s go.”
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
ELLIE STIRRED ON THE MATTRESS AND FORCED HER EYES TO OPEN. Though she blinked and stared, she couldn’t see through the penetrating darkness. Her head was pounding. Her jaw ached from ear to chin. When she moved, pain shot through her ribs, and she hissed in a breath.
For a moment, she just lay there panting, trying to get her bearings, to remember where she was and what had happened. As the pain receded, a jolt of clarity struck her, and it all came rushing back.
Leaving Kade. Leaving the ranch house. Going into the barn to look for Billy. An image appeared of the man in the ski mask holding a gun against the boy’s head. Her whole body tightened as Rick Egan’s face swam into focus, and suddenly Ellie knew exactly where she was.
Her breath stalled. The darkness pressed in on her, and fear gripped her, a terror far worse than the pain throbbing through her body.
Where are you taking me?
You can’t guess? You’re the detective. You figure it out.
Oh, God, he had brought her to the mine!
Panic surged through her, and the fear deepened, threatening to swallow her whole. Her breath came in sharp, ragged gasps, and her heart thundered. The panic attack grew more fierce, shutting her body down until her lungs seized and she couldn’t drag in enough air.
Dear God, help me. Ellie closed her eyes and fought to stay calm, to remember the lessons Mrs. Scarsdale, her school nurse, had taught her all those years ago.
Quiet your mind. Breathe in and hold it. Count to five as you release it. Breathe out and hold it. Count to five as you release it. She did the breathing exercise over and over until her body began to relax and the tightness in her chest began to ease.
She could do this, she told herself. If she wanted to live, she had no choice.
It took longer than she’d hoped to steady her nerves, calm her mind, and regain control. It was past time to take action. Groping in the darkness, she touched the dirt wall beside her. A wooden barrier closed off a portion of the tunnel, forming some sort of room. She pictured it in her mind, realized the mattress lay on the ground in the corner.
She continued to move around in the darkness, feeling her way along the walls, searching for the tunnel entrance, the way back out of the mine.
She came to a turn and, now that her eyes had adjusted to the pitch-black interior, saw a thin ray of light in the distance. As she approached, she realized the light seeped in through another wooden barricade. The tunnel was abandoned, boarded up to keep people from wandering into the dangerous interior.
She hurried toward the light, feeling the first ray of hope since she had awakened in the pit of Egan’s hell. She could hear the steady patter of rain and remembered it had been raining when they had walked along the trail leading away from the ranch. Her clothes were damp but a little drier than they had been. She figured she had been here a couple of hours.
A second wave of fear struck her. Billy! Had Billy survived the fierce blow to his head? Dear God, she hoped he had. And what about the freezing cold? He could die before morning.
She took a shaky breath. One thing she knew. The only way to help Billy was to help herself. That meant she had to escape.
She reached the barrier at the entrance, made from scraps of wood, and peered through the narrow cracks. It was dark outside, faint rays coming from distant overhead lighting that illuminated an open area surrounded by chain-link fencing. She grabbed one of the wooden boards and frantically started tugging, trying to rip it off.
She just needed a hole big enough to squeeze through, but the boards were nailed together from the outside, and the task was daunting. She could do it, she was sure, but it was going to take time, and she had a bad feeling she didn’t have much of that left.
The sound of a vehicle engine grinding up the mountain came from somewhere outside. Tires rolled over the muddy ground and came to a stop out in front. The engine paused, then went silent. Her heart beat faster as the car door opened and a man got out. She prayed it was one of the workmen, someone who would help her if she cried out. But it was Saturday, and she hadn’t heard any heavy equipment moving around.
She took a last look through the tiny crack. Egan.
Her heart jerked. She glanced wildly around, searching for something to use as a weapon. Perhaps there was something in the makeshift room with the mattress, but this part of the tunnel was empty.
Adrenalin pumped through her as footsteps began to move toward the entrance to the mine. Ellie retreated into the darkness, her pulse hammering in her ears. The sound of rusty hinges was unmistakable. Egan had fashioned a door out of the scrap wood, disguising it as part of the barricade. As the door swung open, a spot of faint, yellow light flooded into the tunnel.
Ellie retreated farther into the darkness. She could see Egan’s silhouette, see he was holding the handle of an old-fashioned kerosene lantern, lighting the way ahead of him.
Ellie braced herself against the wall and began moving sideways through the darkness, praying she would find something she could use against him. Instead, she found a pile of rocks that partially blocked the way. Beyond it was an opening that led deeper into the mine.
The memory of being half-buried in the old dirt fort sent a crushing wave of terror into her chest. No way could she could go deeper into the blackness that left her paralyzed and barely able to function.
Ellie picked up a rock and gripped it in her hand, but as the light from the kerosene lantern grew closer, her feet refused to move backward.
She bit back the sound of fear that tried to escape her throat. She only had
one chance if she wanted to live. With a deep breath for courage, Ellie made her way past the rubble and slipped deeper into the mine.
* * *
Driving through the rain at a speed that edged as close to perilous as he dared, Kade shaved minutes off the trip to the Red Hawk Mine. Sliding off the road into the mountainside wouldn’t help Ellie.
Carver and Fischer were a few minutes behind him. He had promised to wait if he got there first. Wait for them before he went in after Ellie.
Kade wasn’t waiting. The problem was he had to find her.
He slowed as he neared the top of the hill. The mine was shut down on the weekends, the front gate locked. But the main tunnel wasn’t where Egan would take a woman.
Turning off the steep road, Kade turned down a narrow lane around the side of the mountain toward the back of the mine, where he and his brothers had played. The shafts were old there, abandoned, and long boarded up.
As a kid, they’d played cowboys and Indians there. He’d been a cowboy, of course. Gage and Edge were Arapaho warriors. He wished his brothers were with him now, wished he hadn’t let the rift between them go unmended for so long.
The big diesel slopped through the muddy, little-used road, around to the back of the mountain. Kade parked in a spot the pickup wouldn’t be heard or easily seen, got out with his flashlight, and started walking. The Colt .45 in the holster on his belt felt comforting. He was dealing with a killer. He wouldn’t hesitate to use the weapon.
As he searched for the place he and his brothers had used to sneak through the fence, the flashlight formed a yellow circle in front of him. He figured Egan must have a key to the gate leading into this area, what had been, years ago, the main ore-producing tunnels of the mine.
Continuing along the fence, he looked for the gnarled old pine that marked the spot he recalled. He’d told Carver and Fischer about the back entrance, told them to bring a bolt cutter for the lock on the gate. They were rounding up deputies and on their way to join him.
He thought of Ellie and what Egan might have done to her, and a rush of fury nearly blinded him. Kade clenched his teeth and forced the image away. He had to keep his head on straight if he was going to help her. He prayed she would stay alive long enough for him to get there.
Kade lengthened his stride and kept walking.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
USING THE WALL TO GUIDE HER THROUGH THE THICK VEIL OF BLACKNESS, Ellie inched slowly backward, away from the approaching light. The kerosene lantern gave off a dull yellow glow that allowed her to see her surroundings: fallen rock and sagging timbers, rubble that included piles of rotten boards, old nails, and rusty miners’ picks and shovels.
There was a stack of old wooden boxes with the words HIGH EXPLOSIVES and DANGEROUS printed on the sides. She carefully edged around them, figuring they were probably extremely unstable.
She studied the ground, and her heartbeat quickened as she spotted a shovel, put down the rock, and grabbed the handle, only to have it disintegrate in her hand. She caught the blade before it landed noisily on the ground, set it aside with relief, and grabbed one of the picks, a smaller weapon but perhaps more useful. She would have to get closer to use it, but the pick was in better condition.
With luck, it would stay in one piece long enough to use it against her attacker.
Her gaze came to rest on a small metal trowel lying half-buried in the dirt. Pulling it free, she stuffed it into her back pocket.
The will to live strengthened inside her, giving her a fresh rush of courage. As long as she was thinking and planning, she was able to keep the panic under control. She wasn’t going down without a fight. If she lost her struggle with the devil, she would do her best to send Rick Egan straight to the hell he deserved.
The lantern light shifted, casting eerie shadows on the walls as Egan searched the partial room he had created and realized she was hiding in the darkness beyond.
“There’s no way out, Ellie. You can go deeper, but you’ll only get lost down there. Unlike you, I know my way around these tunnels. My father made me work here when I was a boy. He thought it would be good for me to learn the business from the ground up.” Eerie laughter echoed through the cavernous interior, and goose bumps rose on her skin.
“Ironic, isn’t it? I finally made use of what I learned.”
Ellie’s hands shook as her fingers tightened around the handle of the pick and she raised it above her head.
“If you don’t come out, I’ll be forced to come after you. You won’t like what will happen when I find you.”
Ellie said nothing.
“This is your last chance, sweetheart.” Quiet fell. The silence stretched into what seemed an eternity.
Then the lantern went out.
Ellie gasped as suffocating darkness once more enveloped her. She could hear the faint sound of Egan’s footfalls coming in her direction, but she couldn’t force her feet to move. He was closing the distance, moving confidently, almost silently through the blackness, as if he could actually see.
Devil that he was, maybe he could.
Straining to hear his movements in the dark, her body tensed, preparing to attack. When he bumped into her, she screamed and swung the pick. Egan grunted, dodged the iron head, and caught her wrist. Ellie tried to fight him, to hang on to the pick, but in the darkness, it was like struggling with a ghost. His grip tightened on her wrist and twisted until she bit back a cry of pain.
“Drop it,” he demanded and twisted harder. “Do it!”
The pick fell from her nerveless fingers.
Egan turned her around and shoved her back the way he had come, and Ellie stumbled forward. A flashlight went on behind her as Egan followed.
Back in the room, he shoved her into the wall behind the mattress, and she went down. Egan set the flashlight on a narrow wooden table, the only other furniture in the room, re-lit the kerosene lantern, and turned off the flashlight.
“Is this where you murdered Heather and Barbara?” Ellie asked, glancing around at what was really just half a room constructed by blocking off part of the tunnel.
Egan sighed. “I didn’t bring them here. I made this place especially for you, sweetheart. Kade Logan’s woman.” His smile turned savage. “You can’t imagine how good it feels to have you here. And I didn’t intend to kill Heather and Barbara. It was an accident.”
“An accident? That’s what you call it?”
He shrugged. “We argued. Things got heated, and I lost my temper.”
Ellie forced herself not to think of the women he had brutally murdered. “What did you argue about?” As long as he kept talking, she stayed alive.
“Heather wanted to end our affair because she wore Kade Logan’s ring.” He scoffed. “Kade didn’t even love her. Not the way I did. Heather told me she loved me, but it was a lie.” He moved a little, and his shadow shifted on the wall, making him look like the monster he was. “I hadn’t planned to kill her, but the minute I put my hands around her neck, I knew what I had to do.”
Ellie’s insides trembled. She realized Rick had forgotten all about Barbara. This was about Heather. Had been all along. Barbara was just a substitute.
She rubbed her injured wrist, which was sprained and starting to swell. Sooner or later, she would have to fight him. The trowel in her pocket was her only hope.
“I’d really like to understand,” Ellie said, playing for time. “What about Barbara?”
Rick’s gaze slid over her like cold grease. “I didn’t mean to kill Barbara. Or maybe I did. I’m not really sure anymore. After spending the weekend together, we planned to meet in Denver the following week.”
“And you did,” Ellie said when he fell silent.
“That’s right. I picked her up at a park three blocks from her house, and we drove to a motel not far away. The sex was even better than before, but as soon as we were finished, she started in on me. ‘It was fun,’ she said. ‘But we won’t be able to do this anymore. I’ve got a husband, you know
. I can’t risk Bryan finding out.’
“I watched those painted lips moving and thought of how Heather had said the same thing. Then the rage set in, just like before.” He looked at Ellie. “I loved Heather so much. But she was still in love with Kade.”
Ellie swallowed the dryness in her throat and tried to breathe past the mine dust in her lungs. “If you wanted to get back at Kade, why did you wait eight years?”
His lips thinned. “When they found Heather’s car in the lake, everything came flooding back. How much I loved her. How Heather had chosen Logan over me. I went to Vail, the place we’d met. I thought it might help.”
“And that’s where you met Barbara.”
“That’s right. Everything about her reminded me of Heather. When she tried to end things, I felt the same uncontrollable anger, the same thrill when I slammed her head against the bedside table. I wrapped my hands around her throat and felt the same rush as before.” His mouth curled in a sick, wolfish smile. “I look forward to feeling that rush again tonight.”
Rick reached down and stroked a hand over the front of his jeans. Ellie realized he was aroused, and her stomach rolled with nausea.
“You made a mistake when you showed up at my office,” he said. “The moment you and Logan walked in, I knew what I was going to do.”
* * *
Kade spotted the old pine tree that marked the loose spot in the chain-link fence and hurried toward it. Pulling up the unattached section, he ducked through the opening, then hurried toward the abandoned tunnels, trying to stay out of sight. He prayed he could figure out which tunnel Egan had chosen to take Ellie.
As he rounded the side of the mountain, he stopped. A vehicle sat in front of the boarded-up entrance to one of the old tunnels—Egan’s dark green Hummer.
Kade’s hand fisted. Cold fury washed over him, while white-hot rage burned inside. Pulling the Colt, he eased closer to the mountain and made his way toward the boarded-up entrance. Shining the beam of the flashlight over the old, discarded boards, he spotted what looked like a wooden door camouflaged to go unnoticed.
