Instantly assessing the situation, I see there are two men, hunched over, each holding a gun. While I bring my forearm down against one’s wrist, causing the gun to fly out of his hand, Delaney stuns the other one down low, a direct strike to the jewels. I wince as he drops like a sack of potatoes, crying out in pain. Definitely better him than me.
“Go!” I push her forward and then turn to launch a kick at my quickly approaching opponent. He grunts when my boot hits him squarely in the chest, and I’ve never been so happy for all those evenings I spent sparring with Linc at the gym.
The merc stays low and glares before rushing at me like a pissed-off bull in a bull fight. There’s barely any room to maneuver, and I plant my feet, preparing to get bowled over, when Delaney jumps into the mix, swinging her stun gun up and zapping El Toro right in his kidney. With a howl, he goes down.
“Nice aim, Crumpet!”
She sends me a smile then looks around. “Which way?”
“There!” I pull her away from the downed men and we race into another section of tunnel. Our brains in survival mode, we lose all pretense of mapping our route. And the more we run, circling around pillars and backtracking, the more confused we get. It’s not long before we stop, breathing hard and completely lost.
“I’m not sure if we go that way or this way,” she whispers.
“Yeah, me neither.” We haven’t run into the others, and I hope to God they’re alright. But I also have a funny feeling we’re deeper in the mine instead of closer to the exit.
Something snags my attention. I can’t pinpoint the direction it’s coming from, but as my breathing calms, I hear a faint scraping noise. Cocking my head, I listen closely. “Do you hear that?”
Delaney nods slowly, also listening. It abruptly stops and I tense up. It almost sounds like heels dragging through loose gravel. Like maybe someone is approaching and—
Out of nowhere, a mercenary wearing a black bandana pops around a pillar. He lifts a fucking machine gun, and I throw myself into Delaney, covering her body, as the asshole starts firing, sending chunks of dry stone clattering to the ground and filling the air with a cloud of pale gray dust. The loudrat-a-tat-tatsounds deafening down here, and we slam into the ground. Chunks of gravel and sharp pieces of rock hit my back before we manage to scramble behind another pillar.
My headlamp falls off and I drop my flare, but I’m too focused on covering Delaney from the bullets ping-ponging all over the damn place to worry about retrieving them.Fucking idiot!He’s going to cause the goddamn tunnel to collapse.
I stumble over a rock as Delaney races forward into an adjacent tunnel. She’s still wearing her headlamp, so I start to follow when, out of nowhere, the worst sound you can possibly hear when you’re thirty feet underground fills the air.
An enormous rumble makes the walls around me shake, and I swear the bedrock shifts beneath my feet. My eyes lock on Delaney and I see the fear flash across her face before the ceiling collapses with a roar. A huge wall of rock shatters and falls, crumbling into a million tons of loose boulders, blocking her from my view.
“No!” My heart stutters and sinks. I have no idea whether the pile of rocky debris is merely separating us or if it fell on top of her. Terror makes me want to start pawing through the pile of stones and rocks, but fury has me turning around to face the stupid motherfucker coming around the corner, machine gun in hand.
But not for long.
I spring up, yet stay low, and with the full force of the fury I’m experiencing, I launch my full body weight into his knees. They make an awful cracking sound as they bend in the opposite direction, and the asshole goes down hard. The gun clatters away, sliding into the dark and out of sight. While he’s screaming about his shattered kneecaps, another merc with shaggy blond hair and a tattoo on his cheekbone races into view.
Dammit!I’m not sure where the machine gun went, but I spot the flare. As Shaggy races toward me, I swipeit up, strike the cap against the top and shove it forward. With a shout, Shaggy drops the knife in his hand and starts swatting at his burning pants.
Another low rumble shakes the walls around us, and I look up at the crumbling ceiling. A portion breaks free, collapsing far too close, and Shaggy makes a run for it. He manages to escape the falling debris, but Kneecaps isn’t so lucky. He gets caught underneath and his screams reverberate through my ears until the rock pile muffles it… and then there’s only silence. Now I’m trapped between two huge piles of rock.
But I don’t care about myself. Spinning around, I hurry over to where I last saw Delaney and start tossing rocks aside, trying to create an opening.
“Delaney!” I don’t want to shout too loudly because it might trigger another collapse, but terror has me calling her name over and over. “Delaney!” The sharp, jagged fragments tear the skin on my hands as I paw through the endless rock pile. But I don’t stop.
Because she’s not answering.
“Delaney!”
Heart in my throat, fingers bleeding, I do the only thing I can—keep digging. Because I refuse to leave the woman I love down here, all alone in this rocky tomb.
Chapter Twenty-One: Delaney
Thick, chalky dust fills the air, and I cough, blinking hard against the gritty sting in my eyes. I got knocked on my ass from the collapse, but somehow I managed to avoid getting crushed beneath the enormous pile of rocks in front of me.
Thank you, Dad.I know he’s here watching over me, protecting me like Ryder did from that idiot with the machine gun.
I press my coms, hoping for a miracle, but they still don’t work. I wish I could let Ryder know I’m okay. Brushing small debris from my clothes, I grab the light that got knocked off my head, and I sweep it around me. Thankfully, the pillars here are still holding, but I don’t missthe dust cascading down from above. The possibility of another cave-in is huge, and if I stay here, I’m a sitting duck.
Pushing up off the ground, I move away from the collapse and hope to God Ryder is okay. I’m pretty sure the collapse was centered more around me, but I’m still worried because he’s stuck on the other side with that mercenary.
He can take care of himself,a little voice says.Just get out of the danger zone.
