Grave Peril

by Mary Alford

  “I’m okay,” she said and pulled away, the moment gone.

  Behind them, the noise of a vehicle coming to a stop could be heard.

  “Stay here. I’ll be right back,” Gavin told her, and then keeping within the coverage of the trees, he crept closer. Gavin counted at least four armed men. He slowly eased back to where Jamie was hidden. If this was Miller and his men, and they spotted them, with both of them still shaken from the explosion, Gavin wasn’t so sure they would survive another run-in.

  NINE

  Jamie watched the men staring at the fire. She and Gavin had moved a little deeper into the woods. From where they stood, she could see the front of the house quite clearly. The men weren’t there to put it out. Through the blaze, she couldn’t make out who they were, but they didn’t seem a bit surprised by the explosion. They were talking amongst themselves as if nothing had happened.

  A cell phone rang. “No one’s here,” one of the men said. “We’re not sure if he’s inside. The fire’s still burning pretty bad.” The man listened for a bit. “Alright. We’ll see you in a few.” He ended the call. “He’s on his way up here now.”

  Several of the men didn’t appear pleased by the news. They grumbled amongst themselves, then went back to watching the fire, talking and occasionally laughing.

  While Jamie and Gavin watched, another vehicle pulled up. This time Jamie recognized the deputy’s SUV.

  “That’s Miller,” she whispered.

  Dan Miller got out of the vehicle and went over to the men. Jamie tried to focus on what he was saying. “I’m going down the mountain to make sure no one sees the fire and decides to come and investigate. We still don’t know who set it off?”

  “No, there’s been no activity around. Whoever was in there is probably dead,” the man who had been on the phone answered.

  “Did you search around the place?” Miller demanded, clearly not satisfied with the way things had gone.

  The silence that followed angered him more.

  “Well, do it,” Miller all but yelled at the man. “Paxton’s smart and he knows we’re after him.”

  “You heard him. Get to it.” The other man took out his anger on the men with him.

  “We’ve got to get out of here now.” Gavin grabbed her hand, and they started running as fast as they could.

  “Hold on. I see someone over there!” one of the men yelled. “There’s two of them.”

  “That’s Jamie and Gavin. We can’t let them get out of here alive.”

  Her heart thundered with each step. There were five of them. Even with the weapons she and Gavin had, they couldn’t hold them off long.

  Gavin looked behind them. The men had cleared what was once the side of the house and were coming toward them full force. “We need a diversion.”

  She remembered they were close to a boarded-up mine. “There’s that old abandoned mine that collapsed years ago. It’s not too far from here. If we can get some space between us and those men, we can hide there.”

  Gavin’s silence told her the idea was not a welcome one, but they were all out of options.

  “Gavin, it’s our only chance.”

  “Do you remember the location well enough to find it in the dark?”

  She hadn’t been there in years, but she had a general recollection of where it was.

  “Yes, I can find it.”

  He let her hand go and she stopped, turning to face him. “What are you doing? They’ll be here soon.”

  She saw him smile sadly. “I’m going to do an old-fashioned shoot-out. See if I can buy you some time.”

  Jamie shook her head. “You can’t stand them off alone. You’re outnumbered.”

  “I’ll be fine. I’m right behind you. Just keep moving.”

  “No, Gavin.” She didn’t want to leave him behind. She couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to him.

  “Go, Jamie.” With one final look into his eyes, she turned and started running as fast as she could.

  “Over there!” one of the men yelled and started firing in Jamie’s direction. She barely made it behind a tree before bullets rushed past her.

  When there was silence again, she started running and didn’t look back.

  Behind her, more shots fired, followed by another weapon engaging. Gavin.

  Someone yelped in pain. It took everything inside of her not to turn around and go back to make sure he was okay. She knew she couldn’t do that. Gavin was a trained CIA agent. Better equipped to handle the situation than she was, even wounded.

  Jamie reached the area where the abandoned mine had collapsed. It had once been one of the oldest working mines in Darlan County. In the dark, and trying to recall the location from memory, it took longer than she’d expected, but she finally found the boarded-up hole in the side of the mountain. Nothing about it was inviting.

  The mine had been sealed off for a long time, since she was a child. When it had collapsed, it had trapped six miners below. The rescue team hadn’t made it to the site of the disaster in time to save any of them.

  Jamie yanked away enough boards to get inside. Shoving aside her fear of spiders and creepy-crawly things, she squeezed through the opening and did her best to replace the boards in case the men happened her way.

  What if the area where she stood was unstable? It had been years since anyone had been in here. If it collapsed, she’d be buried alive. With difficulty, she shoved the fear aside. She was trying to save her uncle’s life. She had to be strong.

  The gunfire had stopped. Where was Gavin? She couldn’t let herself consider that he might have been captured, or worse.

  As Jamie stared into the blackness surrounding her, she heard something alarming nearby—what sounded like footsteps coming her way at a fast pace.

  She clasped her hand over her mouth as the steps halted next to the mine. Someone shoved one of the boards free. Jamie inched away from the entrance as a flashlight’s beam illuminated the area where she had just been.

  “I don’t see anyone. The place is unstable. They wouldn’t hide there. Let’s keep going.”

  After a moment, the footsteps faded into the distance. Jamie let go of the breath she’d held on to.

  Just as she’d begun to relax, another set of footsteps came to a stop next to the mine entrance.

  “Jamie, are you in there?” Gavin whispered so quietly that she almost didn’t hear him. Relief overtook her fear.

  “Yes, I’m in here.” She thanked God for keeping him safe.

  He shoved the rest of the boards free and held out his hand to her. She ignored it, going straight into his arms and holding him tight. Happy to be out of the musty mine.

  “Which way were they heading?” he asked when she finally let him go.

  She pointed up ahead. “Toward the Darlan Mountain Mine. Gavin, what if Uncle Paxton’s in there somewhere hurt?”

  With Gavin close by, they started walking toward the mine at a fast pace while Jamie tried to control her fears.

  She didn’t want to think what would happen to her uncle if those men stumbled on him in the belly of the mine.

  * * *

  “We need to reach the mine before they do.” Gavin couldn’t believe what had just taken place. In the firefight, he’d managed to hit one of the men. Soon after, he’d heard a vehicle leaving. He assumed it was Miller going down the mountain to make sure no one else happened their way. Miller was a coward who didn’t care if his men got injured trying to protect whatever illegal activity he and the rest of his team were up to.

  To stand a chance of saving Paxton, they’d have to reach the mine before the men.

  He and Jamie had been walking for a little while when he heard a noise behind them that sounded like more vehicles coming up the mountain and he turned. Two patrol vehicles, with their lights flashing, rolled up on the scene o
f the fire. No one got out. Was Andy Lawson in one of them? Gavin had no idea how Andy fit into the picture. He hadn’t been part of the previous attack at the house, and he hadn’t been lying in wait outside Ava’s home. Was he the person calling the shots?

  “You think they’ll call the fire department to put the fire out, or will they let it burn to the ground?” Jamie asked with emotion weighing in her voice. This was her family home. She’d lived there most of her life.

  Gavin tugged her into his arms. “They were hoping they killed the person they were after, namely Paxton, but now they know it was us inside the house. They won’t let up. They’ll let the fire burn itself out, and then they’ll cover the whole thing up, somehow.”

  “They have to be stopped. We can’t let them get away with this.” He could tell she was close to losing it.

  He turned her in his arms so that he could look into her eyes. “They won’t. I promise you, I’m not going to let them get away with what they’ve done.”

  She held him close and nodded against his chest. He’d do everything in his power to figure out what was happening here.

  “One thing is for sure. If they set the explosives to catch Paxton, then he’s still alive and out there somewhere. And the sooner we get to him, the better.” He just hoped they located Paxton before the men looking for him.

  “You’re right. We have to find him before they do.”

  The cloudy night made the going more difficult the higher up the mountain they went. Still, Gavin didn’t dare risk using the flashlight to light their way. It would be a glaring beacon to those men.

  “What I can’t understand is why Paxton hasn’t been living at the house. How long have Miller and his men been chasing him?” Gavin wondered aloud.

  “I can’t believe I had no idea what was happening to him. Every time I spoke with him, he never let on that anything was wrong. I just assumed he was staying at the house still.” She sighed softly. “I noticed he’d cleared a lot of space behind the place. He told me a while back that he wanted to do some farming back there. It doesn’t make sense.”

  She was right. Why had Paxton cleared the area only to let the power be shut off? “You can’t think of anything he might have said in passing that might help us clear up what’s really happening here?”

  He had to believe that Paxton would have mentioned something about the situation to his niece, if only by accident.

  She thought about it for a second. “When he called this last time, he mentioned that he didn’t trust any police, especially the sheriff’s office here, and hadn’t for a while. When I asked him why, he never could tell me anything in particular. Or maybe he was afraid to say it over the phone.” She looked up at him. “I’m sorry. I should have pressed him for answers. I just thought...well, I thought he was being Uncle Paxton.” She stopped for a second. “He loved my father so much, and he was determined not to let him take the blame for killing yours.”

  Gavin didn’t want to have this discussion again. He admired her loyalty to her father, but he couldn’t share her faith in Noah’s innocence.

  One of Gavin’s previous conversations with Ava ran through his head. She’d defended Noah fervently as well, refusing to believe him guilty. Ava, Noah and Paxton had always been close, along with his father.

  When he couldn’t think of anything to say, they continued walking again.

  “What do you think Miller and his men are really up to by escalating the violence?” Jamie asked when the silence between them grew.

  There was only one answer that made sense in Gavin’s mind. “They’re trying to cover up something. Probably something they’re involved in that Paxton found out.”

  Jamie shook her head. “Like what?”

  “I’m not sure. Ava seemed particularly worried about the influx of drugs into the area causing an increase in crime. She blamed the sheriff’s office for not doing more to curtail the drugs.”

  “I remember her telling me the same thing,” Jamie said, making him curious as to how often she’d spoken to his grandmother.

  “She always was crazy about you. I’m glad you two stayed in touch.”

  Jamie smiled at him. “We didn’t talk as often as we should have. That was my fault. There were certain things that we just couldn’t move beyond and it was hard...” She stopped, but he understood.

  “Still, thank you for keeping in touch with her. I admit, there were times when it was hard for me to talk to her as well. Too many bad memories, I guess.”

  He didn’t say as much, but calling Ava had been difficult because every time he spoke to her it reminded him of the woman he’d lost.

  It was the main reason he’d left Darlan behind in the first place. Everywhere he looked, he’d seen the past. His father. Jamie. What might have been. Yet the guilt was still there, even after he left and Ava had needed him. Oh, she would never have said as much, but she’d wanted her only family member close. Instead, he’d been running from a troubled past he couldn’t escape, and it had tainted his entire existence.

  He couldn’t imagine where his life might have gone if he hadn’t joined the Scorpions. After his marriage ended, he’d been in a bad place. Several times, he’d called Ava, wishing he could pour out his darkest thoughts to her, but he hadn’t been able to say a word. He hadn’t even told his grandmother that he’d gotten married in the first place. How was he going to tell her he’d made a mess of it? Through his brothers and sisters in the Scorpion unit, he’d found God and his life had been changed.

  Still, he regretted the way things ended between himself and Emily. She was sweet and kind and she reminded him of Jamie. He’d been drawn to her because of the bad place he’d been in since his father’s murder. They’d met while he was back in the states in between missions. He’d been searching for something positive and latched onto her light. They’d eloped after knowing each other less than a month and it wasn’t long before the marriage started to fracture.

  Emily wanted to meet his grandmother, but Gavin always had one excuse or another not to. Mostly, he believed he knew Ava would tell him he’d acted irrationally. She’d have been right. He had been floundering and grabbed on to Emily hoping she could save him.

  His drive to succeed became another way of dealing with his grief. And if he was being truthful, Gavin had realized his marriage was a mistake as well. He’d thrown himself into his work more because of it, leaving Emily alone for long periods of time. Soon, it became too much for her to bear and she filed for divorce. He’d failed her.

  Gavin would give anything to be able to go back in time and rewrite the past. Apologize to Emily. Be there for his grandmother. Believe Jamie. But he couldn’t, and he had to live with the results of his decisions for the rest of his life.

  TEN

  They reached the rise above the Darlan Mountain Mine. Down below, the trailer that had served as an office for as long as Jamie could remember appeared dark. Nothing stirred.

  Jamie started down toward it, but Gavin stopped her. “Hang on a second. We need to make sure it’s clear.” He unzipped his backpack and took out the binoculars once more, then scanned the building and the surrounding area. “I see them.” He knelt down low and Jamie followed.

  “Where are they?” she asked.

  He pointed to the edge of the woods close by. “Over there. They’re heading for the trailer.” He handed her the binoculars. Three men advanced on the trailer. While two waited outside, the third went in. In a matter of seconds, the man returned to his friends.

  Jamie listened carefully as their voices carried from the valley below. “No one’s been here since the last time we searched the place,” one of the men said, then murmured something Jamie couldn’t catch.

  “We’d better check the mine. They might be hiding in there,” another man said.

  The third man, who had been talking on his phone, went back over to where his bu
ddies were. “Hold up a second. He wants us back at the house. Something’s come up.”

  One of the men wasn’t happy with the new orders. “They could be in there. We can take care of the problem once and for all.”

  “And I told you he wants us back at the house now. Something’s going on,” phone man barked, not liking that his orders were questioned.

  The second reluctantly turned away. “Alright, but if they get away because we missed them inside, it’s on him.”

  The three slowly eased back into the woods and out of sight.

  Jamie let out a breath, then looked at Gavin. “What do you think that was about?”

  The worried expression on his face didn’t ease Jamie’s mind any. “I have no idea, but I sure hope they haven’t found Paxton.”

  If she and Gavin were wrong and Paxton wasn’t in the mine, then it might cost her uncle his life.

  “My gut tells me he’s in the mine somewhere. This might be our only chance to check it out without them watching it,” Gavin told her. “First, let’s take a look inside the trailer.”

  As they drew near, Jamie could see broken glass everywhere. The place had been broken into by Miller’s men. With her weapon at the ready, Jamie prepared herself to enter, with no idea what they’d find inside.

  “Wait, Jamie.” Gavin stopped her before she could go inside. She turned to him. “Let me check it out first.” He was afraid of what they’d find inside.

  As they stood facing each other, inches apart, Gavin unexpectedly touched her face. The tenderness in his eyes sent her heartbeat racing.

  “I’ll be right back.” He dropped his hand and turned away, and she gathered in a much-needed breath.

  Within seconds of entering the trailer, Gavin came back out. “You need to see this.”

  Jamie followed him. She stopped just inside the door and stared in disbelief at what she saw there. The file cabinet was open and files had been scattered all around. Paxton’s desk was turned over.