by Paula Graves
“If you mean she’s not shackled in a cellar somewhere, no they don’t.” John’s voice softened. “But there are many ways to be kept captive.”
Dallas looked at the cabin, his gaze settling on the window where he’d last seen Nicki’s face.
“I know,” he said.
That’s what scared him.
Chapter Seventeen
“I didn’t know they were going to do this to you.”
Lynette Colley’s soft voice roused Nicki from a half doze. She sat up straight and looked up to find the other woman now sitting in the rocking chair across from her, holding her sleeping child.
Jason’s blood sugar had finally reached a normal level and was so far maintaining, even after a light dinner. He’d fallen asleep soon after, exhausted from the illness and the trauma of the day.
Nicki knew just how he felt.
“How long have you been here?” she asked, stifling a yawn.
“Just a few minutes. The men just finished eating.”
Nicki glanced around the room, making certain they were alone. She lowered her voice a notch. “Who’s here now?”
“Del and Trevor. The others left before I made dinner. I don’t think they’re coming back until morning.”
Nicki got up and looked out the window. Outside, night had fallen, only the faintest of indigo still touching the sky to the west. “Is this cabin usually guarded like this?”
“No,” Lynette answered, sounding as tired as she looked. “When I married him, Trevor was just a short-order cook. We were poor, I suppose, but happy. And then I found out I was pregnant. Things got more complicated.”
“Poor and happy wasn’t enough?”
“I guess not.” She sighed. “You take shortcuts. Then it works and you start to get some of the things you never had, and you end up wanting more and more. No matter how much you get, it just ain’t enough. I swear these hills are hell on earth. And I guess that means Trevor’s become the devil himself now. ’Cause he’s the king around these parts.”
“I’m from the hills,” Nicki murmured, turning back to look at Lynette. “Sometimes, I look at places like this, with all the wildness and the beauty, and I wonder how anything bad could ever come from a place this grand.”
“You think I’m a terrible mama, don’t you?”
“I think you love your son. And you’re scared. And you don’t know how to give him what he needs.” She crossed to the rocking chair and crouched in front of Lynette, thinking about Kaylie Pickett and that little baby still holding on inside her despite all the odds against him. These hills could be harsh and unforgiving, but grace could still be found. Courage.
Miracles.
What she was about to say could get her killed, she knew. But it could also save three lives.
“Lynette, if I could get you and Jason out of here, I could help you get everything you need to give him as normal a life as possible. I can see that’s what you want for him.”
Tears welled in Lynette’s eyes. “Trevor wouldn’t let me take him out of here.”
“If that’s true, then we have to take him out of here without Trevor knowing.”
The thought caused Lynette real pain, Nicki saw. Whatever his flaws and his sins, Trevor meant something strong and binding to his wife. Leaving him would break her heart.
But if she didn’t leave him, she might lose her son.
Damn Trevor. Damn him for putting this woman in the position to have to choose.
“You helped him before. Can’t you keep helping him?” Lynette gazed at her sleeping son, tears dripping from her eyes and landing on his cheek. He stirred in his sleep, lifting one hand to wipe away his mother’s tears.
“Not long-term. He needs close monitoring and frequent doctor’s visits.”
“I can’t afford that. You know I can’t.”
“There are programs that can help you. People who would help you.”
Lynette looked up. “Like you, I suppose?”
“I would.”
She shook her head. “If we get out of here, you’re gonna press charges against Trevor.”
“If we escape, I don’t know that anyone will be able to track down Trevor for a long, long time.” She knew he wouldn’t stick around to face the law. One thing the members of the Blue Ridge Infantry had gotten very good at was disappearing when the heat was on.
Lynette’s face crumpled. “I know you can’t understand this, but I do love him.”
Nicki put her hand over Lynette’s. “I do understand. I know what it’s like to love someone difficult.”
“Are you in love with Del?” Lynette asked.
Nicki’s gaze snapped up to meet hers. “No.”
“But you have a man, don’t you?” Lynette’s mouth curved a little, the expression driving away some of the haggard lines from her facing, hinting at the pretty young woman she must have been when Trevor Colley made her his bride. “A woman as pretty as you are. Is he difficult, too?”
An image of Dallas’s face flashed through her mind, and she felt the keen ache of longing. What must he be thinking right now? She should have been home ages ago. Was he starting to panic? Had he already used her phone to call for help?
What if he tried to find her? It would be just like him to put his neck on the line for her that way, wouldn’t it?
But he would be outnumbered. Even if he was in top fighting form—and she knew he wasn’t, despite his remarkable improvement over the past few days—he was still at a severe disadvantage. It would be one unarmed man fighting at least two armed men just to get anywhere near this cabin.
“He’s very difficult,” she admitted aloud. “Stubborn and impossible.”
But, somehow, she loved him, anyway.
Oh, God, she thought. I love him?
She almost laughed at the sheer absurdity of her bad timing.
“Could you leave him?”
“I left him to come here.” She looked at Jason’s sleep-softened features and felt her heart squeeze into a knot. “I knew I might never see him again if I took this job. But it was the right thing to do.” She looked up at Lynette. “Jason will never have a normal life here. Trevor will never do what it takes to make that happen. You know that, don’t you?”
Lynette’s lip trembled, but finally she nodded.
“Is there a way out of here without going past Del and Trevor?”
Lynette stared at her a long moment. “We don’t have to worry about Del and Trevor.”
Nicki met her gaze, confused. “Why not?”
Lynette kissed the top of her son’s head and smiled a faint smile. “Because I put enough diazepam in the beef stew I served for dinner to keep them asleep at least a couple of hours.”
* * *
THERE WAS NO way of knowing how many people were inside the cabin, though over the past hour, Dallas had seen a second man looking out one of the front windows and what had looked like the silhouette of a woman in the same window where he’d earlier seen Nicki. “It’s not Nicki,” he’d told John confidently. Nicki was taller and curvier than the slim woman whose shadow had passed by the window.
“I think the second man we saw may be Trevor Colley,” John murmured. “Nicki’s boss at the diner.”
Dallas frowned. “She never mentioned he was connected to the BRI.”
“Maybe she didn’t know.”
“Did Quinn?”
John’s face turned toward him, his eyes glinting in the dark. “If Quinn had known, he’d have told her.”
“Come on. Quinn was a former spook. You think you can trust a former spook to tell you everything you need to know?”
For a second, John’s teeth gleamed in the low light.
Well, hell, Dallas thought. “You’re a former spook,
too, aren’t you?”
“Not for nearly as long as Quinn,” John answered, still grinning.
Dallas supposed it was probably a good thing that John knew a few sneaky spy tricks, but on the whole, he’d have preferred to have a few extra men on his team. Well-armed men who knew how to take and hold ground in a fight.
He had to believe Nicki was still all right. Any other option was unthinkable.
Unbearable.
She was the most remarkable woman he’d ever met, a combination of sweetness and fire. Strength and gentleness. Compassion and steel. He had no idea if he deserved a chance to make her his woman, no idea if he was worthy of being her man, but he damned well intended to find out.
Which meant he had to figure out a way to get her out of that cabin to safety.
“I think we’re down to just two men, a woman and Nicki,” he said quietly. “They’re armed, but so are we.”
“They probably have multiple weapons at their disposal,” John warned.
Dallas nodded. “But we have surprise.”
John slanted another curious look his way. “You have something in mind, don’t you?”
“This isn’t the place where they kept me when I was their prisoner before. But it’s a lot like it.”
“So?”
“So, maybe this cabin also has an underground cellar where they keep prisoners now and then.”
“You think that’s where Nicki’s being kept?”
“Maybe. Or maybe, if it’s like the one where they had me chained up before, it has both an outside and an inside access point.”
“You mean if we could find the outside door to the cellar, it might give us a way to get inside the house.”
Dallas nodded. “Exactly.”
“They’ll hear the door opening.”
“Unless they’re busy doing something else. Like, say, checking out the distraction going on at the front of the cabin.”
John’s eyes narrowed. “I’m guessing I’d be the distraction?”
Dallas shrugged one shoulder. “Nicki knows what I look like. She doesn’t know you. She might not trust you at first, and that would slow everything up too much.”
The other man’s lips flattened, but he nodded for Dallas to follow him toward the back of the cabin. “So let’s find out if that cellar exists.”
The grass was high behind the cabin, dry from the winter but overgrown, as if they’d not bothered to mow it down after the summer growth. With spring just around the corner, the danger of stirring up hibernating snakes in that overgrowth hovered at the back of Dallas’s mind as he edged out into the open, staying low to the ground and moving slowly through the grass in search of—
He almost tripped over the door set into the ground near the back edge of the clearing. Dead leaves hid most of the wood-slat door from view, but the hasp that held it closed glinted in the wisps of moonlight visible through the clouds scudding across the night sky.
There was a padlock looped through the hasp closure, which would keep it from opening easily from inside. But the lock itself wasn’t engaged. As quietly as he could, Dallas unthreaded the padlock from the hasp and laid it aside in the high grass.
He looked up to find John Bartholomew watching him from a few yards away, his eyes barely visible over the waist-high grass. Dallas gave a nod, flashing a brief smile of triumph.
John’s nostrils flared for a moment, then he edged over to where Dallas crouched. “Get in there, make sure the cellar is clear and see if there’s a door to the inside. Then come back and report.”
Dallas stared at the other man for a long moment, realizing how easy it would be for John to double-cross him if that was his intention. Once Dallas was inside the cellar, John could simply put the lock in the hasp and shut it. Or jab a sturdy stick in the hasp to keep it closed for that matter.
Of course, if John had wanted to double-cross him, he could have shot him dead at any point on this crazy search for Nicki, couldn’t he?
He had to trust someone. Nicki’s life was at stake, and no matter how much he might wish things were different, this was one rescue mission he couldn’t pull off by himself.
Taking a deep breath, he opened the cellar door, wincing as the hinges creaked a little. Hopefully, the sound hadn’t carried inside the cabin.
“Cover my back,” he whispered and eased himself onto the stairs barely visible through the open doorway.
“Take this,” John said, holding something out to him. It was a key chain, Dallas saw, with a small flashlight attached. He closed his hands around the keys to keep them from rattling and nodded his thanks, then headed down the steps.
The cellar was pitch-black and musty smelling once he got to the bottom. He listened a minute for any sound of habitation. There was the faint scuttle of something small and probably rodent somewhere within the cellar’s dank confines. He turned on the flashlight, hoping whatever he’d heard had already scurried out of sight.
The cellar was smaller than he’d anticipated. He felt the first smothering sensation of claustrophobia, a sensation that only intensified when the flashlight beam swept over a set of shackles bolted to the wall.
A flood of dark memories nearly paralyzed him, but he forced himself to breathe deeply and slowly, concentrating on keeping his pulse steady. After a moment, the dizzying slideshow in his mind faded away and he moved forward into the cellar.
There was a steep set of steps at the other end of the room, leading up to a door at the top. He tested the first step carefully. It was sturdier than he’d anticipated, not even creaking beneath his weight.
He eased up the stairs until he reached the top. With great care, he tried the door handle. It turned in his hand, unlocked.
Okay. Okay, then.
He backed down the steps and crossed to the outdoor hatch, gazing up at John’s face peering over the edge. “The inside door is unlocked. Give me a diversion in two minutes and I’ll get in there and get Nicki out.”
John gave a short nod and moved out of sight.
Dallas retraced his steps to the top of the other set of stairs, willing himself to remain calm.
* * *
LYNETTE CAME BACK into the room, her eyes bright with a blend of fear and excitement. “They’re both asleep. But we gotta be real quiet. They’re not unconscious. Just sedated.”
Nicki nodded, tucking Jason more snugly in her arms. “Is there a back door?”
“Yeah, but it creaks real loud when you open it. That could wake one of ’em.”
Damn it. “We can’t go out past them, can we?”
“There’s the cellar,” Lynette suggested, nodding for Nicki to follow her. “It has an outside exit.”
Praying the movement wouldn’t wake the sleeping little boy, Nicki shifted his weight to one hip as she followed Lynette into the darkened hallway. To the left, she saw dim lamplight filtering into the hall from the front room where Del and Trevor were dozing. To the right, there was a closed door.
They reached the door and Lynette started to reach for the knob when there were two sharp cracks of noise coming from the front of the house. Lynette’s body jerked, bumping into Nicki and jostling Jason awake.
“Mama?” he cried.
Down the hall, Nicki heard the sound of stumbling footsteps.
“Go!” she growled, pushing Lynette toward the door.
But before either of them could touch the knob, the door swung open, nearly hitting them. Lynette fell back, bumping Nicki into the wall as a man’s broad shoulders filled the narrow opening.
Dark, familiar eyes locked with hers. Her heart skipped a beat.
Then Dallas grabbed her. “Let’s get out of here.”
* * *
THE VOLLEY OF FIRE coming from the front porch might have seemed as if it was coming fr
om a small army, but there appeared to be only two armed men defending the cabin.
John pinned them down with a couple of shots from his own pistol, observing them carefully enough to notice they were moving sluggishly, their reactions slow and largely inaccurate.
But even bad marksmen got lucky now and then. One of the wildly aimed shots pinged off the tailgate of the Silverado parked in the yard and sliced a deep furrow through the top of John’s shoulder. The fiery pain that quickly followed seemed accompanied by an odd numbness in the arm below it. Not his weapon hand, thank God, but for all intents and purposes, his left arm was currently useless.
He fired more shots and shifted to a new position before they could fire back, trying to angle his way toward the back of the house, where he hoped Dallas and Nicki would be emerging from the cellar at any moment.
Then shots fired from the woods behind him threw his plan into utter disarray.
* * *
“WHO ARE YOU?” The slender woman standing between him and Nicki stared at him in shock, flinching each time a gunshot sounded behind her.
“He’s a friend,” Nicki said, pushing Lynette forward with one hand while holding the crying little boy tightly despite his frantic squirming. “Lynette, take him.” She pushed the child into the other woman’s arms and looked at Dallas. “Are you okay?”
As the woman she’d called Lynette gathered the crying child into her arms, Dallas caught Nicki’s hand, the warm solidity of her skin pressed to his nothing less than a lifeline. He didn’t know who this woman and child were, but it was enough that Nicki was trying to help them. That made them his responsibility, as well.
While the sound of gunfire at the front of the cabin seemed to have Lynette’s nerves stretched to the breaking point, Dallas took heart from it. It meant John was keeping the other men occupied, at least for the time being. He went up the steps first, then reached back down to help Lynette and the boy climb out of the cellar. Nicki brought up the rear, gazing at him with eyes that looked as shiny and pale as the peekaboo moon.
