Riley's Rescue (Last Chance Book 6)

by Lexi Post

  Buried alive…again.

  Chapter Five

  Garrett rubbed his side where Riley’s elbow connected as they fell. The dark mine was eerily quiet after the cave-in. Not even the dog he’d seen in her arms made a noise. The only sound was heavy breathing coming from directly above him. “Riley?” He kept his voice low, not wanting to scare her more than she already was.

  She didn’t answer.

  Concern had his mind racing even as he slowly stood. He knew panic when he heard it. For such a tough woman, something about being in the mine had seriously freaked her. It could be the darkness, claustrophobia, or even a fear of paranormal spirits. It was a rare mine that hadn’t seen at least one death, and from the looks of the age of this one, it had seen more than a few.

  Again, he kept his voice low like he would when one of his men were hurt. “Riley, it’s okay.”

  The crunch of dirt was his only warning as she spun toward his voice. “Okay? Okay? Sure. Everything’s just fucking fine. Dying in a cave is just what they want. Isn’t that how you always pictured you’d go?”

  “They?”

  She laughed, but it was a far cry from real. “Personally, I expected a bullet through my head or child bearing presents in the form of a grenade.”

  Understanding dawned. The cave-in must have triggered an episode from when she was overseas with the military. Damn, had Cole said where she was? He racked his brain, but came up with nothing.

  Slowly, as not to startle her, he crouched down and searched for his phone. As his hand brushed it, the light, which was still on, streamed across the ground.

  She pounced, trying to wrestle the phone from him as if it were a gun, and he was intent on shooting her.

  “Riley, stop! It’s me Garrett.” He wrenched it free and turned it on her.

  She held her arm over her eyes and lunged for him.

  He easily side-stepped her rush. Would she recognize him? Quickly, he turned the light on himself, careful to shade his eyes so he could still see. “It’s just me, Garrett.” When she didn’t attack him, he risked shining the light against the ceiling to spread it over them.

  She stood absolutely still, her chest heaving from her exertion, her brows lowered in confusion, her hands curled into fists. But it was her eyes that rooted him to the spot. They stared at nothing until she lifted her gaze to his. His stomach tightened even as he broke into a cold sweat. He’d seen that look before…on a corpse.

  What would shake her out of it? Something important. Her horse? No, the paint was outside, patiently waiting for her, and she was stuck in here. The dog? “Where’s your dog?”

  For a moment he didn’t think it had worked, but then she blinked. “Dog?”

  “Yes, the dog you were holding?”

  She glanced around the immediate area as if she couldn’t move. “Dog? I don’t own a dog.”

  “He’s a little white thing with brown spots. He licked your face.”

  Her eyes widened, and she spun to look behind her.

  Damn, now she thought the dog was buried. He hoped not. “What’s his name. I bet he ran into the tunnels with all the noise.”

  “Dog.” Her voice came out in a whisper, completely defeated.

  He had no clue what the hell he was doing, but his gut told him he needed to get her back into the present, such as it was. Turning away from her, he yelled. “Hey dog. Come here, boy.”

  A whine greeted his call and relief flooded him, though the whine was concerning. “Come here, boy.” He gave a whistle, which sent small stones cascading down the cave-in behind him.

  “Don’t.” The word came up on him in a hiss. “The dirt is still unsettled. The ceiling could go.”

  He looked above where they stood, his light revealing rotten cross beams. She had a point. The sound of soft footsteps came closer, and he shifted his beam back down the tunnel.

  Suddenly, Riley brushed by him and crouched down as the mutt came into the lighted area. She scooped him up and stood, turning around to face him. “This is Dog.”

  He squelched a chuckle. “Dog? That’s his name?”

  She turned her head away as the dog tried to lick her face. “He’s not mine. He was abandoned and Whisper found him on the side of the Carefree Highway. She was on her way to Vegas, so she told me to take care of him until she comes back. He doesn’t have a real name.”

  He nodded as if that all made perfect sense. He supposed for Last Chance Ranch it did, he simply hadn’t worked there long enough to know.

  Her gaze moved past him, and she stiffened as if seeing the cave-in for the first time in the present. “We’re trapped.”

  He glanced over his shoulder. “Maybe, maybe not.” He brought the light down and focused it on the ground, taking the steps to the cave-in. Slowly, he moved the light across the newly blocked tunnel. “It can’t be that bad. We are very close to the exit.” He finished his examination then turned to face Riley when the silence lengthened.

  She stood there staring at the wall of earth behind him, the faraway look back in her gaze. “Riley.”

  “They won’t leave right away.”

  He strode right up to her, breaking her view. “We’re in an old copper mine outside Phoenix, Arizona. No one is out there except your horse.”

  At the mention of her ride, she blinked. “Domino?”

  “Yes. Now why don’t you take Dog and sit over here.” He led her twenty yards farther down the rails to where the walls turned to solid rock to take her mind off the blocked exit, scooping up his cowboy hat on the way.

  She sat on the ground with her back against the wall, her knees pulled up and the dog settled against her chest. It made him think of his niece and her blanket. She wouldn’t go anywhere without it. Riley’s hand absently stroked the dog’s back.

  Not sure how long her mind would stay in the present, he looked around for anything to dig with. It may be a mine, but from the looks of it, it was well over a hundred years old. Mining copper and other precious metals in Arizona had changed significantly in the early 1900’s. This was definitely 1800’s.

  He scoured the ground. Finding her dropped phone, he handed it to her before continuing to search the immediate area. He didn’t want to go too far from her in case she reverted back into the past again.

  A rotten rail tie was the best he could do. Pulling it from the dirt, he moved to the bottom of the cave-in and set his phone on the ground with the light shining up and started to dig.

  “Stop!”

  At the sudden shout, he stilled. Looking over his shoulder, he found Riley staring at him hard. “Why? Don’t you want to get out? I need to see how thick this pile is.”

  She shook her head. “You don’t dig at the bottom. You dig at the top, as high up as you can go. Digging on the bottom will just cause the new earth to fall on top of you.”

  That made a certain amount of sense. “How do you know that?”

  She didn’t answer. Instead, she shifted her gaze to the dog and remained silent.

  Letting her rudeness slide, he rose and started to pull loose gravel from the top, but the more he pulled the more seemed to take its place. “Damn.” Frustrated, he threw the wood aside and looked around the dimly lit area. At least they had some light thanks to his phone.

  His phone! They could call. “Well, hell.” Picking it up, he looked for a signal.

  “It won’t work.”

  He shined the light above her head. “What won’t work?”

  “Your phone. There’s no signal here.”

  Did she have an answer for everything? “You don’t know that. I might get one if I move to the right spot.” He started to walk around the area, watching for the signal. Maybe he’d get lucky.

  “The closest base is over an hour’s drive. Can’t expect help from them even if I could reach them. It was just a routine trip. No one was supposed to die.”

  He stilled at her words. She’d slipped back into the past, and his gut said that wasn’t a good place for her. Maybe a
ll she needed was some hope. “I’m sure someone will come looking for us. It will be pretty obvious we aren’t there with our vehicles parked outside.”

  “No.” Her tone made it sound like she’d given up. “They took them. Valuable assets. Good for an ambush. It worked on us.”

  A chill ran across his skin, very similar to when he called for his men to move back from a fire line, but was it due to a present threat or from her past experience…or was it her?

  He didn’t respond to her, more determined than ever to find a signal. After fifteen minutes of trying every possible place, he finally admitted defeat. “There must be too much earth around us.”

  “No, there would be no signal even if we were outside. It’s no man’s land out here.”

  He strode toward her. “We may be outside Phoenix, but Last Chance isn’t off the map. Wickenburg and Canterbury have doubled in size just in the last five years since I lived here.” He stopped in front of her and waited to see if his words would register.

  She didn’t move for a long time, but finally she looked up at him. “The signal only reaches Cole’s house because he put in a booster. This valley is a dead zone.”

  Relief combined with irritation at her know-it-all attitude. Giving up, he sat down next to her, his back against the wall. They needed a plan of attack. “You seem to know what won’t work. Any ideas on what will?”

  “Turn your phone off. You’ll use up the battery.”

  Swallowing a curse, he did as she suggested. The cave became absolute blackness. He lifted his hand, but couldn’t see it. It was even worse than the old days when he worked on structure fires and couldn’t see crap due to smoke. There was something absolute about the darkness that made him uncomfortable. “Now what would you suggest?”

  “Take stock. What we have, what we need. Set a plan. Implement the plan. Failure means the plan needs to be reworked. Create a new plan. Repeat until there is success. There must be success.”

  His unease ramped up at the monotone quality of her voice. It was like she’d been brainwashed and repeated the message as taught. “Where did you learn that? In the military?”

  He sensed her movement. “My father.”

  From the sound of her voice, she’d turned her head toward him. “Was he in the Army?”

  “Air Force.”

  When she didn’t continue, his irritation returned. The last thing he wanted to do was play twenty questions in the pitch blackness.

  “Senior Master Sergeant O’Hare made sure I was well-equipped to succeed.”

  He wished he could see her face because her tone didn’t give him a clue if she was happy about that. He was pretty sure his own father was more excited than even he was when he graduated with his fire science degree. “Then you’ve followed in your father’s footsteps. I bet he’s proud of you.”

  Her strange laugh was back. “No, he wasn’t. I went into the Army. He never said it, but I know he felt betrayed. He died on his fifth deployment.”

  He let out a low whistle. “I’m sorry. That sounds like he was gone a lot.”

  “It was better than staying home, at least that’s how I looked at it.”

  He didn’t know what to say to that, so he waited to see if she’d reveal more. The silence stretched out to what seemed like a half hour, but he imagined it was only a few minutes before he spoke again. The total darkness was disorientating.

  “I followed in my father’s footsteps as well. He was a firefighter. He—”

  “Did he die in a fire?”

  Surprised by her question, he answered quickly. “No. He retired. He says he’ll probably die from my mother’s cooking because he just can’t stop eating it.” He smiled into the darkness. “My mom can cook.”

  When she didn’t respond to that, he had to assume that she wasn’t interested. That was fine. He just wanted to keep her in the present. “So your father said to take stock of what we have and what we need. I think all we have right now is our bare hands and that won’t get us out of here. We should explore the mine and see if there isn’t something we can use to dig with.”

  “Digging with our hands will take too long. I have one lip balm, a packet of ibuprofen, mints, an SOG pocket knife, a bandana, a bottle of water, and some sandwich meat.”

  His brain skidded to a halt. “You have all that?” He frowned in confusion. He hadn’t seen a purse on her.

  “Yes.” She wasn’t facing him anymore. He could tell because her voice wasn’t as strong.

  While it was an impressive stash for being trapped in a mine, he didn’t see any of it being relevant. “None of that will help us dig our way out of here.”

  “No, but it will help us stay alive. What do you have?”

  Good question. “I have the clothes on my back. No, I also have my wallet, a pack of gum, a pocket knife, and a handkerchief.”

  “That’s acceptable. Our knives could come in handy for eating and the gum and mints will help us stave off thirst as long as possible.”

  “You have survival experience.” He ground his teeth. Not the smartest thing to say to someone who kept drifting back in time.

  “Yes.” The single word came out in a whisper.

  Again, he had the feeling that he needed to pull back and this time he listened to that feeling, his curiosity be damned. Obviously, she’d survived and was using what she’d learned now. “How long have you had the lunchmeat with you?”

  “Since about eleven-thirty. Why?”

  “We better eat it now. It will be rotten soon if it’s not in a refrigerator, and though it’s cooler in here than outside, it’s not that cold.”

  “You’re right. I forgot. What I wouldn’t do for some MREs right now.”

  He could hear her moving around. “Why do you have lunchmeat on you? Were you planning a picnic.”

  “No, I was trying to feed Dog. I have turkey and ham left. He doesn’t like ham. You can have that and I’ll split the turkey with him.”

  He wasn’t going to take more food than she had, so after a brief negotiation, they split it evenly among the three of them. After eating his share, he got back to what she’d said earlier. “We know what we have, so next on your father’s list is to determine what we need. I’d say a shovel would be convenient.”

  “Break it down to the elemental components. We need something to move dirt.”

  “Besides our hands.”

  “Yes.”

  Again, her voice softened. He wanted to ask if she’d had to dig her way out of a situation like this, but the words stuck in his throat. Whether from caution or not wanting to know, he wasn’t sure. At least if they determined they needed to move the earth with something besides their hands, he had an excuse to turn his light back on and search the mine tunnels.

  Standing, he powered on his phone again and turned on his light. The brightness after such complete dark actually hurt his eyes, and he aimed the phone down the tunnel to lessen the intensity.

  “What are you doing?” She set the dog on the ground and rose.

  “I’m going to search these tunnels to see if we can find something to dig with. I doubt we’ll find an old pick ax still intact, but iron of any kind could help.” When she didn’t argue with him, he started back the way they had come when he found her.

  Should he leave her there or would she wander off and back into the past? He halted. “Are you coming?”

  Riley stared at the black void beyond Garrett’s light. Her body seemed to heat up from the inside out, causing sweat to build up along her neck and beneath her breasts. The ceilings were so low, like the back of the cave she’d been buried alive in, the very back.

  Hold it together, soldier. This is Arizona, not Afghanistan. They may both be hot, dusty, and start with an A, but they’re far different. For one thing, the only danger here is Mother Nature, and maybe that hot cowboy with the cute ass.

  Okay, now she was definitely losing it. “Of course. Come on Dog. Since you like this place so much, you might as well lead the w
ay.” Dog, who had sat next to her, picked up his butt and wagged his tail. “No, I’m not going to get that rabbit for you. If I find that rodent, we’re all eating well tonight.”

  She started forward, ignoring Garrett’s wide eyes. “Well, let’s see what we can find. Your phone battery won’t last all day.”

  His gaze scanned her as if to make certain she was okay then he faced forward. Did he realize how easy it was to read him? Then again, he probably never had to hide how he felt. It was an odd thought, and she shook it off.

  They continued forward. When they drew closer to the fork in the tunnels, she snatched Dog up, not in a hurry to have him get caught between boards while trying to find the stupid jack rabbit. The fork came into view and again, she had the urge to go to the far right only the third tunnel she wanted wasn’t there.

  Garrett halted. “You and Dog came from the left. Did you see anything down there?”

  She hadn’t exactly stopped to smell the roses. She’d had one thing on her mind, get Dog and get out. She stifled a snort. Look how well that turned out. “Nothing that I noticed while searching for this mutt.”

  “Then let’s go to the right.”

  She nodded, marveling at how calm she was. Maybe now that her worst fears had been realized, she had nothing left to fear. Except starvation, dehydration, and being shot when she exited. She shook her head, to get rid of her poisoned thoughts.

  “Yes or no?” Garrett stared at her, his brows lowered. He was either confused or thought she was crazy.

  She’d put her money on crazy. “Yes, let’s go to the right. I just had Dog’s hair in my face.”

  “Okay.” From the sound of his voice, he didn’t believe her, but he turned around and started down the mine tunnel.

  A smile threatened. The man had no clue that she was the last person he wanted to be stuck in a cave with. Mine! She was in a mine. An old copper mine. Fucking-A, Riley get your shit together. This is not a cave. The ceilings are too low, there are rails on the ground, and there’s only two tunnels.

  Right. She knew that. The cave outside Chora, which had at first been an escape, had become her tomb when the bastards had blown the entrance to bury her inside. The destruction at the wide opening had been complete, the debris yards deep. This was a simple cave-in.