In Too Deep

by Mary Connealy

  “My name’s Mitch, and you’re Mrs. Kincaid now. Grove got that wrong the night of the fire, and I knew that gave us away enough that we’d have to move fast.” This man looked far more civilized than the skinny man, except for his eyes. They held the threat of death, more chilling because he did everything politely and with a hint of a smile.

  “The fire gave us away, Mitch.”

  Mitch had Ethan under his arms and came on inside, still dragging him. For one crazy second she considered attacking. Grabbing for the gun he held close to her face. That would be the brave thing to do. If she could get his gun and . . .

  “Don’t even think of it, Mrs. Kincaid. You wouldn’t have a chance against me, not even if I was alone. And Grove”—Mitch jerked his head in the direction of the man who had her in his clutches—“he has a particular taste for hurting women. I’d hate for him to get upset with you.”

  Mitch got Ethan all the way inside, then dropped him so carelessly his head hit the hard floor with an ugly thud. Ethan didn’t show one sign of reacting to the pain.

  Mitch drew his gun with such smooth precision that Audra knew he’d done it before, plenty.

  She wanted to ask what they’d done to Seth, but maybe they hadn’t found him. Maybe Seth was out there, poised to attack.

  She expected Mitch to start shooting and said a prayer for the safety of her babies and Ethan, for all of them. But instead of aiming at her, he aimed the gun straight at Ethan’s bleeding head.

  “The money, Mrs. Kincaid. Where is it?”

  She wanted to be brave. She was desperate to fight these men and win. She needed to do it for her children and her husband and her crazy brother-in-law.

  But what was brave, really? She had no chance in a fight. That gun was steady on Ethan.

  Fighting was brave, absolutely, but Jesus’s true courage came not from fighting but from sacrifice. From giving His life. Audra felt her heart lift. For the first time ever she felt true courage. No, she couldn’t overpower two evil men. But she could lead them away. Give Ethan a chance. Maybe even find the money and send these men on their way. Audra had listened long enough that she knew exactly where she’d look.

  She sent a prayer heavenward and carried it in her heart as an idea came to her that she knew came straight from God.

  “He hid it in the cavern.” She remembered how Julia had twice saved herself by using the darkness and silence. In that cavern, Audra had a chance and she was brave enough to take it.

  “What?”

  The look on Mitch’s face told her he knew nothing about the cavern at all. Had never heard of it.

  Which gave her an even greater advantage. Thinking fast, she considered all she’d heard about that dark pit.

  “My husband hid it there. We were heading for the cavern right now. But we have to ford the stream behind this cabin, on foot, which is why Ethan was putting the horses up. I was going to show it to him for the first time. I’m the only one Wendell confided in when he was dying, so you need my help.” She hoped that sounded like she was pleading for her own life, when she was, in fact, thinking of these men trying to force information out of Ethan.

  Where is Seth?

  “My husband—that is, my first husband, Wendell—told me where he hid it. I’ll take you there. Give you the . . .” Audra hesitated. Gold? Paper money? What? She didn’t know, but maybe these men didn’t, either. Or maybe they didn’t expect her to know. “I’ll give you everything Wendell stole, and you can take it and leave. We were coming here today to get it, planning to return it to the man my husband stole it from. We knew the fire and the shooting yesterday had to be about that . . . m-money.”

  She braced herself for them to accuse her of lying if it was gold. There were no accusations. Audra added, “We’ve had nothing but trouble since Wendell stole that money. I only want to get it back to the man he stole it from and be allowed to live in peace.”

  Mitch looked down at Ethan for a long moment. Mitch could kill him and turn his threats to the children. For their sake, even if her precious husband was killed at their hands, Audra would still be forced to help these villains find that blasted money.

  With a sudden crack of metal on metal, Mitch released the hammer on his revolver and aimed it at the ceiling. “Let’s go then. If you’re lying to me, we can always come back. You’ve got a lot to lose, Mrs. Kincaid. Far more than we do.”

  Mitch looked at Grove. “Tie him up. Tight. We want to have someone around to put pressure on the little lady.” Mitch grabbed Audra’s arm and dragged her away from Grove. “I’ll keep an eye on her until you’re done.”

  Audra looked out the door and couldn’t see Seth anywhere.

  “If you’re looking for the other Kincaid brother, he’s dead.”

  Audra gasped. “No, he didn’t know anything.”

  “We didn’t need two men to threaten you with. So we made it easy on ourselves.” Mitch laughed and used his gun to point to a ledge near the horse corral. “We knocked him cold and threw him over that cliff.”

  Tears burned her eyes as she thought of that awful ledge. Steep, but not a sheer drop. Could Seth have survived it? He’d been through so much. He’d finally gotten home and had a chance at a peaceful life. And now these men said he was dead. She prayed as she waited for Grove, thinking of Ethan in there, defenseless with that evil man. Her prayers continued even as Grove came back out.

  She thought of her babies, sleeping. They were defenseless with Ethan tied up and their mother gone. She had to fight down the urge to start screaming. But she dare not mention the children. Wiping the tears away as they rolled down her face, she knew that prayer was the only thing that was going to give her the courage she needed.

  “Take us to the money.” Mitch looked at the cabin with a cruel smile, as if he wanted an excuse to hurt Ethan some more. “Right now.”

  “Yes. You have no need to hurt my husband or anyone else. I’ll take you to where Wendell hid it in the cavern right now.” Audra crushed down the sobs that wanted to escape and prayed for calm, for her mind to work. She remembered Ethan’s story about Seth and the fire. Audra had told Ethan that he’d kept his head. He’d been thinking even in the midst of terror. She had to do that. She had to use her head.

  It came to her like a whisper from deep inside.

  “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed . . .”

  Dismay wasn’t a sliver of what she was feeling. Fear not. She clung to that.

  Then she remembered the rest.

  “. . . for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”

  Peace washed over her as she accepted that there was no way she could defeat two strong well-armed men. Not alone.

  But with God upholding her, she had a chance.

  She squared her shoulders and looked Mitch in the eye. “Let’s go.”

  She led them around the cabin and up the hill. She’d never been this way, but she’d heard about it. She’d seen Julia coming home after that awful night when she’d gotten trapped in the cavern, when Rafe had saved her and brought her home.

  Audra had listened to all the stories and it was exactly as they’d said. She climbed down the steep gorge to the rushing stream, then picked her way across on the protruding stones. Facing a sheer rock wall, she knew Julia had climbed it regularly. So it could be done. Audra began as if she knew what she was doing, reaching up for the most obvious handhold. They were there. It all worked. She soon climbed to a less treacherous level.

  At the top of the gorge, she saw the hole. The only time she’d been in the cavern was the day Seth had taken Maggie in. She’d gone in through the simpler entrance in Rafe and Julia’s mountain valley.

  Pointing to a heavy boulder that was right where she expected, she said, “We need to move that. The ladder is under it.”

  She thought of Ethan’s story, of how they’d explored down in this cavern, climbing in and out using a ladder. And
Julia had gotten out the time she’d been stranded by Breach, when Rafe had lowered the ladder and found her.

  Mitch and Grove threw their backs into moving the rock. When the ladder was there, in a small depression, Audra heaved a silent sigh of relief.

  These men still believed she knew what she was doing. They lowered the ladder with its dull clinking metallic rungs.

  “I’ll go down first,” Mitch said. “We want someone ahead of her and behind her at all times.”

  Audra knew it was as dark as pitch down there. If one of them had matches, they’d use the torches and her chance of escape would be much lower. But with light or without it, she’d find a way. God would strengthen her. She prayed and the prayers gave her the strength to remain calm. To keep thinking.

  When Mitch dropped out of sight, Audra didn’t look at Grove. Mitch’s words about Grove liking to hurt people were clamoring in her head. She moved to the ladder, but Grove caught her arm before she could begin her descent.

  “You’re a pretty little lady.” Grove’s eyes crawled over her. “You might need some protection before we’re done here. I can make you real comfortable if you stay with me.”

  Audra jerked on her arm, but Grove hung on. She met his eyes defiantly.

  “You’re brave enough right now, but later, when there’s trouble, you come to me and let me take care of you. You’ll have to pay a price for that, but you’ll pay it if you want to live.”

  Though her stomach lurched until she was afraid she might be sick, she held his gaze. He had to feel her shaking, yet she wouldn’t assure her survival by submitting to any demand he made in exchange for safety.

  “Your turn.” He dropped her arm with a smug smile.

  Rushing to the ladder, she began her downward climb and felt as if she was leaving the world behind. She fumbled for solid footing as she descended. The cavern was dimly lit from the sun shining down in the hole, but it was murky and she knew from listening to the Kincaids and Julia that as soon as they left this first cavern, they’d be plunged into complete darkness.

  Before she’d gotten down, Mitch said from below her, “The ladder isn’t long enough. There’s a long way down from the ledge.”

  Thinking frantically of what she’d been told, she said, “We climb down rocks the rest of the way. We don’t need the ladder. Move to the right and you’ll find where the ledge has good handholds and footholds.”

  “It’s too dark to see anything down here.”

  Audra kept her mouth shut about the torches, hoping Mitch and Grove would let her lead them in the dark. But if they were going to give up, she’d admit they were there rather than go back to the surface where Ethan and her children were so vulnerable.

  She heard the scratch of Mitch moving below her and felt the jiggle of the ladder as Grove began his descent. She reached the ledge and followed after Mitch. His movements were enough of a guide that, with the light reaching down from above, she found her way.

  Before her feet hit solid ground, she heard a small scratch from behind her and a flare of light told her Mitch had matches with him.

  “Hey, good. Torches.” A flickering light grew as Audra turned to face Mitch.

  Losing these men in the dark had just become a lot more difficult.

  Looking frantically around, Audra saw what had to be the cavern tunnel the Kincaids had always taken. And as she looked she saw a line drawn with charcoal. It wasn’t terribly noticeable, but Julia had told her about marking her trail carefully.

  “The treasure is this way.” She started forward just as Mitch found another torch, lit it, and handed it to Grove. Audra realized how completely in their power she was. Alone down here. She prayed that their quest for the money would keep them from hurting her. Until they found out there wasn’t any.

  Within a few seconds, Mitch caught her by the arm and said, “Don’t even think of leaving us behind in here. The minute we lose you, we turn around and go right back to where we left your husband and finish what we started.”

  And that destroyed her last chance. Unless maybe, just maybe, an idea came to her. She couldn’t win in a battle of strength, but she could outsmart them.

  She could get these two into some tight spot they couldn’t get out of. And her inspiration told her exactly what that tight spot might be.

  Seth struck the ledge, rolled, and slammed into a rock. His leg twisted as it caught in a crevasse. He hung by his leg for sickening seconds, then he fell again. He stopped, dazed, rolled onto his back, and almost fell off a cliff. Throwing himself back, he realized his head hung over the edge of a stone outcropping.

  Ethan! He reached to pull himself up and his leg caught fire. He glanced down, expecting to see the flames.

  Flames. War. Death.

  Shaking his head, Seth fought off memories exploding in his head. Cannon fire. Men blown apart. Screaming men on fire.

  Seth forced himself to focus on his leg. Stare at it. There was no fire.

  “I’m hurt. It’s broken or sprained.” Then he shut up before he could give away the fact that he was down here. Whoever hit him might stick around to make sure he was dead.

  Think! C’mon.

  A tiny flex of his foot shot fiery pain up all the way to his brain.

  I can’t use my leg. So I’ll use what I have.

  With gritted teeth, Seth pulled himself up to stand on his good leg. Using his hands to drag himself upright, he felt like a wolverine was gnawing its way out of his chest. He’d had cracked ribs before and he had them again, or worse. His vision blurred as he pressed against the rugged stone to keep from falling the rest of the way off the mountain. As the world went black he felt again the voices in his head. The explosions and death and fire.

  Wiping his wrist across his eyes to clear them, he saw blood on his shirt sleeve and dabbed at the cut on his forehead. Forcing back the visions of war, his world stopped spinning.

  Ethan needs me.

  He looked up. It was probably twenty or thirty feet to the top of the cliff.

  I have to help Ethan and Audra and the babies.

  It was more than Seth thought he could do with his leg beating at him, his head throbbing and his chest burning.

  But a man didn’t grow up on the frontier without learning hard lessons. While there was breath in his lungs he’d do what needed doing. He reached up, tested his grip, and pulled his good leg up to the first toehold. Breathing hard, he smelled smoke and saw a plantation house burning. There were voices in the fire, calling to him.

  He rested his forehead on the rocky cliff, and the scratch of stone drew him back from waking nightmares.

  Ethan!

  He had to get to Ethan. He found that the pain reminded him of what was real. He’d survived the war by living one minute at a time. Sometimes one heartbeat at a time. And he’d do it the same now.

  Inch by inch, ignoring how far he had to climb, ignoring the terror that he’d find his brother dead, ignoring the pain, he clawed his way up.

  At last he gained the top of the ledge.

  Peeking over he saw Audra shoved along in front of two men. It was the new hired men from Ethan’s ranch. They’d tried to get Audra before. This time they’d succeeded.

  “Take us to the money, right now.” One of them, a skeleton of a man, had a tight grip on her arm.

  Seth went for his gun and nearly fell. He had to grab the edge of the cliff with both hands. Then, before he could change his grip and try again, the men and Audra were gone behind the cabin.

  Audra’s sweet voice rang out. “You have no need to hurt my husband or anyone else. I’ll take you to the cavern. I’ll show you where Wendell hid the money, and I’ll give it to you right now.”

  Seth had no one to shoot at.

  With his teeth gritted to keep from crying out in pain, Seth rolled onto the ground above the ledge and began to crawl. His leg made walking impossible, but it was just as well not to with his head aching and his belly threatening to cast up its last meal.

 
; Scraping along on the ground, he finally made it into the cabin to find Ethan, unconscious.

  “Ethan!” Seth crawled to Ethan’s side and saw his chest rise and fall. He was alive!

  “Ethan. Ethan, wake up!”

  “Ethan, wake up. You’ve got to help Audra.”

  Ethan’s eyes flickered open to see Seth leaning over him, shaking his shoulders. Seth’s face scraped raw. His skin as pale as milk. His mouth tight as if he was in agony.

  “Audra? What? She needs help?” Ethan didn’t remember anything except that he’d been walking along that ledge.

  He felt the sticky warmth on his head and tried to reach to the source of the pain.

  He couldn’t move.

  Seth was busy with his knife, and he had ropes slashed and Ethan’s hands free about the same time the full force of the pain hit. He touched his face, ashamed of how his hand shook, and drew away bloody fingers.

  “What happened?” He forced his mind to clear, forced himself to move past the wicked, throbbing pain in his skull.

  “I saw them take her.” Seth slid an arm behind Ethan’s shoulder and helped him sit up.

  The world spun around, but Ethan fought off the dizziness.

  “The men that attacked our ranch?”

  “Yes, it’s those two newest hired men. I climbed to the top of that ledge just when they were dragging her out of the cabin.”

  “Let’s go.” Ethan staggered as he got to his feet and headed for the door.

  “Ethan!” Seth’s sharp call turned Ethan back, even though everything in him was driving him forward. Seth was still sitting on the floor.

  “What are you waiting for?” Then Ethan really looked at his brother. Still on the floor. His face drawn in lines of suffering.

  “I can’t walk, Eth. I think I’ve got a broken leg. Maybe some ribs, too. They hit me and I fell off the ledge by the corral.”

  He remembered. Ethan had seen Seth going over.

  “I . . . I have to go after Audra.” But could he leave Seth? He had to.