Authors: Allison Brennan
“Lucy, I’m fine.” He put his hands on her shoulders and tilted his head so she couldn’t avoid looking at him.
When she shook her head and plastered a fake smile on her face, he wondered what she was now trying to hide. The mine shaft was no place to discuss this, but Sean knew if he didn’t push her now, it would be twice as difficult to get her to talk later, when she had time to suppress her feelings.
“Let’s get out—” she began.
“Talk to me, Princess,” he interrupted.
“Not now.” Her voice wavered. She leaned up and kissed him. “Later.” But she didn’t look him in the eye.
She pushed on the extension ladder to make sure it was secure, then motioned for him to go first. He began to argue, but she said, “You can’t put all your weight on your leg, I’ll hold the ladder so it doesn’t move as much.”
“You are a bossy nurse,” he said to lighten the tension. He kissed her firmly. “I’m holding you to your promise.”
Sean climbed up the ladder. Lucy was right, his thigh was throbbing, and it helped that she kept the ladder from bouncing with his weight.
He didn’t know why he hesitated; maybe it was the repetitive training his brother had put him through, but for some reason he stopped an inch away from the top.
Slowly, he peered over the edge.
His truck was where he left it, right on the edge of the overgrown logging road about twenty yards away. Birds chirped in the trees; a light breeze rustled the leaves. The sky was blue; the air was crisp.
But something felt wrong. Electric.
Sean slipped off his backpack and tossed it over the edge, five feet away.
A rifle echoed, hitting the ground next to him, a plume of dirt jumping into the air.
Fuck
.
“Sean?”
Lucy’s voice was concerned, but not panicked.
“Stay there,” he commanded. He already had his gun in hand, but a handgun against a sniper rifle was like a match against a flame-thrower.
Which direction had the shot come from?
He pictured the area surrounding the mine shaft. Trees and foliage surrounded them on three sides; the only exposed side was the logging road. On the other side of the road were more trees, but the ground sloped down.
Based on the trajectory of the exploding dirt, the sniper was higher than the ground. Up a tree?
He didn’t have binoculars on him, and the tree line was thick on the opposite side of the road, roughly a hundred yards away. A good sniper could take him down as soon as he climbed out.
He assessed his surroundings as best he could without a clear line of sight. To his left, the trees were thinner, but to the right there was a low rise. If he could get out on that side, he could use the natural rock formation and foliage to hide.
Then what?
He wasn’t going to leave Lucy here, but he needed to get to the truck. He could drive it closer to shield Lucy when she got out. But a good sniper would go for the gas tank. What he needed to do was get out, determine where the sniper was located, then provide cover for Lucy. They wouldn’t go directly to the truck; they’d head into the woods. There was no guarantee the sniper didn’t have a partner. In the pit, they were sitting ducks, but no way was he going deeper into the dangerous mine.
He pocketed his gun and took out his cell phone. He had a weak signal.
He sent Tim a message.
Sniper at the mine. We’re going to run for the highway. Need pick-up ASAP
.
Ideally, he’d like to sit tight and wait for the cavalry, but he didn’t know how long that would take, or if the sniper had friends. They could come after them here and he and Lucy would be trapped in the tunnels, with no idea of where the danger spots were.
He climbed back down the ladder.
“I have a plan,” Sean said moving the ladder to the right side of the ventilation shaft. “Leave everything except your gun.”
Lucy frowned.
“Luce—” He couldn’t believe she was poised to argue with him. She was smarter than that.
Lucy shrugged off her backpack, retrieved her Glock, and then the small bag with the jar of maggots. “If that’s the killer out there, I’m not leaving the evidence here for him to destroy.” She shoved the paper bag down her shirt, which was tucked into her jeans. She zipped up her dark jacket.
“I’m going to climb out, roll into the bushes to the right, and whistle. You get up this ladder as fast as you can when you hear it, but don’t show yourself. I’m hoping he’ll shoot at me so I’ll know exactly where he is. On the second whistle, count to three and get out, as low as possible, and roll over to my position; I’ll provide cover.”
She nodded, her jaw tight, and Sean kissed her quickly before he scaled up the ladder.
Lucy watched as Sean paused at the top, gun ready, every muscle poised, listening—feeling—for movement. Sean didn’t have to tell her how screwed they were—the sniper had plenty of time after spotting Sean to come closer. He could be standing at the edge of the mine, ready to shoot both of them as soon as they emerged.
She had her gun pointed at the edge, even though she had a very limited view of the surface. She looked for movement, shadows, anything that put Sean in jeopardy.
Sean gave her a hand signal that he was moving. He moved fast for his size, and five seconds later she heard the report of a rifle. It hit the spot where Sean had emerged.
Heart pounding, she almost didn’t hear his whistle. She quickly climbed the ladder and waited at the top. She tilted her head to spy where Sean was, but couldn’t see more than the bushes immediately in front of her.
Sean whistled again, and he was much closer than she’d thought. She counted to three, then saw Sean pop up on his knees, shielded by a boulder, firing his .45 at an angle over her head, toward the opposite side of the logging road.
She climbed out and scrambled over to him, lying low, her gun out.
Sean emptied his cartridge, popped it out into his hand, and slammed back in a reload.
“I can’t see him, but he’s shooting down at an angle—I think he’s in a tree. We can run for it because it’ll take him time to get down.” He gestured behind them. “I’m going to cover you while you run to that clump of trees. Then you cover me. Once we’re there, he won’t have a line of sight.”
Lucy nodded.
Sean used his fingers to count to three, and Lucy bolted, staying low, making herself as small a target as possible. Sean shot steadily toward the treeline until he was out of ammo; he reloaded and Lucy got into position. She could barely see the truck from where she was, but Sean had been aiming a bit south of it.
She caught his eye and nodded. She fired her Glock, calm and focused, knowing if she screwed up, Sean’s life was at risk. It angered her that someone was shooting at them; in fact she was more angry than scared.
There was one lone rifle shot, then nothing.
Lucy reloaded when Sean was on his knees at her side.
“Okay?” she said.
“Let’s go. That last one came from ground level.”
How he knew that, Lucy didn’t know, but she wasn’t going to question.
They ran through the trees in a zigzag pattern. Sean was falling behind, limping. Lucy slowed and he shouted, “Move it!”
If Sean thought she was leaving him behind, he didn’t know her. She kept the lead, setting a steady pace that pushed Sean but gave him a little slack. He had to have noticed, but he didn’t comment again. She cut through the path that the ATVs had forged the other day. There was no further gunfire, no sound of a vehicle or anyone in pursuit, but Lucy wasn’t about to stop and wait for a possible ambush.
The gully along the side of the highway was deep and muddy but Lucy jumped into it, rolling onto her stomach and looking back the way they’d come, gun ready, her eyes scanning the distance to see if anyone was in pursuit. Sean did the same less than thirty seconds later.
They both breathed heavily, but Lucy did her best to control her breathing to minimize noise. She hadn’t heard anyone coming after them, nor had she heard gunfire, but that didn’t mean someone wasn’t following, waiting to hit them after they thought they were safe.
Sean pulled out his phone. “Tim’s almost here.”
Lucy looked behind her. “Tell him we’re about fifty feet from where we found the ATV yesterday.”
Sean typed in the message while Lucy kept watch. “I don’t think our shooter followed us,” Sean said. “Once we got into the woods, there were no more shots.”
“But why shoot at us in the first place?” Lucy didn’t expect an answer. It made no sense that he’d let them go.
She heard a truck on the highway and cautiously peered behind her. It was Tim’s old red truck, followed by a newer Jeep that belonged to Adam. They drove slowly and as they neared where she and Sean lay in the gully, Sean stood up and waved. Tim pulled over.
“What the hell happened?” he asked through the open window.
Lucy jumped into the backseat and Sean into the front. “Someone shot at us as we climbed out of the mine.”
“I brought Adam for backup. Are we going back to your truck?”
Lucy deferred to Sean. He considered. “I think the guy is gone. He didn’t come after us, but he could be waiting until we return. We go back, get as close as we can to the driver’s side, and I’ll use your truck as a shield.” He glanced back at Lucy. “You stay with Tim—provide cover.”
Tim made a U-turn on the two-lane highway. Adam followed. Tim used his radio to tell Adam the plan, then added, “You go first down the logging road. Get behind Sean’s truck and take out the rifle. If someone is there, he’ll know we’re serious.”
“Got it,” Adam said, and sped past them.
The turnoff wasn’t far, and Adam made the turn in his black Jeep, driving as fast as he could on the rutted, unpaved road. Tim followed.
By the time Adam was in view again, he had the door of his Jeep open, an AR-15 over the top of the window frame, scanning the area across the logging road.
Sean jumped out and got into his own truck. He looked around quickly, assessing potential dangers, but nothing seemed out of place …
… except a blank envelope on the dashboard.
He still had on the gloves from the mine. He opened the unsealed envelope and removed a single piece of white paper on which was typed:
IF I WANTED YOU DEAD, YOU’D BE DEAD.
GO HOME.
THIRTEEN
Sean slammed the door. He handed Lucy the unsigned note as he scanned the horizon.
“We should get out of here,” Tim began. “He could be—”
“He’s gone. He gave us a warning.”
Bastard
.
Sean continued to assess the landscape. If the sniper was telling the truth, he intentionally tried
not
to hit them. But the shots came close enough to make him believe, at the time, that the shooter wanted them dead. Or maybe when he missed, he wanted Sean to think it had been planned. Either way, he was enraged.
“He was up in a damn tree,” Sean said, having a hard time reigning in his temper. “I don’t think he stayed around long enough to clean up his brass.”
He started down the logging road toward where the shots had been fired.
Tim followed. “You can’t go out there. He could still be around.”
“Dammit, Tim, he could have killed us!”
What Sean wanted to say was that the shooter could have killed
Lucy
. When he found out who it was, he’d pummel him. But his anger wasn’t going to help them here and now. He reined it in. “He’s gone. I’m sure of it,” Sean said with as much calm as he could summon from inside. “If there’s any evidence out there about who this bastard is, I’ll find it.” Lucy nodded at him. Sean was relieved that she understood. “Keep your eyes open, Luce.”
“Of course.”
“I’ll go with you,” Tim said. “Adam, stay with Lucy.”
Sean had identified the area where the shots originated. Heading that way, he noted three possible trees in the distance the sniper could have climbed, all the while scanning the area to make doubly sure he wasn’t wrong about the bastard’s departure.
If I wanted you dead …
First the tricky maneuver that led to his fall into the mine, then someone taking shots at him, now further threats. Sean had to find out if the vandalism was related to the shooter, because if it was that meant the dead girl was also connected.
The first tree Sean approached had a large, freshly broken branch near the ground. Sean looked up and noted several cracked branches.
“He shot at us five times,” he said. “I want the brass. There’s a good chance he didn’t wear gloves when he loaded.”
“I’m shutting down the resort,” Tim said.
Sean stared at him. “You’d give in to these scare tactics?”
“He could have killed you.”
“This is my battle now.”
Tim clenched his fists, showing a rare anger. “Like hell it is.”
“Dammit, Tim, he went after
me
. I’m not backing down, not until I find him.”
“I have to postpone the opening. I have a lunatic shooting at my guests.”
“We’re hardly guests.”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s only three weeks until my first
real
guests arrive, and I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to one of them. If we stop these people before then, great, but I’m still not opening until it’s settled.”
Delaying the opening was exactly what both Henry and Jon Callahan had suggested the night before. Was the shooting to underscore this so-called suggestion? The vandalism had escalated from property damage to arson to attempted murder.
If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead
.
“Let’s find the brass first,” Sean said. “Then, I want you to meet with the Callahans. Jon Callahan told us last night that he wanted to talk to you about postponing the opening. Suspicious, don’t you think?”
“You can’t think that the Callahans are behind this—why?”
“I’ll find out. They want to play hardball—I invented the game.”
A chill ran through Sean’s body. How easy it was to fall back into his old life, an existence prone to lawbreaking and violence. His brother Duke had, as a condition of opening RCK East, made Sean promise he’d stay on the right side of the thin line.