“Good job.”
He kept moving. Her voice grew stronger, louder—not because she was improving, but because he was getting closer. Thank God.
The light’s beam led him, and he hurried as fast as he dared and as much as his panic would allow. Her singing stopped. “Katie? Keep going.”
“I can see you,” she squealed, and he knew her bravado was gone. Her sobbing broke the oppressive quiet of the earth.
“Where are you?” He couldn’t see anything but blackness.
“Down here,” she whined.
“Where?”
He took another step, but just as she started to say something, his boots slid and the edge of a ridge crumbled beneath him.
He struggled to keep his footing, but there was no hope now. His head struck hard against rocks as he fell. More sharp edges of stone ripped his skin and the flashlight tumbled from his grasp. He heard it smack twice and then disappear. He felt himself falling.
Cursing, he hit rocks one more time before coming to an abrupt halt. Pain shot from his shoulder and burned through the rest of him. His head spun and all he could see was darkness. Pitch-black darkness.
“Katie?” he screamed, panic for her nearly destroying him.
“I can’t see you anymore,” she said, but her voice came from inches away.
Despite his aches and pains, and the warm dribble along his scalp that he knew was blood, he reached out, slapping at the ground, crawling on his abused knees, trying to find her. “Where are you?”
A tiny hand touched his elbow. He yanked her into his arms. She cried out, and he hastily loosened his grip, but didn’t dare let go. “Are you hurt?” He sat her down beside him, running his hands over her face. He couldn’t see a thing, but could feel her eyes blinking, felt the gritty tracks down her cheeks that told him she’d been crying. Her hair was matted and crusty in one spot. Was that blood? His stomach turned. She’d probably fallen just as he had.
“My leg hurts.” Her voice trembled.
“Okay. How bad?” He slowly moved a few inches, gently running his hands down her hip and over her knee. One gash was deep, and he felt the blood stick to his fingers. When he tried to move her knee, she cried out. Dislocated, if not broken. He gulped. He had enough first aid knowledge to know he needed to stabilize it. But that’s all he knew. What was he supposed to do? How?
“Is it just your leg?”
He heard a rustling and could imagine her nodding. “I can’t hear your head rattle, silly.” He hoped it made her smile, and her halfhearted giggle was the greatest reward.
“My arm hurts, too. But not as bad.”
He found her arms and ran his hands up and down. No breaks, though the cuts, especially on her forearms, were deep.
Jace settled beside her, making sure she knew he was right there. “We need to get you out of here.” He had no clue how far down they were, nor how hard it would be to climb back up. There could be handholds or sheer cliffs; he hadn’t seen their location before the light died. “I’m going to look around, but I’ll make sure you can hear me. I won’t leave you. Okay?”
“’Kay,” she whispered.
He moved slowly, convinced that at least one of his ribs was cracked, if not broken. But he refused to think about that right now. He tried to imagine what the cavern they were in looked like. He felt around with his battered hands, discovering that the wall was rough, very rough actually. There were more handholds than some of those climbing walls he’d seen.
He could do this. But how could he get Katie out? He wasn’t leaving her. It could take a long time for the others to find them in the dark. Jace chased away his claustrophobia with anger. He’d be damned if a hole in the ground was going to best him.
Returning to Katie, he decided he’d rest a bit, then hope someone came looking. And if not, they’d start climbing. He had to figure out how to carry Katie and how to splint her leg.
It actually felt good to settle back down beside her, though he nearly lost it when she laid her head against his biceps.
“I’m so glad you found me.”
“Me, too.” Jace curled his arm around her shoulders. “Now we have to figure out what to splint your leg with.”
“Do what?”
“A splint is something stiff to put along your leg so it can’t move. It won’t hurt as much.”
“Oh. My book’s hard.”
“What book?”
“The book in my backpack.”
“You have your backpack?”
“Uh-huh.”
And she didn’t tell him this sooner because...? She was six, he reminded himself. “Where is it?”
“Right here.” She dragged something across the dirt.
By touch, he found the zipper and opened it. He felt around, curious what a six-year-old would pack. “Were you running away?” Jace asked carefully as he pulled out clothes. Two shirts and one pair of jeans. Hmmm...one pair of socks. No other clothes.
“Uh...sorta.”
“Sorta?” He found the book she’d mentioned. One of those huge kid’s books with a hard cover. This she brought to run away?
It wasn’t the best for a splint—he would’ve preferred a slat of wood—but it would do. He’d have to tear the cover off and make it smaller. He told her what he had planned.
“But I like that book.” It sounded like her tears were returning.
“I’ll buy you a new copy, plus another book, okay?” He hadn’t a clue if that was a good parenting idea or not. Jace didn’t much care.
He felt in the pack again and pulled out a paper bag and two juice boxes. One box was empty. He made her drink the other one.
“What about you?” Katie tried to offer him some.
“I’m not thirsty. You drink it all gone.” He sounded like his mother when he said that. He liked the idea that she might be helping him.
He discovered the bag held Katie’s favorite store-bought cookies. He added that to her menu and ate one himself.
The next step wasn’t going to be so easy. The book tore easily, the cardboard snapping in half with only a little effort. He sacrificed one of her T-shirts for strips to tie it.
Splinting her leg was going to hurt. He needed to distract her. “So,” Jace said slowly, “how did you end up in here?” He wasn’t sure Katie would answer.
“I was looking for you,” she whispered.
His heart sank. Amy had said Katie’s disappearance was his fault. She’d been right.
“Why’d you think I was here?” He had never been anywhere near this mine before.
“I was going to Hank’s house, but I thought I saw you. There was a motorcycle like yours. I thought you’d let me go with you.” Her voice broke.
Who had she seen out here? Then Jace remembered the people he’d noticed in the cemetery the other day. He’d thought they were preparing for a funeral. Maybe they’d been doing something else. Like digging in this mine?
“I ran after you.” Now she was really crying. “I thought you were leaving me again.”
“It wasn’t me. If it had been, I’d have waited for you.” Jace pulled Katie into a hug, careful not to jar her leg.
“I...Mama and me had a fight. I was mad.” Katie shifted in the dirt. He eased back and waited for her to continue. “I packed my stuff and went to find you. I—I thought maybe you’d take me with you.” Her voice was softer than before.
“Ah, sweetie.” His gut ached. “I like being with you, but I’ve been busy.” Great. Add the sin of lying to the list.
“Uh-huh.”
She wasn’t buying it, he knew. Jace didn’t say any more. They were in enough trouble already.
“Your mom would really miss you if you left.”
“I know. I miss Mama.” Obviously she’d had time to reconsider her plans while she’d been down here.
He felt Katie nod against his shoulder. He was messing up this whole relationship thing. Just like he’d messed it up with Amy. Jace almost laughed.
The man who’d spent the last ten years on the streets of L.A., who’d run away from home when he was sixteen, who rode a Harley and was more comfortable in a bar, was now wrapped firmly around the finger of a six-year-old.
Oh, yeah, fate had a wicked sense of humor.
Jace eased his hand along Katie’s injured leg, trying to pinpoint the best placement for the splint. “I’ll try to be careful, sweetie,” he said softly. “But this might hurt.”
He had to tie the fabric tight to make sure it didn’t come off. He dreaded this. Rather than warn her and have her fret, he did it quickly. Not quickly enough, however, to avoid causing her pain. At the cry that came from her lips, his heart sank.
“I’m done.” Curling his big hand around her tiny one, he squeezed gently.
Her voice trembled. “I’m okay, Mr. Jace.” She squeezed back, surprising him. “I’m tough. Mama says so.”
That did it. This kid was murder on his heart. Maybe because she was only six, she saw things without all the trappings that a grown-up would.
Great. He’d started out trying to comfort her. Now who was comforting whom? “You do that often?” he whispered.
“What?”
“Nothing.” He didn’t have time to explain; he needed to get them out of here. Amy had to be a basket case by now. The sooner he got Katie back to her, the better, and the sooner a doc looked at Katie’s leg, the more likely she was to start healing.
All that sounded great. If he didn’t know he had a heck of a climb ahead of him—with her fifty pounds on his back.
“You ready for this?” He’d already explained what they were going to do. He pulled off his denim shirt, shivering in his thin T-shirt. He was going to tie the long-sleeved shirt around her to help her hold on. But it was only fabric. She needed to be able to hold on and not let go.
“Yeah.”
It took only a few minutes to get her up on his back and tied securely, her arms around his neck. “Hold on, sweetie. Hold on as tight as you can.”
“I will,” she whispered, and laid her head between his shoulder blades. Jace closed his eyes and said a brief prayer. It wasn’t as if there was a long list of things to ask for right now.
He started the climb. “Talk to me, kiddo. I need to know you’re still awake.” God forbid she’d pass out on him and fall. He prayed harder.
Just get her out of here!
“What do you want me to talk about?”
“School?” He reached up for the first handhold he could find.
“Yuck. School.”
“Okay, then maybe answer my earlier question. Why do you want a dad?” He pulled them both up the short distance. This was going to take forever but he reached up again. “Come on,” he prodded her.
“Well, I think it would be fun.”
Maybe that was part of it. But it wasn’t a good enough reason to make her run away from home. “And?”
“And?”
She was silent, and for an instant, Jace thought he felt a tiny bit of dampness against his shoulder. Was she crying? Not good. “Keep talking,” he said a little sternly, to help her understand how important it was.
“You had a mom
and
a dad, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.” Damn. Katie was going to hit every nerve he had, wasn’t she? Oh, well, if he had to bare his soul to keep her from being afraid, he’d do it. “Until I was twelve. That’s when my dad died.”
“Oh.” She fell silent again. And this time he couldn’t come up with anything else to ask her. Then she said, “Jace?”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t want Mama to be all alone anymore.”
Rattled, Jace lost his hold. A sharp edge of rock ripped open his palm as his hands scraped across the jagged surface. He managed to reestablish his grip and, clinging to the wall, took several breaths. Enough with the emotional stuff. He started again.
He didn’t know how far he climbed, or how many asinine questions he asked Katie, but finally, he felt a difference in the air. It seemed warmer. Moving.
Finally, he reached up and found instead of another handhold, empty space. They were at the top.
“We made it, kiddo,” he cried, knowing they weren’t done yet. Not by a long shot.
“I wanna go home,” Katie whimpered near his ear.
“I know. We’re almost there.” Jace felt around, his fingers groping through the dust. He had to find something to grab, to pull them up. Minutes, hours, ages passed as he tried to locate something solid to hold on to, while he mentally scrambled to figure out how to get her off his back and over the ledge. His strength was fading and he couldn’t see a thing. His focus wavered; his hold threatened to slip.
Then bright light exploded around them and he heard voices. An instant later, a hand appeared before his face and Jace took it, not caring whose it was, only that they were getting out of there.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
A
MY
PACED
IN
FRONT
OF
the mine, just yards from the search and rescue team that had recently arrived. The only reason she was free from Hank’s grasp was that she’d managed to convince him she wouldn’t go dashing inside.
But if they didn’t do something soon, she wouldn’t wait. The only thing keeping her sane right now was the hope that Jace was in there looking for Katie. That double-edged sword of worry and hope frayed her nerves.
Noise surrounded her—the voices of the crew deciding what to do next, bystanders mumbling as they watched, the hard beat of her heart....
Why wasn’t anyone
doing
anything? If a six-year-old girl could go into the mine, what was wrong with ten adults trying?
Caryn was oddly silent, though she hadn’t gone off guard duty. In her shoes, Amy wouldn’t have, either. Caryn obviously knew her better than Hank did.
Rick had already gone into the mine once, and come out empty-handed. As he ducked back in, Amy took a deep breath. “Why is Rick the one going in?” she asked.
“He knows these old mines.” Caryn’s voice was distant, and she hardly took her eyes off the opening once he’d stepped inside.
“How?”
“He and Ryan—remember him from high school? They used to hang out in them all the time. If anyone knows these old tunnels, Rick does.”
Amy sat down beside Caryn and they leaned on each other, as they had a million times over the years. Only this time with much more at stake.
* * *
“C
AREFUL
,” J
ACE
RASPED
.
“Her leg’s broken.”
“Hey, Katie girl,” Rick whispered as he bent down beside where they’d landed after he’d pulled them over the cliff’s edge.
“Hi, Mr. Rick.”
Rick shone the flashlight over the rim, which didn’t help. Great, now Jace would have a whole new set of nightmares to deal with.
“You really climbed all the way up that? In the dark? It has to be thirty feet.”
“He did,” Katie confirmed, a note of pride in her voice.
Jace wasn’t up to hero worship or congratulations. He just wanted out of this damned hole before the walls fell in on them. Rick seemed to understand, and started untying the shirt holding Katie to Jace’s back. As her weight shifted, pain shot through Jace’s side. When he’d carried Katie, she’d actually helped hold his ribs in place.
“You okay, man?”
Rick took the little girl as Jace tried to catch his breath. He leaned over, his hands on his knees. “I don’t know.” After a minute he slowly straightened. “Let’s get her out of here.”
Rick started walking toward the opening, but Katie struggled. “I want Jace.”
“I don’t think he can carry you,” Rick explained. “He’s hurt.”
“Jace?”
Jace heard the panic in her voice. It hurt more than his ribs. “I’m fine.” He bit back the groan as he settled her in his arms. The splint on her leg dug into his side and for an instant he saw stars. “Let’s go.”
His breath moved like a saw in and out of his lungs. But he’d be damned if he’d let her know. She was scared enough.
They made short work of the distance to the entrance. Almost at the opening, Jace could see the strobes painting alternating red and blue over the desert. He blinked rapidly as his eyes adjusted to the brightness, and he put a hand over Katie’s eyes. She buried her face against his neck, holding on tight, causing the fabric of his T-shirt to pull against his throat. He didn’t care. He was getting her out of here. Safe. And reasonably in one piece. Her trust was an added bonus.
“Almost there, baby girl,” he said softly.
“Thanks, Jace.” Katie’s arms tightened more.
At the mouth of the tunnel, he stopped, leaning against the rough rock wall. His reserves were fading fast and the last thing he wanted to do was fall and drop Katie.
But his head was pounding. He was fairly sure the gash on his scalp would need to be stitched. He looked around, trying to focus his eyes, to find Amy. She had to be here somewhere, but where?
Shaking his head, Jace tried to clear his vision. The flashing lights were coming from a white van. An ambulance? A police van? He’d prefer an EMT or two to take care of them. A bumpy ride across the desert and through the hills to an emergency room didn’t thrill him. He cursed and stepped out of the mine.
He’d forgotten the ground sloped, and he nearly fell. Rick reached out and steadied him.
“I see them!” A woman’s voice cut through the night and lights. Not Amy’s. Caryn.
Footsteps crunched in the dirt behind him. “Katie!” Amy’s voice finally came from out of the milling crowd.
Jace spun around and the world spun with him. And then he saw her, just inches away. Her hair was a mess. Grime and tears made tracks across her face.
God, she’s beautiful.
Too bad she was fading into the darkness.
* * *
“M
AMA
!” K
ATIE
SCREAMED
.
It was the most terrifyingly beautiful sound Amy had ever heard.
Jace held Katie in his strong arms. They both looked beaten, but she didn’t think they’d ever looked better. She ran to them, her own arms outstretched. Katie leaned forward and Amy caught her. Katie landed hard against her chest and Amy gasped when she saw the splint on her daughter’s leg.
“What happened?”
“I’m sorry, Mama,” Katie sobbed. “I didn’t mean to run—”
“Let’s get that little girl over to the ambulance,” Gavin interrupted, wrapping his big arms around their shoulders.
“Oww.” Katie cried harder.
Jace lunged forward. “Careful. She’s hurt.”
For a big man, Gavin moved quickly, pushing them toward the waiting ambulance. “We’ll take it from here, Holmes,” the sheriff said dismissively.
“Jace!” Katie cried, leaning over Amy’s shoulder. “Mama. What happened to Jace?”
Amy looked back and saw him sink to his knees. What the heck? He pitched forward into the dirt. A female EMT rushed to him, then glared up at Gavin. “Help me turn him over, you idiot.”
The sheriff just stood there, frowning. Katie’s cry split the night and Amy’s heart.
“He’s not my responsibility. He’s not under arrest,” Gavin grumbled. “Yet.”
Rick stepped up to help. “Yeah, and he’s unconscious, with his face planted in the ground. He dies, he dies on your watch. Now move it.”
Amy whirled on Gavin. What was wrong with him? He hadn’t liked Jace from the beginning, but then he didn’t like anyone new. Gavin cursed, but it was Rick who helped the EMT roll Jace over, and she set to work examining him.
Before Amy could react, another EMT reached for Katie. He tried to take her from Amy, but Katie started to cry all over again. Amy helped settle her daughter on the waiting stretcher. “It’s okay, sweetie. They’re going to take care of you.” The IV in the man’s hand obviously frightened her. “It’ll make you feel better.”
She’d known they were going to have to give Katie something to calm her and to help with dehydration. When they’d explained that, Amy hadn’t thought about how it would feel when it actually happened. It hurt to see her baby’s arm punctured by the needle.
“I’m here. It’s okay.” She heard the tears in her own voice as she stroked Katie’s hair.
“Jace!” Katie cried again. “Where’s Jace?”
Her eyes appeared to be growing heavy, and Amy had never felt more torn. Her baby needed her, and the man she loved....
Amy glanced back to where Jace was being treated. He’d been through so much in his life, all without her. Without anyone, really, except his friend Mac, the father she’d never known. Katie whimpered, and Amy turned to her daughter. She knew she’d always have to choose Katie over him. It tore her heart in two to do it now, but better now than a hundred different times in the future.
Amy’s guilt grew as she watched her daughter doze off. How long had she been down there? Why had she gone into the mine? Amy thought of Jace again and looked back at him as they loaded Katie into the ambulance. He still struggled with nightmares. Would Katie have them, too? What had she really been through? They’d have so much to deal with later.
For now, all Amy wanted to do was get her to the hospital, then home, where she’d lock her up and never let her go. Yes, she had to focus on Katie.
She couldn’t afford the distractions of Jace Holmes.
The EMT pulled a walkie-talkie off his belt and barked orders into it. The ambulance doors slammed closed, blocking her view of Jace. Katie had fallen asleep, and Amy finally let herself cry.
* * *
J
ACE
WAS
DREAMING
,
he was sure of it. The last thing he remembered was Amy appearing out of the desert, and the ground coming up to meet him. Now he felt clean sheets beneath him and a pillow under his head. Katie was out of the mine and safe. Except for the fact that his entire body ached, he’d say things were pretty good.
He opened his eyes, then closed them again when fluorescent lights cut into them. Lord, what time was it?
“You’re awake.” A woman’s voice came from his right, and he tried to turn his head to look at her. It wasn’t Amy, so what did it matter?
The nurse came over to the bed and took his wrist. She was older, in her forties. When she let go of his arm, he asked, “Am I going to live?” He smiled.
She didn’t smile back. “Probably. Though that sheriff outside the door would like to think otherwise.”
Jace frowned. “Sheriff?”
“Yeah. He wants to talk to you when you’re awake. Guess that’d be now.”
Frowning hurt, but there wasn’t much help for it. The nurse wrote on the chart at the end of the bed, then left without another word.
It wasn’t long before Gavin stepped into the room, glaring at Jace as if he were the devil’s spawn. “So, you decided not to die on us, huh?” he growled.
“I wouldn’t want to make your job too easy.”
Two men, also in police uniforms, came through the door right behind him.
“Are you Jace Holmes?” the taller man asked.
“I am.”
“I’m Officer Cameron Wade, with the state police. This is my partner, Officer Bryce. We’d like to ask you a few questions.”
“Sure. What can I tell you?”
While Wade moved closer to the bed, a notepad in hand, the other officer scooted back, leaning on the windowsill.
The questioning began. How long had Jace been in Rattlesnake Bend? What brought him here? All the questions the townsfolk had asked, all the answers he’d given a dozen times before. Only those times had been in polite conversation. This was far from a mere conversation, though there was a definite professional courtesy to it all.
“You were in the DuBose Mine earlier? A little girl was in there?” Wade asked.
“I didn’t know that was the name, but yeah, Katie Grey had fallen into a crevasse. I went in to get her.”
“You get that cut, those sore ribs from helping her?”
“Yeah.”
“You ever been in that mine before?”
“No.” He didn’t volunteer that he didn’t go into any mine if he could help it.
“You see anyone else? Equipment?”
Gavin moved restlessly around the room. “There’s nothing important in that old mine,” he pointed out. “This is the guy I called in about. You need to focus on that.” He waved at Jace.
“Why would you call them, Gavin?” Jace looked over at him.
Wade sighed and glanced at his partner. “Sheriff Pratchett called in an Amber Alert regarding Katie Grey.”
Jace knew he wasn’t going to like this. Did this idiot really think someone had abducted Katie, or was this more of the crap Gavin had been dishing out since Jace had come to town? He braced himself.
“The sheriff’s report states you may have taken the girl,” Wade informed him, his eyes watchful.
“What?”
“But we’re still investigating.”
Why was Wade looking at Gavin instead of him? Something was very strange here, but Jace’s head pounded and he couldn’t think clearly.
Wade put the notepad back into his pocket and turned toward the door. “That’s enough for the moment.”
“Aren’t you going to take him into custody?” Gavin asked.
“Not right now.” The state police officers shared a glance and a frown, watching both Gavin and Jace.
“We’ll be in touch, Mr. Holmes. We’ll be talking to the little girl as soon as—”
“I’ll take care of that.” Gavin puffed out his chest.
“Actually, you won’t. We’ll be handling the case from now on,” Wade informed him. Jace almost thought watching Gavin squirm was worth all the trouble. Almost.
“But—”
“You called in this Amber Alert, Sheriff. Let us do our jobs. We’ll handle it.”
“We appreciate your diligence, Sheriff. But it’s our case now,” Officer Bryce added.
Gavin sputtered, then seemed to calm, as if he knew he was outranked. “Fine.” He sounded like a little kid rather than an officer of the law. “I suppose you’ll want to use my jail.” He glared at the officers. “Unless you brought your own.”
Wade fought a grin, and Jace couldn’t help wonder what the hell was going on between these guys. All he knew was he was stuck in the middle and was probably going to come out on the worst end of the deal.
“No. We’ll use yours, if we need it. Thank you, Sheriff.” And with that, Gavin was dismissed.
“Take care of yourself,” Wade said from the doorway as they left, leaving Jace alone with Gavin.
“You know what you did.” The sheriff stepped forward, a swagger in his step. “But I’ll fill you in, just in case that knock on the head scrambled your brain. You took Katie and hid her out in the desert. God only knows what you’d have done to her if we hadn’t found you.”
“Who told you that crap?” Jace growled.
“No one had to tell me. Katie’s too upset to talk to them right now—she’s been sedated since she came in. Once she recovers, I’m sure we’ll be hearing all about you. We’ll find evidence that will prove you’re guilty of something. I’m not letting you get away before those big shots figure it out.”