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If Parker were truly okay, she’d be next to him silently busting his balls. That’s how he knew she wasn’t. Which made him want to shred the nearest bush. Of all the shitty luck, having her injured by a falling branch made this mission more complicated than if she’d insisted on coming with him. His mother always said to be careful what you wished for. He’d wanted Parker to stay out of his covert breach of the mine, but now he wished more than anything she was here.
A twig snapped loud enough to send a rabbit jetting out of the underbrush and across a flat area where a bulldozer sat like a tribute to days past. He stilled, listening to see if it caused anyone to take notice. No voices rose and no footsteps crunched on the gravel. Peering over a line of boulders ringing this rim of the quarry, he saw no movement. The scent of cigarette smoke hung in the air, but no other hint of human life was present.
These bastards were good. They’d hidden their tracks and kept things simple. If not for the guy with an addiction to cancer sticks, he might not have tracked them. He should wait another minute. Or five. Make doubly sure he hadn’t been heard or spotted.
Thinking about Parker lying on the trail unconscious, however, made him antsy.
This was why he hated relationships. Why he could never commit to her, even by the simple act of staying a full night in her bed. His heart got tangled up and he couldn’t think straight.
Which may have been a reason Beatrice had ignored Parker’s concerns and denied her request to leave him at SFI. The queen had layers beyond layers in every decision she made. She would never jeopardize a woman’s life to confirm that he and Parker could handle a personal relationship in conjunction with their professional one, but she understood what a toll it could take on both of them since this was an abduction case.
Compartmentalize. Recalibrate.I can do this.
Focus on the next few minutes.
Locate Charmaine.
Report back.
When the rest of the team arrived, he wouldn’t be carrying the burden of Charmaine’s life, as well as Parker’s, alone.
The mountainous thick forest to his right kept the site bathed in a milky dawn haze. He used that to his advantage, sneaking closer until he stopped behind the dozer to scout his next path to the cave-like opening. It was wide and dark, a mouth to hell, and he needed to breach it before the sun caught up with him.
One step, pause, another, pause. With each move, he stopped to listen and watch. Big and Ugly was out of sight, and there was no movement from his direction, nor from inside the mine. When Moe finally made it all the way to the entrance, he hid behind an outcropping of scrub brush and gangly trees struggling to survive on the hardpacked earth.
A chorus of bird calls echoed across the open valley. Some type of large animal lumbered off to the left where the hillside was covered in a thicket of brambles and more ugly trees. Whatever it was, he didn’t want to mess with it.
He eased around the edge of a warning sign that had long ago faded until it was now nearly unreadable. The warning it offered was clear—danger lurked beyond.
The two boards hanging across the yawning cave entrance were brittle and gray. Peeking over the highest, he blinked several times to encourage his vision to adjust to the interior gloom. He was about to climb between them when he noticed a wire.
Regardless of the fact RING didn’t have electricity, they’d set up a basic, old-school warning system. The tripwire was probably connected to a bunch of tin cans that would raise a clatter if something breached them.
Options? He could ease around it, but it was placed perfectly in the center between the two boards, cutting the already narrow space in half. He’d have to be the width of a piece of paper to slide under or over it. It was too high off the ground to be tripped by an animal, and cutting through it could still cause a noisy warning.
Option two? Break off the bottom slat of wood and crawl in. He eyed the warped wood, giving it a slight wiggle. A brittle squeak made him flinch. Luckily, the bird chorus drowned out the noise, but if he tried to yank it off, it would give away his presence.
He glanced around. The next nearest entry point was half a mile away according to the schematic Parker had shown him. It would take too much time to get that far, and no doubt that entrance was booby trapped as well.
The animal in the woods made a growling sound and moved again, shaking the tops of trees. He glanced up and to his left, estimating how close it was and what it could be. A wolf? A bear? Neither was something he wanted to encounter.
Up here. He glanced above at the mental voice of his brother inside his head and his heart clenched.
Every time. Everybloodytime.
His gaze traveled along the crest of the opening and caught. His brother’s ghost gestured at him.This is the only way. You’re running out of time.
Jordy always showed up when Moe was tracking the lost. He’d assumed his soul would be at rest now, that he wouldn’t appear anymore. “Why are you still here?” he whispered, disheartened that his fucked up brain kept conjuring the apparition.
You need me. The ghost gestured again, making ahurry-upmotion.Go over the boards.
A rocky overhang covered by a smattering of weeds and moss glistened in pale strips of sunlight coming through the trees. Whatever stone this area was made of had a sheen to it, reminding him of mica. It sparkled through the dew.
Still in his socks, he clambered up the side of the incline, his feet growing damp. He made his way to the overhang, keeping an eye and an ear out for the animal rustling about nearby. No one had thought to put any kind of warning system here, probably because you’d have to be crazy to try slipping inside here.
Crazy? Check. He saw and heard his brother’s ghost, for blimey’s sake.
Maneuvering so he hung over the craggy rooftop, he was glad for the extra time he’d put in at the gym. Sometimes the only way to clear his head was to punch things, and the core workouts he’d been doing with Rory had paid off. As flexible as a gymnast, he used two mossy handholds and jackknifed his body to slip between the stones and the top board.
