Chapter Twenty-Four
Head pounding and vision blurry, Dax slowly roused. He spit out the dirt lining his mouth and tried to focus on what had happened. He’d been holding Jessie when an explosion ripped through the tunnel. Now dirt blocked their exit.
Oh, my God. “Jessie?”
The rays from the fallen flashlight shone low on the wall, illuminating a sea of particles. As he staggered forward to find her, dirt and rocks fell off his back, and he scoured the cave before him.
Not more than ten feet from him, her body stuck out of the rubble. He rushed over, knelt down next to her, and gently shook her shoulder. “Jessie? Can you hear me?” His heart nearly burst.
She moaned and joy spiked his pulse. He brushed away the dirt covering her lower half. Her skin looked scraped, but at least he didn’t see any protruding bones.
“Jessie, talk to me.”
Her eyelids fluttered. “Dax?”
“I’m here.”
“What happened?”
“An explosion happened and caved in the entrance.”
She coughed. “We’re trapped?”
Considering that possibility would undermine all of his logical thought. He needed to stay calm and remain focused to get them out of there.
“Don’t worry; it won’t take me long to dig us out.” He only half believed it, but he needed something to hold onto.
“If we ever made it back to the elevator, Amanda said she’d locked the door to the outside.”
“I left it open.”
“Oh, thank goodness.” Jessie tried to sit up again but fell back.
Dax yearned to hold her, comfort her, and make sure nothing else bad happened to her. He slipped his hands under her legs and slid Jessie onto his lap. Shivering, she rested her head against his chest, and he wrapped his arms around her. “You’re so cold.”
“You feel good and warm.” She sat up straighter and looked toward the entrance. “How are we ever going to get out of the tunnel to reach the elevator?”
“I’ll dig our way out. It shouldn’t take long.” A thin shaft of light, coming from the direction of the elevator, peeked through the top of the rubble. The rest of the wall of dirt didn’t seem to be more than a few feet thick.
“Do you think anyone will try to save us?”
“Lena knows I came out here to find you. She’ll rally the troops when we don’t return.”
“She’s sweet, but she doesn’t move fast. Given her condition, I’m betting she’s sound asleep on the cot. By morning we could be dead.”
“Don’t think negative thoughts.”
He kissed the top of her head, not caring if she was coated in dirt. Jessie looked up at him, and even in the dim light, he caught desire in her eyes, causing his groin to shoot to attention.
Stop it. Jessie’s injured. The last thing she needed was some horny bastard taking advantage of her. In her delicate condition, he couldn’t make love to her, though as God was his witness, he wanted her worse than life.
Jessie squirmed on his lap, making his situation worse.
Her eyes widened. “How can you get an erection when I’m such a mess?”
Nothing ever embarrassed him, but her comment sent heat up his face. “You are not a mess to me. Your eyes are still this sexy blue-green color that reminds me of the Caribbean, and your hair is so brown and curly that I can’t wait to dip my fingers in it.”
“Dax Mitchell! I never would have thought you to be the romantic type.”
As he ran his hands over her dusty mop, his good intentions evaporated. “That’s not romance. I’ll show you romance.” He leaned her back against a pile of soft dirt and kissed her, brushing a smudge off her cheek with his thumb. “You taste good.”
She laughed. “As good as dirt tastes, I bet.”
“I want to kiss your lids, your forehead, your ears, and everything in between, but I’m afraid I’ll hurt you. You have a pretty bad bruise next to your eye.” He ran a thumb gently over her temple.
“What bruise?” she said in the sexiest voice he’d ever heard.
She reached up and tussled his hair. He wanted her in the worst way, but now wasn’t the time or the place. Her lips parted, and she drew him to her. She might be willing, but Jessie deserved more than a rough tumble in a disgusting mine.
Dax cleared his throat. “We need to wait until we get out of here before doing anything.”
“Here I am willing and mostly able, and you push me away?” Thank God there was humor in her tone.
He looked down at her. “When I make love to you, Jessie Nash, I want to have you naked on a bed of roses surrounded by candles.”
“D-Dax.”
He gave her a quick kiss and lifted her off his lap. He then shrugged out of his jacket. “Put this on.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll keep warm by digging.”
He stood, grabbed the flashlight, and looked for a flat stone to help him with the excavation. After trying a few different sized rocks and discarding them, he found one that worked. Dax climbed to the top of the mound then turned around.
“You might want to stay at the back of the tunnel. I don’t want the debris to get you, not to mention what the dust could do to your lungs.”
Jessie eased her way to a stand, took two steps, and teetered. “I’m good.” She straightened and turned back toward him. “I’m helping.”
“Jessie, you need to rest.”
“If we don’t get out of here soon, I’ll be resting until the archeologists unearth my bones.”
She had a point. The woman never was one to back down from a challenge. “All right then. Find a rock and get to work.”
To his surprise, the rubble was fairly easy to remove. After fifteen minutes of clearing, they finally dug a hole big enough to crawl through. He turned to her. “Let me go first and I’ll then help you through.”
“Okay.”
On his belly, Dax slithered through the opening. Shades of war crashed down on him, and the image of Evan flashed in his mind. His best friend had finished removing all the charges in the field, but as he stepped out of the way, his foot landed on a missed mine—one Dax should have detected. His failure had caused Evan to die. He blamed it on the encroaching darkness. It had made him rush, which had made him careless.
“Dax?”
He jerked his attention back to her and then scrambled up the small mound and guided her down the pile of dirt. When they reached the main entrance, they dusted themselves off.
“Ready to get out of here?” he asked.
“What if Amanda returned and locked the door?”
“We come back down.”
As much as he didn’t relish riding up in the confining elevator again, it was their only way out. Dax pulled open the door, and the hinge groaned loud enough to make him lose confidence they’d even make it to the top in this rust bucket. Jessie stepped past him and leaned back against the bars. Between her wobbling chin and random intakes of breath, she seemed to be fighting to hold it together.
“Let’s get out of here.” Dax said. As he was about to press the button to ascend, all the lights in the mine extinguished, entombing them. Oh, shit.
* * *
“Dax? What happened?”
“Hell happened.”
He flicked on his light, enough to light their cage. Jessie huddled close, and he wrapped his arms around her, his strength helping to soothe her fears. “We should push the button to make sure the power is off everywhere,” she said.
His laugh sounded bitter. “Be my guest, but I’d bet you anything, there’s no power anywhere in town. Amanda and that Seth character are probably in this together. It would have been too easy for someone to drive out here, cut off the lock and free you, like I tried to do.” He squeezed her tighter and rested his chin on her head. “No, Amanda wanted you to die down here, and the only way to be sure that would happen was to cut the power.”
Tears brimmed on her lids, and her stomach churned. “How can you be so calm?”
“Calm? Sweetheart, I’m anything but calm. I’m furious. I’m so disgusted with myself right now. I rushed to save you without gathering more facts.”
His sweetness bolstered her courage, what little there was left. “So what do we do now?” A renewed ache stabbed her belly. “I shouldn’t be asking you that question since I need to figure things out for myself.”
“I say we look for another way out.” His tone came out colder than before, acting as if the lack of electricity was somehow his fault. He opened the cage door and motioned they step out.
She faced him. “There isn’t another way out. I’d know. This was my grandfather’s mine, remember? He loved to show off this place to me.” Another wave of depression walloped her. “Hey, wait a minute. I just thought of something. Come on.” She slipped his light from his fingers.
“Where are we going?”
“Amanda confessed a few things to me. Some of it might have been bragging, and other parts could have been downright lies, but she said she was responsible for the grocery store theft and the gas heist. Apparently, her group of cohorts are planning to sabotage a nuclear sub to get Washington’s attention to do something in Darfur, and they’re going to hole up here until the nuclear waste dies down.”
Dax stopped in his tracks, his hands clenched. “Nuclear waste? Is that her plan? What sub? Where?”
She flashed the light on his chest to read his expression, and his intensity almost scared her. “I don’t know. She said the submarine is docked at the Annapolis Navy yard, or is about to be docked. I can’t remember. What difference does it make now? We can’t contact anyone to warn them.”
“You’re right.” His fists loosened. “I say we look for this safe haven. I could use a hot shower and a good meal about now.”
Jessie chuckled though there was little pleasure in her heart. “You’re better off thinking a little more primitive.”
He leaned down and kissed her, gently at first, before becoming more demanding. Most likely, he was trying to take her mind off the panic that had crept up her face. At this moment, she’d take pleasure any time over the pain.
Jessie leaned into him and gave into her urges, desperate for solace. She wrapped her arms around his neck and the flashlight she was holding clunked him on the head.
He jerked back. “Hey. You trying to kill me?” His eyes widened in an exaggerated fashion, and thankfully, his tone held some cheer.
She loved how he could make light—no pun intended—of the worst situations. “Hardly, I need you.” In more ways than one, but she didn’t want to explore those options right now. Not until they were free—assuming they would be. She grabbed his hand. “Come on, I think I might know where Amanda would hide the stuff.” Jessie prayed she hadn’t set more deadly charges.
As she guided him down the tunnel, Jessie worked to keep alert, pushing aside the throbbing at the back of her head from where Amanda had hit her.
“Did she ever run around the mine with you when you were kids?” he asked.
“Yes, and that fact might save us.”
Dax slid alongside her and slipped the flashlight from her fingers. “Do you mind?”
She’d had enough of not understanding his phobia and stopped. “Okay. I’m not going one more step until you fess up to why you’re afraid of the dark.”
She wished she could see his face, but he kept the light pointed to the ground. Dax blew out an audible breath. “I’m claustrophobic, not afraid of the dark.”
She grabbed his arm. “It’s okay. It doesn’t bother me. Actually, I think it’s heroic.”
“Heroic? You’ve got to be kidding.”
“How many men afraid of the da…I mean who don’t like enclosed spaces, would have come into a dark mine to save me?” He said nothing. “Well, I think that’s heroic.”
“Yeah, I’m a real hero. Too bad this hero didn’t use any common sense when he tried to save you.” He shook his head and stabbed a hand through his hair. “I bought the whole Jessie’s-saving-someone-in-the-mine scenario from Lena that I didn’t even think to get backup. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I’m a trained police officer for God’s sake. Or at least I was. There was no excuse for me coming alone.”
The fact he rushed to get to her implied he cared a lot for her. “You came alone because you didn’t know anyone in town. There wasn’t much you could have done. I was the stupid one who came out here looking for some imaginary kidnapped victim. Alone, mind you.” She stepped in front of him and trailed a finger down his chest. “I did try to find you, in case you were wondering.”
“You did?” She heard the smile in his voice.
“Yes.” She punched him in the arm. “Now don’t distract me. Where were you by the way?”
“With Doc.”
“I must have just missed you. So what happened to make you so panicky being in closed-in spaces—when it’s dark.”
He didn’t answer for so long, she thought he wouldn’t tell her. She hoped he didn’t think she was making fun of him. As she was about to explain that she wasn’t, he began.
“I was ten. It was my dad’s birthday, but it also was a school day. I told my mom it was a teacher writing day for the third, fourth and fifth grade, but not for my brother’s first grade class. He had to be in school.”
“You lied to your mom?” Jessie could picture him standing with his hands behind his back, fingers crossed, being the most beautiful little boy in the world, convincing his mother with the straightest of faces. No mother would believe he’d lie.
“I had to. I wanted to surprise my dad with the present I’d made him.”
Her heart tore. “What did you make?” She remembered the fishing lures she’d fashioned out of left over stuff in the garage for her dad one year. He never caught a fish with any of them, but he loved them all the same.
“I carved a whistle, though truth be told, I was the one who wanted it. Then again, ten-year-olds aren’t known for their charity.”
“That was so sweet.”
“Once mom went off to work, I hightailed it to the mine where Dad worked. No one was around when I arrived, so I jumped in the shaft elevator. I was half way down when the mine below exploded. A cave-in had hit some electrical equipment and ignited methane gas. The place turned into what I pictured hell would be like—all flames and no way out.” He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. “With the power out, the elevator stopped half way down.”
She could feel his chest rise and fall more rapidly as if he were reliving the terror. “Dax?” He opened his eyes. She wanted to grab his pain and carry it as her own. “How long before you were rescued?”
“Six hours. I blew that whistle a lot.” She sucked in a breath. “The worst part wasn’t how hungry I was or how cramped my legs became, but the fact my dad was probably dead and I couldn’t do anything about it.” There wasn’t enough light to tell, but from the way his voice wavered, his eyes might be tearful.
“Oh, Dax. I’m so sorry.” She rested her head against his chest, trying to give him some comfort.
He rubbed her back as if she were the one who needed the relief. “I’ve heard that when people are in car accidents, their short term memory disappears, that they don’t remember the collision or anything, but I wasn’t so lucky. I remember every damn minute of it—the screams, the smell, the heat, the hopelessness. I prayed for God to take me and let my father live, but he didn’t listen.”
“I can’t imagine losing your dad at such a young age. You must have been terrified. No ten-year old should have to shoulder the burden of having to be the man of the family.”
He looked away. “I was scared. My mom never recovered. She began to drink heavily, and once her liver started to fail, I had to put her into an assisted living facility. She died three months ago.” He sucked in a deep breath. “I miss her.”
Oh my God. Could the man have had a more tragic life? Then she remembered the picture of his fiancée, but she didn’t have the heart to bring up that horrifying topic.
“What ever happened to your brother?” She prayed nothing tragic had happened.
“David? He works in Simi Valley. Made millions in the dot com market, but we don’t talk.”
From his hardened tone, the subject was a sore one. “Nana mentioned you were reluctant to take the job of finding Sadie. Was it because this town reminded you of home?”
He looked down at her. “You could say that.”
“Then why didn’t you leave the moment we found her?”
The pad of his thumb caressed her cheek. “Because I found you instead.”
Her heart exploded. Jessie never thought she’d ever find love, but here was a man, damaged but strong who seemed capable of loving her back.
Wasn’t that just her luck? She finally found the man of her dreams, and she wasn’t going to live long enough to have a life with him. At least they could be comfortable in their final days. “Come on. Knowing Amanda, she’ll have the place stocked well. I could really use a drink. There are miles of tunnels that jetted off in different directions, but Amanda wouldn’t want to lug equipment far from the entrance. If nothing else, the girl had always been practical.” She shook her head. “You know what pisses me off the most?” She didn’t wait for him to answer. “I actually bought Amanda’s girlie-girl role. In high school, she was tough, and acted as if she didn’t care what anyone else thought. She dressed anyway she chose and wore too much makeup, but deep inside, she believed in causes. Fu—” She almost swore. “Sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it. There are times like these, where decorum isn’t necessary. Tell me more about Amanda while we scour the bowels of the earth for her hiding place.” His tone came out lighter than she expected.
Jessie’s respect for him grew. “Why?”
“The more we know, the easier it will be to find her and take her down.”
Now she had to laugh. “You expect to get out of here?” He was crazier than Amanda.
“Once you’ve been to war, you’ve seen it all. I’ve been in foxholes with mortar fire shooting overhead, the enemy coming at me, and at the last minute some brave ass rescue team drops some bombs on the approaching enemy and saves us. As they used to say, it ain’t over until the fat lady sings.”
She stopped and hugged him. “I like your attitude.”
“Then let’s find Shangri La.”
For the first time in hours, Jessie had hope.
* * *
Jessie cracked open her eyes but couldn’t see anything. The power must have gone out at home last night, and she’d been asleep when it happened. A chill had seeped into the air, and she pulled the blanket up to her chin. Her body ached so much she decided she might as well sleep in. As she fluffed the too-small pillow, a soft droning sound caught her attention, and she stilled, trying to figure out what was causing the noise. When she rolled on her side, her senses shot to high alert.
Oh, crap. She wasn’t in her soft bed, but on a hard cot in a dank, musty mine with Dax next to her. Everything came flooding back from Amanda’s betrayal to the explosion in the mine. Jessie rolled onto her back again, depression swamping her. She saw no reason to wake Dax as they had no place to go. She rose from the cot and pulled the scratchy blanket around her shoulders, but she still couldn’t see a damn thing.
Dax had set the light next to the bed since he’d wanted to keep it on all night, but then decided it would be better to save the battery, even if there were tons of Sterno cans and a generator. He’d been convinced the fumes would do more harm than good in the confined space.
Jessie shuffled over to his bed, and when her toe ran into the flashlight, she stifled a groan. They’d set the porta-potty down the tunnel and around a bend for privacy, and she had to pee really badly. Without waking Dax, she snatched the light and tiptoed away.
When she returned, he was sitting up on the bed. “I can’t believe it’s nine in the morning,” he said. The glow from his watch face faded.
If she let the depression grab hold, she’d cry and that would be ugly. Keeping upbeat was the only way to handle the crisis. “So what’s on our agenda today?”
“I figure we need to eat and wait to be rescued.”
“You’re convinced we will be?” Getting her hopes up would only bring her down harder when they weren’t.
He rose from the bed and took back his light. “It’s simple. Even if the whole town’s power isn’t out, when we don’t come back, Margaret will round up someone. Just you wait. Half the town will be looking for us.”
“So your plan is to eat and wait to be saved?”
Dax glanced at the ceiling. “I was trying to stay positive.”
“I hope you’re right.”
As Jessie turned to find something to eat for breakfast, an ear-shattering blast knocked her to her knees. The floor shook, and dirt and rocks dropped down on her. She covered her head with her hands, and then Dax covered her body with his. Her pulse skyrocketed and Dax’s grip on her tightened. Jessie held her breath and waited for the ceiling to fall and bury them alive.