by Elle James
She faded in and out of consciousness. The drug made her so sleepy she couldn’t have moved even if she’d wanted to.
When at last they came to a large open area, they brought the rail bucket to a halt and lifted her out. She was plunked onto a wooden chair with arms sitting in the middle of the space. Her wrists were bound to the arms of the chair with duct tape. A single light hung from the ceiling, casting a dull yellow glow around her. Anything outside the circle of light was shrouded in shadow.
Traci Griffith stepped out of the shadows, tapping a pistol in the palm of her hand. Dressed in a beautiful red gown, she was incongruous to the setting, except for the evil glimmer in her eyes.
“Let’s get this party started. We don’t have a lot of time for this lovely reunion.”
“You have no right to detain me,” Molly said.
Traci sneered. “Who said I wanted permission? Down here, anything goes, and nobody finds out.”
“What have you done with my father?” Molly demanded. She fought to make her voice tough, commanding, but her words slurred, the residual effect of the drug still working its way out of her system.
“Darling,” Traci said. “I’m all for family reunions.” She looked past Molly toward a couple of the men who’d brought Molly to this hell hole.
The men disappeared into the darkness.
“I wanted to kill you,” Traci said, “but I thought about it and realized I needed you alive. The sooner you make your father talk, the sooner I can get out of here and leave the rest of your family alone. You want that, don’t you?”
Her voice softened, giving her words a creepily sweet tone that lifted the hairs on Molly’s arms.
“You’d hate it if I contracted to kill every member of your family, wouldn’t you? All the way down to that sweet little baby of Duncan’s.”
Anger burned away the dizziness. “You’re not even human, torturing an old man and threatening his grandchild.”
Traci snorted. “You don’t know the lengths I’ve gone through to get that money. It should have been mine long ago, if that idiot Reed hadn’t screwed up and gotten caught. I could have been sitting on a beach, drinking Mai Tais for the past few years. Instead, I’m living in this hellishly cold state, married to another idiot who thinks the lodge is worth saving. The only reason I’ve stayed as long as I have is because I was told there was a rich vein of gold in here that has yet to be tapped.”
She shook her head.
“Well, there isn’t. They tapped all the gold veins to be had, and now there isn’t even enough dust to buy a beer at that sleazy shit bar in Eagle Rock. I’m done! I was done a few years ago.”
Molly shook her head to clear it. “So, you’re the one who set up Williams to rob that armored car?”
“You don’t think he was smart enough to pull it off on his own, do you? He could barely get himself out of the jail transport when I ran it off the road. I want that money, and I’ll start killing off McKinnons, one at a time, until I get it.”
Her two goons reappeared out of the darkness, carrying a bound man dressed in ragged clothing, covered in dried blood and filth. They dropped him on the floor at Molly’s feet.
His hair was gray, shaggy and dirty, and his face was bruised and haggard.
Molly recognized him despite his swollen eyes and busted, chapped lips. “Oh, Dad,” she cried. “What has this bitch done to you?”
He struggled to sit up. “Molly. Molly girl,” he said, his voice rough and sounding old. “You should have stayed away.”
“We’re going to get you out of here. I swear to you.” Her face hardened, and her lips pulled back in a snarl. “And she’s going to pay for what she’s done to you.”
“The only person who’s going to get paid is me. Time’s up, James,” Traci said. She nodded to the man who’d dumped him on the ground. He lifted a small cylinder with a long metal nozzle off the floor, twisted a knob and used an igniter to light the flame.
Molly’s heart beat faster. She forced herself to remain calm. “I don’t know who you are, mister, but you don’t want to do anything with that. Trust me. This woman isn’t worth the trouble you’ll be in if you kill someone for her. She’s not going to pay you anyway.”
“Shut up,” Traci said. “Do it,” she commanded the man with the brazing torch.
Molly spoke low and slow, hoping she sounded convincing. “If she gets her money, she’ll kill you to keep it all for herself. She’s greedy. Haven’t you learned that by now? She killed William Reed after he stole the money for her. What do you think she’ll do to you?”
“Enough!” Traci yelled. She pointed the gun at Molly and turned to Molly’s father. “Tell me what Reed told you, or your pretty little girl is going to be burned over every inch of her body.”
James McKinnon shook his head. “Please. Don’t do this. I’ve already told you what Reed told me.”
“You lie!” Traci screeched. “Tell me where Reed hid the money.”
“He said it was hidden where the eagle flies into the mountain. That’s what he said. All he said, before he died.”
“It can’t be. It doesn’t make sense. Eagles fly all over these damned Crazy Mountains.” Traci waved the gun in the air. “He had to have told you exactly where. He said I’ve had it all along. He lied. You lie. Now your daughter is going to pay for your lies.” She waved her gun at the man with the torch. “Burn her.”
The man’s eyes narrowed. “Is she telling the truth?” the man asked. “Are you going to kill us next?”
“Damn it. I told you she lies. Of course, I’m going to pay you.” Her lips pressed into a thin line. “But if you don’t burn her now, I’ll shoot you and let Dan collect all the money I owe you as well as what I owe him. So, what’s it to be?” She aimed her gun at the man with the torch.
The man’s eyes narrowed. “Never should’ve taken this shit job.”
“Yeah, well you did, and now you need to do what I’m paying you to do. Burn her.”
“No. Please,” Molly’s father begged. “Please. I told you what I know. I’ve told you from the beginning.”
“Dad, we’re going to be okay. She’s not going to get away with this. She’s going to pay for what she’s done to you. To our family.”
Traci glared at the man with the torch. “Burn. Her.”
Molly’s heart ached at the desperation in her father’s voice. She hated that he was so worn and damaged, but he was more worried about her than himself.
The cool metal of the necklace around her neck reminded her that she wasn’t alone. Help was near. All she had to do was hold out long enough for them to find her.
And help them find her…
As the man approached her with the torch, she looked him in the eye and whispered, “Don’t do it.”
He hesitated but moved forward, the gun on him a bigger motivator than her eyes begging him not to hurt her.
As the flame neared her skin, she drew in a breath from deep down in her diaphragm and let loose the loudest scream she could muster.
Her tormentor jerked the flame back, his eyes wide. “I haven’t even touched her.”
“Then do it, you idiot!” Traci yelled.
Molly sucked in another breath and screamed again. The sound echoed off the walls of the mine.
The whole time, Molly prayed her knight in shining armor, and the cavalry with him, would come riding in to rescue her and her father before it was too late.
Chapter 14
Parker pulled up the schematic for the mine on his cellphone and cursed the small screen. He needed it to be bigger so he could see quickly and easily where the most likely place they would have taken her was in the mine.
For a few precious minutes, he scrolled through the image looking for what, he didn’t know. Then a place on the map appeared that looked like a widening in the tunnels. Several feeders branched out from that wide area. Two of them circled back to where they stood at the entrance of the mine.
“There,” he said,
pointing to the wide point. “If they have more than one prisoner, plus the people Traci needs to subdue them, wouldn’t she take them to a place big enough to hold them?”
“I hope you’re right,” Angus said.
“I hope I’m right as well.” Parker drew in a deep breath. “If we head the wrong direction, we waste time.”
“We can’t afford to waste time,” Bastian said. “That’s my bratty little sister out there, taking one for the team.”
“And our father,” Angus said.
“Since there are two tunnels leading to this junction, let’s split up and meet there.” Hank held up the GPS tracker. “I’ll know if we’re heading in the right direction if the tracker indicates we’re getting closer.”
“Bastian, Colin and I will take the right tunnel,” Angus said. “We might lose communications the deeper we go into the mine. Solid granite walls will cut off signal.”
“Then we keep moving forward until we reach the junction,” Parker said. “Hold out your cellphone. I’ll transfer the schematic to you.”
They spent another few seconds sending the schematic over to Angus’s cellphone. When he had it and could bring it up on his screen, he held up the device. “Got it.”
“Good,” Parker said. “Let’s go bring Molly and your father home.”
With Hank and his GPS tracker behind him, Parker led the way holding his cellphone up as a flashlight, stopping at junctions to check with the old schematic. They followed a narrow rail track into the mine. He prayed he was heading in the right direction and that Molly would be there when they arrived.
“We’re getting closer to Molly’s tracking device,” Hank said. “She’s a hundred yards ahead.”
Inside the maze of tunnels, a hundred yards might as well have been miles. The deeper they went, the more often Parker had to stop and consult the map. He noticed that at every juncture when he checked the map, they continued along the track.
“That track is leading us to where we’re going,” Parker whispered.
“Fifty yards,” Hank said.
At that moment a blood-curdling scream echoed down the tunnel toward them.
“Molly,” Parker said and started running down the track, holding his cellphone high to see where he was placing his feet on the rails and crossbeams.
“Twenty yards,” Hank called out loud enough for Parker to hear, but not loud enough to be heard by others.
Another scream ripped through the tunnel, much closer now.
Ahead, the tunnel made a sharp turn to the right. Parker remembered that the widening junction was preceded by just such a jag. He slowed as he neared.
“She’s close,” Hank whispered. “Angus, we’re closing in on the junction. Can you hear me? Where are you?”
“I read you,” Angus said. “We’re coming up on the junction now. We heard Molly’s screams.”
Another scream sliced through Parker’s heart. “I’m going in.”
“We’re going in,” Hank said into his headset.
“Roger,” Angus said.
Parker ran to the curve in the tunnel and shut off his cellphone flashlight when he saw the faint glow of light ahead. He slowed, but continued forward, his gun in his hand.
He could make out the silhouettes of people in the opening ahead. A larger form carrying what appeared to be a brazing torch advanced on a figure seated in a wooden chair.
Molly.
Parker sped up, bursting into the tunnel junction as the man with the torch leaned toward Molly.
“Stop!!!” he yelled. “Hurt her, and I’ll make you wish you’d never been born.” He held his gun in front of him, aiming at the man holding the torch. “Drop the torch.”
“I suggest you drop your gun, or I’ll kill your precious girlfriend,” a woman’s voice sounded from the other side of the big man. Traci stepped into the light coming from a bulb hanging from the ceiling. Her gun was aimed at Molly’s head. “Drop it.”
Parker held steady. “You drop your gun, and I might let you live.”
Traci laughed. “I don’t see how you’re going to win this argument when I have the barrel of my gun on her head and my finger on the trigger. Shoot me, I automatically pull the trigger, and your little princess dies.”
“Shoot the bitch,” Molly said, her voice low and angry. “She doesn’t deserve to live after what she’s done to my father. Shoot her.”
“Shut up,” Traci said. “Your family has been nothing but a pain in my ass since this all began. If your father hadn’t shown up in that cave when he did, Will would’ve taken me to the money. I’d have been out of this godforsaken state and country and away from that idiot I married.”
“Drop the gun, Traci,” Parker warned.
The man holding the brazing torch twisted the knob, turning off the gas to the flame. He set the canister on the ground and backed away from Traci.
“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice rising.
“Like you said…I’m done.” He held up his hands.
Traci turned to her other man who held a gun in his hand. “Shoot him.”
The man shook his head. “No.” Then he held up his hands, bent down and laid his gun on the ground, kicking it across the floor toward Parker. “I’m done, too.”
“Cowards. They don’t have the upper hand. I’m walking out of this mine with her.”
“That will be kind of hard, considering I’m bound to this chair,” Molly pointed out. “You’ll have to remove this tape first. And to do so, you’ll need to put down your weapon.” Molly smiled. “Face it, Traci. It’s over.”
“It’s not over until I say it’s over,” she bit out. With her free hand, she reached into the slit of her skirt and pulled a knife out of a sheath attached to her thigh. She leaned forward, touched the tip of the knife to the tape and ripped it upward and forward, slicing through the layers.
Molly pulled her wrist free.
Traci moved behind Molly, continuing to press the barrel of her weapon against Molly’s hair. “I should have killed your father a long time ago. Keeping him alive has been a constant thorn in my side.” She leaned over and sliced through the tape on Molly’s other wrist.
Molly winced as the blade sliced into her skin but didn’t say anything as she pulled her wrist free, blood dripping onto the floor of the mine tunnel.
“You never should have messed with the McKinnons.” Molly leaned a little forward and pushed backward as hard as she could, ramming into Traci’s belly and knocking her backward.
The gun went off, the bullet ricocheting off the walls.
Parker ducked, rolled to the side and came up running toward Molly and Traci. Molly rolled over onto all fours and jumped onto Traci, pinning her wrist to the ground.
Traci pulled the trigger again, the bullet hitting the mine tunnel, the sound reverberating through the open room.
A loud cracking sounded, like wood splintering, and a subsequent rumbling started slowly.
“Let go of the gun,” Molly shouted.
Parker stood over Traci and Molly, pointing his weapon at Traci. “Do as she said. Let go of the gun.”
“No way in hell. If I’m going down, you’re all coming with me.” She fired off several more rounds until the gun clicked empty.
The rumbling grew louder.
Angus burst into the junction. “The brace struts are broken. We have to get out of here. Now!”
“Get Dad,” Molly called out. “Get him out of here.”
“I’m not going without you, Molly Girl,” her father said.
When Traci’s two minions took off down the tunnel, Hank let them go. “We’ll get them later. Right now, we need all of us to move fast.”
Traci laughed. “You’re not going to make it. You’re all going to die. The braces in this old mine are as old as the mine itself. Once they give, the tunnels will cave in. You’re all going to die with me.”
“The hell we are.” Parker helped Molly to her feet. “Get going. I’ll get her out of here.”
“As far as I’m concerned. We can leave her here to die.”
“No way. She needs to rot in prison for the rest of her days.”
Molly nodded. “Yeah. They don’t serve Mai Tais there, and you won’t see another beach for the rest of your life.” She stood and pulled Traci to her feet. “Come on. You’re getting out of here to answer for your sins.”
“The hell I am.” Traci turned and ran toward the opposite end of the room.
Angus stepped in front of her, blocking her path.
She tried to duck around him. He stepped in front of her again, bent like a linebacker and plowed into her belly, throwing her over his shoulder. “Let’s go.”
Colin and Bastian lifted their father between them and started for the tunnel Parker and Hank had come down.
Molly called out. “Wait. Use the bucket.” She pointed to the large metal bucket on the track. “Put him in there and move!”
Dust stirred, and the rumbling grew louder.
Parker turned on the flashlight on his phone, took her hand and raced down the track following the bucket car with Mr. McKinnon in it.
The dust thickened, and rocks shook loose from the ceiling. Before long, his flashlight did little to help them see the tracks in front of him.
He held tight to Molly’s hand and used his other hand to follow the tunnel. “Stay on the tracks,” he called out. “They lead back to the lodge.”
He ran, tripping every so often on the railroad ties. Molly stumbled and fell into him. He pulled her up close and slipped his arm around her. They were moving blind, the dust so thick they could barely breathe.
When they made it back to the mine entrance, Parker didn’t know it until he came to the stairs leading upward.
“Everyone make it out?” he said into his headset.
One by one, they checked in.
“Colin and I have Dad in the library,” Bastian said.
