Authors: Julia Brandywine
“In my defense, I was too busy saving us from the immediate threat to worry about that.”
“From what? Some poachers? We could have fought our way out.”
“Think again. I’ve been fighting them off for two days and look where it got me. Nowhere. These aren’t your run-of-the-mill poachers. They’re organized, not to mention well-armed.”
He was right, much as it irked her to concede that particular point.
Flashing her a rakish grin, he leaned against
the rock wall.
“Cheer up, Tabby Cat. We’ve got each other. If there’s another way out, we’ll find it.”
Tabitha couldn’t believe what she was hearing. How could he be so calm? She’d heard the legends of back-shoot passages in this mine. “Is there a back exit? Where is it?” Why else would he be so confident?
“We’ll find out.” Gritting his teeth, he started to rise.
She tried not to show how crestfallen she felt at his hesitant answer. After all, she was in charge here, lest he forget. “Not yet.” She pushed him back down. The movement was dead easy which frightened her. He was far too weak to consider moving now. “Sit tight till you regain your strength.”
Frowning up at her, he complained, “I don’t need...”
“Don’t argue with me, Fox.” She pulled two silver packets from her back pocket and passed one over to him. “Here. Eat this. It’ll help you regain your strength.”
He tore open the packet and sniffed the bar. “Doesn’t smell too bad.”
“I told you so.”
He took a bite. “Not bad, Tabby Cat.”
Ignoring the too familiar nickname, she watched him polish off the bar then sit back with a satisfied sigh. “Do you think the stories about this mine are true?” she asked with a glimmer of hope. “Have you ever run into secret passages?”
“Not so far. But if they’re here, we’ll find them. Won’t Base send out a search party?”
“Eventually.” She didn’t mention that this mission was behind channels. Even though she intended to fire Laurent, she didn’t want to ruin his future chances for employment. If she registered her destination, and his probable indiscretions, she would do just that. Despite the fact that they’d a stormy history, she couldn’t do that to the man. Besides, by the time Cartridge and the firm put two and two together and sent out a search party for them, they might be dead.
Trying not to panic, she sent a telepathic distress signal to Spot. His telekinetic powers were acute and tuned to subterranean living, but she and Fox had gone so deep into the mine. Through the thick, stone walls, could even the cave cat pick up on it? Why hadn’t she brought him along, outside of not wanting to deal with his annoying habit of wandering off? He would have ravaged the poachers.
“Come on. Let’s get going.” Laurent stood and started walking the opposite way they’d come in.
She hurried to catch up with him, amazed at his restorative powers. Their multihued auras sent shadows against the mine walls creating sparks of life in an underground land that otherwise seemed lifeless. As they went deeper into the heart of the mine, she drew strength from their joined auras. If there was a way out, Fox would find it. He had the keen instincts of a tracker.
Laurent turned to look at her a few minutes later. “You okay, Boss?”
He remained the only person at the company who knew her secret fear of mines. “I’m okay,” she muttered bravely.
“Good. I knew you would be.” He flashed her a wicked grin. “You’ve grown up, Tabby Cat—in more ways than one.”
Feeling his gaze rest on her full breasts, she fought the urge to cover herself with her arms. The tight garment hid nothing from his too interested gaze. She should have requisitioned a larger size. Her nipples tingled, beading even now at the memory of his magical touch. “Fox, keep your mind on getting us out of here.”
She watched him chuckle under his breath before turning away. Letting out a sigh of regret, she followed, vowing that the past would stay buried.
What seemed like hours later, Tabitha could barely put one foot in front of the other—and Fox just kept going. She decided he must have the constitution of an ox as she glared at his back. Her toe caught on something on their dark path, and she tripped. Letting out a yelp, she landed on her hands and knees.
“You okay, Tabby Cat?”
Ignoring his impatient question, she sat up and looked at the thing that’d felled her. A box jutted out from an outcropping. She must have caught the edge of it with her treads. “Hey, look at this.”
Fox doubled back, muttering, “We don’t have time for this.”
Tabitha tore open the box’s lid. A lode of uncut gems glittered dimly in the aura light. “Well, I’ll be frizzed,” she murmured. “What’s this doing in a supposedly played-out mine?”
“Good question.” Fox bent to pick up a chunk that glowed red in his aura light. “High grade henna-light. They haven’t mined this stuff for years. It’s worth a fortune.”
She stood, brushing the dust off her legs, then wobbled.
Fox dropped the stone and reached out to steady her. “Come on, I want to get us to the next room before we bed down for the night.” He pulled her away from the box when she went to grab it. “We’ll log this and come back for it later.” He steered her down the shaft.
A bit disgruntled at his familiar dominant ways, she turned to frown at him. “Why are we going this way, anyhow?”
“A hunch. Fresh air. Can’t you smell it?”
Was this an attempt to keep her from panicking? She sniffed the air. She did smell something fresh. She wondered if it could be just wishful thinking on her part.
Inside the next shaft, she noticed the difference in the walls. These were a pristine blue with shots of rose pink. “What is this pretty stuff?”
“Laura’s quartz. Can’t buy it anymore.”
“Wow, we must be far back.” The realization frightened her.
“Don’t think about it.” He quickly drew her into a clearing. “Sit and drink. Can’t let you get dehydrated.”
She groaned as she lowered herself to the ground. They’d been walking for hours, and she felt beat. Her feet hurt. She took the water pill Laurent handed her and sipped the liquid. As boss, she knew she should be the one taking care of things. When she started to protest, he shook his head at her. “Sit back and let me do this.”
At the moment, she didn’t have the strength to argue. “Okay.” She leaned back and watched him take off her treads. He proceeded to rub her aching feet. Better than she’d allowed herself to remember, his touch was both perfect and tender.
“Why didn’t we work, Laurent?” she asked in barely a whisper. Her willpower couldn’t stop her from voicing the question.
He glanced up at her face. “I guess we wanted two different things.”
“Maybe,” she conceded.
He flashed a rakish grin her way. “Or maybe I was an immature idiot. Believe it or not, I’m older and wiser now.”
“Are you?” she mused out loud, holding his gaze. The fierce expression in his eyes gave her the answer.
A few moments later, he sank down next to her and started rubbing her shoulders. “Relax, Tabby Cat, and don’t overanalyze things the way you always do.” He eased her into the groove of his body, so she was completely resting in the cocoon of his powerful body…if she allowed it.
Tabitha stiffened for only a moment. She was too tired to fight, especially something that felt this good. She lay back against him, letting his strength seep into her. This comfort was enough to make her forget how scared she was. He always had the ability to make her forget her surroundings.
He gently turned her to face him, and his lips found hers.
Tabitha let out a pleasured sigh as Laurent’s sensual mouth slanted over hers. She felt him harden behind her, and she swallowed his groan, her tongue sweeping into his mouth. She’d wanted this…craved it.
He turned her completely to him, onto his big body, and she sprawled over him. Her soft curves nestled against his harsher angles. Her nipples tingled to life when she rubbed them against him, and the spot between her legs grew dewy with desire. Sweeping his hands down her back, Fox shaped the small of her back, then the generous curve of her bottom. He squeezed, and she let out a moan. Her body moved of its own accord against his, searching for the fulfillment only he could give.
Later, much later, she slumped against his muscular chest. Listening to his racing pulse slow, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so replete. She closed her eyes under his tender ministrations, and exhaustion overtook her.
A smelly hand clamped over her mouth, rudely rousing Tabitha from her slumber. The hand tasted grubby, filthy. Her eyes flew open as she gazed into the face of the poacher who’d tried to kill her earlier. Where was Laurent? She cast a sidelong glance for him. He’d disappeared.
The poacher’s hand pressed harder, forcing her attention back to him.
“Make a sound, and you’re a dead woman, Lieutenant,” he said with a sneer. “Got it?”
She nodded, more terrified than ever. How did he know her rank? She wasn’t wearing any insignia. She especially didn’t like his mocking tone or the way his leering gaze focused on her breasts. What had he done with Laurent?
Her captor took his hand away, and she sucked in much needed air.
“Where’s Laurent? What have you done with him?
“I told you to keep your trap shut, bitch. If I was you, I’d worry more about my own skin than his. Now shut it.”
Laurent had to be alive; otherwise, the poacher wouldn’t care if she made noise. Maybe he’d gone to explore exit routes while she slept. The thought gave her hope as she refocused on the poacher. He was fishing something out of his pocket. Handcuffs! Where would a raggedy-assed poacher obtain the manacles? Unless he’d taken them off Laurent. As a licensed bounty hunter, he surely carried a set.
The glare the poacher fixed her with stopped her thoughts dead. His chin wore a rough beard, his hair long and unkempt, but a slyness in his light blue eyes told her he wasn’t a soak or merino head. Something else was behind his dastardly actions.
He grabbed her hand and arched a glowing red restraint band—a fritz—over her wrist. He attached the other side to her left wrist, then joined them in front of her.
She lay there panting, his knee cutting into her stomach. What would he do with her? When he stood, she breathed a sigh of relief that he didn’t plan to attack her. Then he scowled down at her and jerked her to her feet in one savage tug. She let out a cry of fright, earning a warning tug from the poacher. She fell silent, allowing him to pull her along after him. Her bare feet flinched at the cold and uneven stone floor beneath them, but she didn’t dare complain. She cast a longing look at her treads as he dragged her away.
What was he after? Could they be hunting the tread box of uncut gems she and Fox had discovered? But then why kidnap her? That didn’t make any sense. He marched her back toward it. As a Columbus Mine’s overseer, she knew the value of those gems for the firm, but if the choice came down to lives or stones, lives would win out.
They turned around a bend and entered a chamber. She and Laurent hadn’t passed this way. She was lost without her equipment or Laurent to guide her. Where was Fox? What would he do when he discovered her missing? She looked down, trying to keep her footing when the poacher jerked her back. Glaring at him, she wobbled on her feet, staying on them only because of the fritzes he held.
He snickered and shoved her hard against the rock wall. “This is where you get off, Lieutenant.”
Tabitha froze. Did he mean to kill her or leave her lost in this unfamiliar passage? A sound made her look to the left. Another poacher, this one an older man in a gray tunic, bore down on them.
“Shut your trap, Shamus,” he ordered.
“But I…”
The older poacher scowled, and Shamus quieted. The older man, who seemed to be in charge, faced her with a grimace. “You have two choices, miss: Tell us what we want, or die.”
Her jaw dropped at the threat issued in such a calm manner. She believed he’d kill her, maybe not joyfully, but he’d do it. “What do you want to know?”
“Excellent. Where is the back-shoot?
“Back-shoot?”
“Come now, Lieutenant. Your lover, Mr. Fox, wouldn’t have sealed you off if he hadn’t known about it.”
Her own argument with Fox along the same lines came back to her. Unfortunately, Fox hadn’t seemed to know specifically about a back-shoot exit. “My lover?”
He smiled. “We know all about your sexual proclivities.”
Tabitha felt chilled seeing his sour amusement. Had they watched the intimacies she and Laurent had just shared? The mere possibility made her furious. She glared back at the poacher. “What proclivities?”
“Like the fact that you lived with this renegade without a marriage pact. I’m surprised the company promoted you after such scandalous goings on.”
Tabitha was shocked. How could he know about a dalliance that had ended a year ago? Their affair was private, and they certainly hadn’t bandied it about for public amusement, or at least she hadn’t. And for all his faults, Fox wasn’t the kind of man who debased women.
These poachers had somehow stumbled across privileged information. The kind of facts sealed in the firm’s management-eyes-only files. Of course, the arms, the special knowledge—it made sense that they had a leak in the firm. Fox must have guessed that. Knowing about the leak fit with his cryptic grumbles earlier about not trusting the firm.
Drawing herself up to her full height, Tabitha gave the older poacher a steady glance. There was no need to let him know his verbal jabs were getting to her. “I don’t know anything about a back-shoot. We were simply looking for one without know exactly where we might find it.”
He frowned, looking at her steadily before he turned to look over her shoulder at his accomplice. “I think the lady speaks the truth.”
She felt as if a weight had been lifted from her at his words. Keeping steady eye contact on the older poacher, Tabitha did her best to tune out the brute still clinging tightly to her arm as if afraid she’d bolt. He didn’t know her fear of mines. At the moment, her fear of mines was being rivaled by her fear of these brutish poachers. They were leeches on the civilized world that’d as soon cut your throat as talk to you. “Of course I’m telling the truth.”
The older poacher nodded. “In that case, tell me, where are the stones?”
“Stones?” So they were after the henna-light. She thought about playing dumb for a moment, but the sharp look in the older man’s eyes made her think twice.
“See, boss,” Shamus said, inching his free hand closer to the upper curve of her breast. “She’s a hard case. Let me soften her up.”
She shivered, appalled by his repellant touch, a mockery of Laurent’s earlier caress. Her stomach churned at his foul breath. Backing away as far from him as his reach would allow, she did her best to keep calm, while darting a panicked look for help to his boss. His narrow-eyed gaze didn’t calm her. She’d get no sympathy there. Her cuffed wrists between them were the only barrier between her and the poacher. Her feet churned in the mine dust on the rocky floor as she tried to back pedal away.
“It’s down the shaft to your right,” she spit. “I don’t know how far.”
The older man nodded. “Excellent. See, she can be reasonable.”
Shamus’s grip tightened on her arm. “Show us the way, and no tricks.”
“Not until you take these off,” Tabitha said, thrusting her bound wrists toward him.
Shamus scowled and turned to look at the older poacher.
“Do it,” the older man said.
Tabitha let out a sigh of relief at the removal of the restraints. At least now she had a fighting chance. Biding her time, she obediently walked down the shaft in front of the poachers. Shamus’s grimy hand kept a tight grip on her arm. She fought her instinct to cringe away from her captor, but she didn’t want to show weakness in front of these bottom feeders. Loose stones bit into her tender feet, making her wince. Because she had no other choice, she kept going.
She stumbled ahead, trying not to reveal that she was hopelessly lost. The curved shaft they moved down didn’t look at all familiar. Panicked, she struggled to contain her fear and sent another telepathic plea to Spot. If ever she needed her furry friend, it was now. He’d send these poachers scrambling for their lives.
Where the hell was Laurent? Images of him hurt and bleeding flitted through her mind. She whimpered, suddenly overcome with his pain. He was hurt. Her steps slowed.
“She’s jerking us around, boss.” Shamus muttered, his fingers digging into her arm.
“I’m not,” Tabitha said with a gulp. “It’s just that I’m not sure of the way without my equipment.”
“Well, you better get sure, and quick,” the older poacher muttered.
They rounded a corner, and she saw recognized the area. She’d found what she was looking for—the Laura’s quartz. The left wall gleamed with the pink streaks. They had to be near the treasure they wanted. “I remember this,” she said, pointing to the wall.
“About damned time,” Shamus grumbled.
Stepping forward, Tabitha sensed a presence. Someone powerful watched them. Laurent! She could feel him, pick up on his mental vibrations. His fury was white hot. The hunter, ready to strike. The poachers didn’t seem to notice, their greed making them oblivious to danger. Her free hand slipped inconspicuously and unnoticed into the pocket with her precious Amethyst. The gem would give her the edge she needed to help Laurent defeat this unscrupulous duo.
She closed her fingers around the stone, feeling it warm instantly in her palm.
Are you okay, Tabby Cat?
Tabitha mentally picked up on the message.
I’m fine, Laurent. What about you? Are you hurt?
I’m better now that I’ve found you.
Thank heaven for that. I’ve got my amethyst, so make your move.
On three.
Tabitha concentrated, mentally counting with her love.
One.
Shamus’s bruising grip loosened on her arm temporarily when he stumbled.
Two.
She heard the older poacher behind her captor trip and bump into the wall with a groan.
“You okay, boss?” Shamus turned to say, completely letting go of her arm.
Three!
Tabitha spun away from the poacher.
“Hey!” he shouted, trying and failing to get hold of her again.
Laurent came at them from a side tunnel, shooting the poachers with a blue ray. They froze like statues, turning a frigid blue. He spun to look at Tabitha. “You all right?”
With a cry of joy, she threw herself into his arms. “Yes, now that I know you’re alive, I’m perfectly all right.”
They took time only for a quick kiss before he said, “Come on, let’s get going.”
Tabitha looked at the poachers. They were still frozen in place, only their eyes moving. “What did you hit them with? I’ve never seen such a thing, and you certainly didn’t have it earlier.”
“Had it stashed where I couldn’t get to it when you showed up yesterday. A little something I picked up on the black market. They’ll stay frozen for about an hour, then wake up slowly. It should give us time to double back.”
“That’s right. If they found us that means they cleared the mine opening. We can get out.” She followed him back the way she’d come, and they stopped only long enough for her to put on her treads. “Thanks for taking care of me back there.”
“I shouldn’t have left you alone.”
“You couldn’t know they’d find their way inside. Were you looking for an exit?”
“Yes.” His grim tone hinted at more of a tale.
“What did you find?”
“In a far back quarter of the mine, I found an illegal mining operation that must be pretty recent.”