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“We can’t get out, but they can’t get in,” Levi informed them. Though his voice was weak, it held a lofty note of victory. “Hope that blast took out Tim and his crazy goon of a bodyguard,” he added in a much uglier voice. “I’m sick and tired of that wet-behind-the-ears punk from Dallas telling me and my family what to do.” He made some scuffling and rattling sounds. Then the lantern flickered to life.
“Let there be light,” Mato muttered from the other side of the cavern.
Prim found him with her gaze. He was propped against the sealed off tunnel opening. The frantic thread of hope she’d been holding on to died. Their only avenue of escape had been completely sealed off by the blast.
Feeling close to tears, she called out in a singsong voice, “Since we’re most likely going to die down here, I’m going to violate HIPPA and tell you that Alina is alive and safe.”
Levi jerked his lantern in her direction. “What did you say?”
“Alina was admitted to the Heart Lake Medical Center last night. She has pneumonia. They left a voicemail at the clinic.”
Mato sent a dusty scowl in her direction. “Why’d you wait so long to tell me?”
She gave a humorless laugh. “I don’t know, Mato. Maybe it was the gun. Or the handcuffs.” She shook them in the air at him. “Or the cell phone you destroyed. Or, you know…the kidnapping part.”
Levi crawled her way with the lantern. “Lemme take a look at them cuffs.” He produced a field knife and proceeded to jimmy with the lock, using the various accessories attached to it.
In moments, she heard a click, and the first cuff fell off. The second one followed shortly afterward.
“I would thank you.” She rubbed her sore wrists. “But since your son is the one who put them on me…”
“Technically, you put them on yourself,” he reminded.
“Shut up,” she snapped.
“It’s my fault,” Levi interjected quickly. “I’m the one who told him to go get you and bring you here alive, no matter what it took. They were coming after you, Doc. They would’ve…” He lifted a hand to his head and mimed being shot.
“So you and Mato keep saying,” she mocked. “The notoriousthey.” She waggled her fingers mockingly in the air. “A pronoun without a name. Oh, and a guy named Tim with a crazy goon of a bodyguard.”
Neither man answered her.
She rolled her eyes at the ceiling. “I already know about the Dallas Kings, so you can quit stonewalling me.”
The father and son gaped at her in astonishment.
“That’s right. My boyfriend pretty much unraveled the entire case right after his dogs sniffed out the money in your garage.”
Their expressions were so priceless that she couldn’t resist rubbing their noses in it a little more. “And not just any money. Laundered money. The washed-clean-of-all-its-ink kind of money.”
Mato gave a huff of humor. “So, you were lying through your teeth the whole time we were driving here?”
“Oh, that’s rich, coming from the guy who’s always running into walls,” she returned airily.
Levi shook his head at them. “No wonder they had it in for us. All of us. We were too tough and too smart for the likes of them.”
Prim wasn’t sure how getting mixed up with the mafia in the first place demonstrated any level of wisdom, but she let him have his moment.
“It’s over, Dad.” Mato’s head lolled back against the rubble. “We’re going to jail just as soon as we get out of here. And a shower, clean cot, and three squares a day ain’t sounding too bad right now.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” Levi pointed at what was left of the pile of money. “I got enough evidence to bury ‘em in court if that explosion I set off didn’t already do the trick. So long as we cooperate with the authorities, we might get out of this with our skin attached, after all.”
The sound of trickling water made Prim’s head swivel toward the sound. She didn’t immediately see the source of it. “Does anyone else hear that?”
Mato straightened, frowning. “Hear what?”
“Water.” She curled to her feet, moaning at the soreness in her body. Every muscle group was screaming for ice and Motrin.
With the help of Levi’s lantern, it didn’t take them long to find what they were looking for.
