by Robin Perini
* * *
“DANIEL!” THE GROUND around Raven shook, tossing her to her knees as debris scattered over her.
She’d made it to within three feet of leaving the tunnel, and despite several attempts, she couldn’t stagger to her feet. Her aching head spun in the dimming light from outside.
Oh, God, she couldn’t leave Daniel alone. He’d rescued her. She had to get up and help him somehow.
Suddenly he burst around the corner, plowed into her and knocked her flat.
“You’re supposed to be outside!” He scooped her into his arms as if she weighed nothing and hauled her outside through a cloud of dust.
Daniel stumbled, and they went down hard, just a few feet outside the cave’s opening. Dirt and dust spewed from the mine, raining down on them, but Raven didn’t care. They’d made it.
Trouble bounded next to them, barking until Daniel finally rolled onto his back, his face screwed up in agony. He sucked in several gulps of air, then glared at Raven. “What were you thinking? I told you to get out.”
“I wanted to help—”
“Are you always this obstinate?” he growled, shifting his leg, his jaw tightening.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “I really don’t.” The blankness in her mind scared her, terrified her. She rubbed her temple. Why did everything seem like a foggy void, one she couldn’t see past?
His lips thinned into a grimace, then he sighed. “It’s a miracle we made it out in one piece.” He scanned up and down her body. “You look like hell. I don’t suppose I look much better.”
She gazed at his dirt-covered figure. He looked great, actually. His dusty clothes didn’t take away from the fact that he appeared every inch the hero. From the stubble on his chin to the mussed light brown hair kissed with sunlight, to the V-shaped body, there wasn’t anything to complain about. When he walked over and grabbed a brown Stetson from the ground, dusted it off and settled it on his head, the look was complete.
She didn’t know what kind of guy had attracted her before, but this one was doing it for her now. She struggled to a seated position. Actually she was seeing two of him now, which couldn’t be a good sign.
“Let me help you up.” Daniel held out his hand to her. “We’re in the middle of nowhere, my canteen is behind a wall of rock, and you need a doctor. We have to get moving.”
She placed her small hand in his and stood beside him. “I can make it.”
He glanced over at her. “I have no doubt of that, honey. We just have to walk to my phone and call the sheriff who patrols these parts. I’d like to try to get you into the shade.”
She took a step and swayed into him, then bent over, resting her hands on her knees. Her stomach roiled, and she swallowed down the nausea.
He snuck his arm around her waist. “We’ll go slow,” he said softly. “It’s been a tough day.”
She leaned against him but tried to mostly stand on her own two feet. Daniel hadn’t said anything, but the hitch in his step told her that he’d been injured. Maybe it was because he’d come to her rescue, but the closer she looked at the scar on his face, she could tell his skin was still healing from recent wounds. He looked like he’d had a rough year, not just a rough day. War veteran, maybe?
The bright sun in the clear blue sky blinded her after the dark mine, so she stared at her feet and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. That’s all she had to do.
One step.
The world spun a little.
Another step...gray clouded her vision. The darkness enveloped her, blocking out the sun.
From far, far away she heard a loud curse and watched the ground tilt toward her.
Then all went silent.
* * *
THE BLAZING SUN hung low in the sky. Daniel’s leg protested with every step, his body apparently not thrilled with carrying Raven’s extra weight, no matter how slight. Shards of pain dug through the spots where the plate and screws held his bones together. All he could do was keep walking.
He’d tried dialing 9-1-1 for help, but signals in the middle of nowhere were hard to come by. Once he thought someone answered, but he never could connect. Hell, he couldn’t even reach Information to get the local sheriff’s department number.
Trouble had taken up his customary position out of reach, though instead of ten feet away, the mutt had moved closer. More like six feet, eyeing the woman in Daniel’s arms the whole time.
“If you were a horse this would be a lot easier,” Daniel groused to his traveling companion.
The dog just quirked his ear and kept walking.
With a quick shift of his arms, Daniel adjusted his burden. Raven had scared him when she’d keeled over. She hadn’t responded when he’d attempted to revive her. Head injuries were nothing to mess with, and for a moment, he’d feared the worst.
When her chest had risen and fallen, his heart had restarted. At least she was breathing, even if her face had taken on the color of buttermilk.
He’d debated whether to turn back to Trouble, Texas, or go forward to Nickel Creek, just south of the Texas–New Mexico border. But he knew Trouble had a medical clinic, so for the first time since leaving Langley, Daniel retraced his steps. He still had a good ten miles to go. Even one more seemed impossible right now.
His foot snagged a rock, and he stumbled forward. Daniel’s arms held Raven snug against his body, but a sharp pang pierced his knee. Something had stabbed or bitten him. He hadn’t heard a rattler. He backed up and righted himself, a long, slow breath escaping him at the sight of the devilishly sharp plant at his feet. The lechuguilla resembled the base of a yucca, but its three-inch-long black spikes at the ends of the flat leaves could spear through leather or skin with ease. Thank God, he’d been moving slow. Those suckers could do some real damage.
He was lucky he hadn’t dropped Raven.
The jostling hadn’t caused a gasp or the slightest movement from her, and he didn’t like it. She’d been out too long. He glanced behind him. As dusk approached, the merciless sunlight dimmed somewhat. Even when he’d been in top shape, it would’ve taken him until full dark to reach Trouble. His leg wouldn’t hold out much longer.
A siren sliced the silence. Daniel tamped down the irrational urge to run in the opposite direction. He had to remind himself he wasn’t in a country where the national police could stuff you into a dungeon, and people forgot about you like you were never born.
He waited as the sheriff’s vehicle pulled a few feet from him.
A cop stepped out and rounded the car. Not your average small-town sheriff. This guy walked with precision and a determined quiet. He had the look of some of CTC’s operatives, and his narrowed expression took in the three of them. “You the one who tried calling 9-1-1? We caught the tower location, and this is one of the only paved roads around. You need some help? Your lady’s not looking too good.”
“She needs a hospital,” Daniel said, shifting her in his arms so the sheriff could see her head wound. “And I need to talk to you.”
The man took one look at the blood on her head and ran to his car. He opened the back door and helped Daniel slide inside the idling vehicle with Raven still cradled against him. The dog hesitated by the side door.
“Come on, boy.” Daniel tapped the backseat.
The dog hunkered back, then scampered into the desert.
“Trouble!” Daniel called.
The mutt didn’t stop, just disappeared behind a shrub bush.
Daniel sighed and gazed at Raven. The cop shut the door on them. “You want me to go after him?”
With a pang, Daniel scanned the empty landscape. Yeah, Daniel wanted the sheriff to go after the dog. Trouble had no water, no food, and it would be dark soon, but Raven was still unconscious. “She needs an emergency room. The dog lands on his fe
et.” At least Daniel prayed Trouble would.
“He yours? Will he go home?”
“I’m not sure either of us currently has a home,” Daniel said. “We met on the road.”
“I see.” The cop pulled onto the road and studied Daniel through the rearview mirror. “You wouldn’t be that drifter Milly mentioned who came through town yesterday?”
Daniel stiffened. He didn’t like the fact that someone had noticed him. He prided himself on being invisible to most, but the waitress had been way too friendly in that small-town-nosy kind of way.
“She didn’t mention you had a traveling companion. You gonna tell me what happened, and why you’re carrying an unconscious woman down a county road? Or did you find her along the way, too?”
At the suspicious tone in the sheriff’s voice, the hairs on the back of Daniel’s neck straightened. He didn’t need any more problems, so he told the man what he knew.
The sheriff cursed. “Those mines have been abandoned for years. I occasionally find some kids out there playing stupid games of truth or dare. One kid died because he couldn’t find his way out. The state should seal them up.”
“You need to get the carpet and the toy box out of there first. Maybe you’ll find some fingerprints.”
The sheriff plucked his radio speaker. “I don’t have a lot of help, but I can call in some assistance from Midland. If it’s not too dangerous to enter the mine, they’ll retrieve the evidence.” He waited a beat. “You say this woman doesn’t know her name? Do you believe her?”
Daniel met the sheriff’s gaze. He understood what the man was asking. “Wrapped in carpet held together with duct tape? She didn’t do that to herself. Yeah, I believe her.”
The sheriff zipped across the desert and soon reached the Trouble, Texas, Medical Clinic. Daniel carried Raven inside.
A grizzled doctor took one look at her wounds, grabbed a gurney, then wheeled her into a closed area. Daniel followed.
“You with her?” the nurse asked, obviously ready to evict him.
Daniel nodded. He wasn’t about to let Raven out of his sight. Not while she was so vulnerable.
The doctor immobilized her neck first, then bent down. “Can you hear me, miss?” he asked loudly.
She didn’t respond at first, until a child in a different examining room cried.
Raven’s eyes blinked open, and she stared up at the doctor in panic.
“Where am I? Where’s my baby?”
* * *
PAMELA WINTER EASED the rocking chair back and forth, back and forth, her aging muscles aching as she held the child closer.
Squeak. Squeak. Squeak. “Mommy’s going to take care of you.”
The baby cooed in her sleep, pursing those sweet little lips as if she were nursing. Pamela wished she could do it, but it was impossible at her age.
“You’ll be fine, my precious girl.”
Pamela let her wrinkled hand stroke down the soft cheeks of the healthy eighteen-month-old baby. So healthy when...
No. Pamela wouldn’t think that way. Everything would be fine. She’d done what she had to do.
The television filtered through the room. Another game show, one she’d watched nightly for twenty-five years. The recliner near the fireplace mocked her with its emptiness.
This wasn’t the home it was supposed to be. She wasn’t supposed to be alone. She was supposed to be here with her husband, with their new daughter. A perfect, happy family. A second chance. A do-over after the horrific way their first attempt at parenthood had turned out. She’d believed her husband had changed. He’d certainly been quieter toward the end. He hadn’t used his fists or his threats as much after Christopher left.
Until earlier that day before her husband died.
Pamela hummed a lullaby and touched the rosy cheek of the beautiful baby in her arms. A perfect daughter. Unlike Christopher, the child from hell. A child with no conscience who, even when he grew up, never felt the need for one.
Thank God his father had finally found an alternative. After yet another stupid stunt, he’d told Christopher to choose the army or jail. Christopher had picked the army, so now he was trained to kill, with no conscience to stop him. Pamela shivered, even though the temperature hadn’t turned cold. Every day she prayed she’d get a telegram, or a knock at the door, along with a military chaplain saying her son was dead, and the world was a safer place for it.
What a blessing that would be.
A key sounded in the lock. She tensed. Her husband was dead. Her son was gone.
No one should have a key.
“I’m home.”
Oh, my God. Christopher.
Pamela vaulted out of her chair, clutching the infant in her arms. What was he doing here? Her son wasn’t due for leave from deployment for another six months.
She couldn’t deal with his horrible temper, his manic and depressive rages. Not now. What was she going to do? He’d kill her if he found out the truth about what she’d done. She settled the baby in the nearby cradle and rose from the rocker.
He could never find out.
Heavy steps clunked across the hardwood floor. She bit her lip.
The tall, strapping man, as handsome and dangerous as his father, strode across the room, the once long, shaggy hair now cut military short. He dropped his duffel in the marble-covered foyer.
“No hug for your baby boy?”
He gave her a smile. A smile she hadn’t seen since he’d become a teenager.
She allowed herself a smidgen of hope. Was the good Christopher back? She embraced him carefully like one would a cobra. He could be that lethal.
Her son stared at her. “Is the baby sleeping?”
She nodded, her throat closed off in fear. Would he be able to tell?
With a grin, he crossed to the cradle and stared at the infant. “She’s even more beautiful than her pictures. Chubby, rosy cheeks. You’ve been plumping her up. I’m glad. She was so pale in the last set of photos.” He kissed the top of the baby’s head. “I’m home now, kiddo. Anyone messes with you, and they’re dead.”
Pamela turned so he wouldn’t see the tears trailing down her cheeks, tears that were an all-too-common occurrence these days. Her arms felt empty again. She picked up the baby and then faced her son. Forcing a false smile into place, she reached a trembling hand to Christopher. “I’m glad you’re home,” she lied. “Safe with us. Safe and sound.”
“I opted out early. I’m back for good.”
She tried to swallow down the terror that clutched at her heart. This wouldn’t work. She couldn’t keep the truth from him forever. Someone would tell him, or he would guess.
Why was this happening?
Pamela hadn’t thought he could leave the service before his five-year enlistment was up. Nothing had worked out like she’d planned.
Everything was so hard now. So wrong.
The baby squirmed in Pamela’s arms and opened her striking green eyes.
“Hello, beautiful,” he said, scooping up the baby from his mother’s arms.
He walked across the room, past the darkened hearth, then sat in his father’s chair, an obvious act of defiance to the man he’d hated.
Christopher examined the infant in his arms. “She reminds me of someone. Who do you think?”
Pamela swallowed, unwilling to answer. She had to get him out of here, away from the baby. She would have to come up with some way to hide the truth.
The television volume rose as a news banner flashed across the screen.
Breaking news. Trouble, Texas.
The picture of a battered and bloody woman took up the entire screen.
Pamela almost cried out in shock at the sight. With a trembling hand, she grabbed the remote and pressed the volume control so she could
hear.
“The sheriff’s office revealed the woman was found in an abandoned mine west of Trouble. Referred to as Jane Doe, she cannot identify herself due to a head injury. They’re asking anyone who knows or has seen this woman to contact them immediately.”
Pamela dropped the remote. She glanced at her son, then swayed. “This can’t be happening. That woman is supposed to be dead. She tried to steal my baby.”
Chapter Three
“Open your eyes, darlin’. Please.”
Daniel’s soft, deep voice soothed Raven’s senses. She wanted to do what he asked, but she couldn’t seem to function. She hurt too much. The rhythmic pulses slammed in her temples like a bass drum reverberating through her mind. She wanted to let sleep overtake her again, except for some urgent feeling that drove her to wake up and move. She needed help for some reason. His help. For something very important...
Dazed, she struggled to lift her lids. Through her lashes, unfamiliar images coalesced. The room was dark, save a low light glowing from above the headboard. An IV and monitor were hooked up by her bed. Panic started, then she heard someone speak again.
“That’s it. Wake up now. Just a little more.”
It was Daniel. What a relief. She knew his voice. Trusted his voice.
A callused finger traced her forehead, and she peered blearily over at the fuzzy double image of the man sitting beside her.
“There you go. Keep those beautiful eyes open.”
“Daniel.” His face, handsome and troubled, held her enthralled. He was familiar. The only thing that was. She reached up and touched his cheek, the one with the scar.
He clasped her hand in his and drew it away. “Don’t exert yourself. Are you really awake this time?” he asked. “Awake enough to answer some questions?”
“I think so,” she croaked.
Daniel gave her a small smile, and she could see the relief in his eyes.
“But I don’t know where I am.”
“We’re in Trouble, Texas, at their medical clinic. You had me worried, passing out like you did.”
She licked her lips. Her mouth was so dry. “My head hurts. I can’t think straight.”
