Page 65 of Tormented Hearts

“We’ll be close enough.”

He grinned, and she grinned back. Electricity snapped between them as they both buzzed with the same current of excitement.

They set off, and he deliberately slowed the pace, refusing to grow careless in their rush. They couldn’t afford missteps that would end in disaster. Behind him, Sinead counted paces low under her breath.

The air was sharp with resin and damp earth, threaded with the bite of pine. Somewhere off to the left, one of the springs trickled over the ground, the sound rising and falling depending on the wind.

A twig snapped behind them.

He froze instantly, hand out to stop her. His senses prickled as he sliced a look through the brush, analyzing shapes and shadows to pick out anything that didn’t belong.

He pitched his voice low. “You see anything?”

She edged another inch closer to him. “No.”

A branch shifted twenty yards out, leaves trembling like something had brushed past. Hawk’s hand drifted toward his weapon on reflex, every instinct from years of ambushes screaming at him not to assume it was nothing, not after the shots fired days ago.

They waited, holding their breath. The only sound was the stream and the wind raking through the canopy. Nothing else moved.

“Just wind.” Though he didn’t let his guard down even as he indicated they should move on.

“I don’t see any squirrels with scopes.”

Their gazes met, the joke she’d made on the last ridge echoing between them. Tension still coiled in his shoulders, but he huffed out a laugh, grateful for her easygoing manner even as his instincts refused to stand down.

They set off again, counting paces, the only sounds the ordinary rustle of nature being nature.

Then the trees broke—

And there it was.

A dark opening in the rock face, half-swallowed by decades of fallen branches, rocks and debris piled thick across the opening like the mountain tried to forget it existed.

Sinead whipped out a hand and grasped his arm hard, nails biting into his skin. “That’s it! That’s the mine!”

She took a hasty step forward, and he caught her against him. “Let me check it out first.”

She quivered against his side, practical. “You’re right. There might be a sleeping bear in there.”

His eyes crinkled with amusement. “With three cubs.”

“Or a whole den of wolves.”

“A whole den of rattlesnakes.”

They shared a smile.

He motioned for her to step aside, ensuring her back was to the rock. He drew out his flashlight and shined a beam into the small slit between trees. Seeing that no eyes were looking back at him, he began to clear the debris.

Sinead pitched in, moving rotted branches while he hauled the rock until the opening was clear enough to reveal a shaft cut into the stone. Beyond the first few feet of daylight, the inside was a dark void.

He swung his gaze to her, then back at the mouth of the mine, weighing his options. “You can wait here. I’ll go inside first.”

She raised a brow. “Sure you don’t want me to check for those rattlesnakes first?”

“Ha-ha,” he said in a flat voice, though the corner of his mouth twitched.

She stepped up beside him. “We go in together.”