Ball & Chain

Eventually they’d have to start making noise, calling out for the kids, risking unfriendlies being drawn to them. The Snake Eaters were down here somewhere, and friend or foe, if they startled those men, blood would be spilled. Ty wanted to go under the radar for as long as possible.



When they finally reached the bottom of the staircase, there were only two passages to choose from: right or left. Ty should have been able to breathe a sigh of relief, but there wasn’t enough room in the subterranean hallways to even puff out his chest. He closed his eyes, bringing his gun up to rest the cool barrel against the bridge of his nose.



“You okay?” Deuce asked, his whisper harsh in Ty’s ear.



Ty nodded and swallowed past the knot of panic in his throat. “Okay, Nick would have been leading them, acting on instinct,” he muttered, trying to put himself into the mind-set Nick must have been in. He’d rather be in Nick’s mind-set than his own right now anyway.



“Is he a lefty or a righty?” Deuce asked.



“Lefty, why?”



“Given no time to think it through, he’d go with his dominant side. He’d choose left.”



Ty raised an eyebrow, and Deuce shined the light toward his chest so they could see each other.



Deuce nodded. “Trust me. Go left.”



Ty picked the left passage and they hurried down it, trying to be silent and listen. Water dripped, and some unidentifiable banging sound echoed in the distance. It could have been the pipes of the old house, or someone moving on the main level above them, or even the Snake Eaters down here searching.



When they reached another intersection, the space opened up. It looked as if they were nearing an older part of the house, or maybe even tunnels that predated the mansion. Ty instructed Deuce to shine a light on the stone, and when he did, they stared at it with matching frowns. There was a jagged line of mismatched masonry. The bottom half was smooth, gray stone, worn with time and put together with such precision and skill that no mortar had been used. The top was a mixture of darker rock and brick and mortar.



“This looks like ruins from that castle,” Deuce said, running his hand over the bottom half of the stone.



“Oh God. If this was part of the castle complex, these tunnels could go all over the island. Livi said there were lava tubes and caves. They would have used those to connect these things.”



Deuce put a hand over his mouth, shaking his head.



A wave of desperation and fury swept over Ty. He was completely powerless to do anything to help his brother, or any of the people he loved, right now. He had rarely experienced that kind of helplessness, and he didn’t know how to deal with it. “Nick couldn’t have taken them far in the time he was down here; they have to be close.”



“What if they got tired or impatient? What if something scared them and they moved?”



“I’ll get her back, Deacon. I swear to you.”



Deuce just nodded, still covering his mouth.



A voice echoed off the damp walls, and Ty grabbed Deuce’s shoulder and pushed him against the wall, flattening himself beside his brother at the corner of the intersection.



“Should have been marking these fucking walls!” someone was saying.



“We’re never getting out of here,” another voice commented, sounding calm and collected despite his prophecy of doom.



The echoes made it impossible to tell, but Ty thought it sounded like English and Frost.



He whistled low to get their attention. Their shuffling footsteps halted, and everything went silent. A light played over the walls.



“Identify yourself,” English finally called.



“It’s Grady.” Ty didn’t step into sight, though. He handed his gun to Deuce and put his finger to his lips. Deuce nodded. “Did you find her?”



“No. We didn’t realize how fucking big these tunnels were down here,” English answered. “Thank Christ you’re here, though, do you know where we are?”



“Yeah, I can lead you out.” Ty put one hand out into the passage to let them know where he was, then carefully stepped out into the light of their flashlights. The three remaining Snake Eaters all looked relieved to see him. None of them made an untoward move, but then, he hadn’t told them where they were yet so it didn’t ease Ty’s suspicions.



“We’ll help you keep looking for her,” Frost offered.



Ty nodded, both grateful and still wary. He pointed the way he’d come. “We’re a straight shot from the stairs up. That way. If you need to get out. Small spaces, man.” He patted his chest, then held his breath, waiting to see if they’d make a move or if they were on the up-and-up.



English came forward, his light aimed toward the ground. “Got anything to mark it with when we come back this way?”



Ty breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn’t going to be turning his back on these men anytime soon, especially not with one arm out of commission, but at least for now they’d passed his test. He bent and picked up a small rock, marking on the wall with it. It made a faint chalky line on the stone. Ty did it again harder, trying to make sure they’d see it.



“I can’t go back up those stairs,” English said to Frost and Park. He indicated his massive shoulders and arms. “I damn near got stuck coming down them. Maybe we can find an exit on this level.”



“The kitchen has an exit,” Deuce said. He turned his flashlight back on and handed Ty his gun. English and Frost both jumped when he spoke, then calmed immediately when they realized it was him. Riddle Park didn’t seem surprised, though. He was hanging back, probably for the same reasons Deuce had been. Ty met English’s eyes, shrugging.



“I hear you, man,” English said. “Can’t be too careful.”



“Especially since Kline . . .” Frost glanced from Ty to Deuce.



“This was her first run with the company,” Park told them. “She wasn’t us.”



English was nodding. “She’s on me and I’ll take responsibility for that. If you don’t want to trust us, I don’t blame you. But these fuckers killed Hardin, and he was our brother. We want this. We’ve got your back on this, Sidewinder.”



Ty stared into his eyes and saw nothing but truth and anger and pain. “I’m sorry for your loss. He died protecting five young lives. Man’s a hero.”



“Yes he is.”



Ty filled them in on what they’d learned, and where they should be searching for Amelia and the other children.



“What about bringing O’Flaherty down here?” Frost asked. “Can’t he lead us to them? Is he okay?”



Ty winced, hesitant to admit he had knocked their only solid lead unconscious during a fit of anger. “He was wounded, but when he wakes he’ll be the first one down here searching. The problem is he said he was going so fast, he’s not sure he knows where they are. He also said he gave the oldest boy a gun, so we need to be careful.”



“Are there any more Tangos to be worried about here?” Frost asked.



“We don’t know. Fraser’s alive,” Ty answered. “So we’ll get it out of him. But we have to assume someone else was leading this thing. To be able to reach your girl and turn her, it couldn’t be a local in charge.”



“Guys,” Deuce said, his voice shaking. “Can we please find my baby girl?”



Ty gripped Deuce’s shoulder and squeezed. “We’ll stick together, when we come to a split, we’ll divide into groups. Cover more ground that way.”



“Why not just call to them if they’re down here?” Frost asked.



“If someone’s down here looking for them and they answer our calls, there’s no guarantee we get to them first,” English answered before Ty could respond. “We should look first.”



Ty nodded and glanced at Deuce again. “That’s your call, bud.”



“That’s my baby girl out there. I’m not letting anyone get to her before I do. We’ll look for them.”



Ty gave him a curt nod. He hadn’t expected any other answer. He turned to English and the others. “What did you see the way you came from?”



“There are storage rooms,” Frost answered. “Some of them look like they were once jail cells.”



Ty and Deuce shared a look. “Definitely part of the castle complex,” Deuce grumbled.



“Castle?” English asked. “It’s on the other side of the island.”



Ty nodded. “You see our problem.”



“Son of a bitch,” English snarled.



“What information do we need right now?” Kelly asked Zane. When Fraser had regained consciousness, they’d tied him to a dining chair, and Earl was now standing with a shotgun aimed at his face.



“We need to know how many, and who. The whys and hows can come later,” Zane whispered. He was watching Kelly work, fascinated. Kelly was patching Nick’s side up, with Nick laid out on a table, his face turned away from them. The bullet had grazed him, skipping off a rib. It had been just enough to knock him over the edge of the cliff and draw blood, but it hadn’t done any permanent damage. Kelly had cleaned it and was using some sort of skin glue from his medical kit to close it up.



“As soon as we get what we need from him, I’m going into the walls to find Ty,” Zane told them. “He’s been gone too long, something’s wrong.”



“The passages open up when you go down a level,” Nick said, his voice having returned to his usual soothing, sedate tone. “It’s a maze down there, natural caves and lava tubes mixed with man-made tunnels and rooms. They probably go all the way over to the castle ruins.”



Zane felt the blood draining from his face. That was a lot of territory to cover. “Can you find those kids, O’Flaherty?” Zane asked, his voice coming out rougher and more accusatory than he’d intended.



Nick turned his head and met Zane’s eyes. “Yes.”



He sat up when Kelly was done. Kelly had cut his tattered shirt off him, so there was nothing for him to put back on. His green eyes were hard when they landed on Jockie Fraser, and his jaw was set. “Give me five minutes with him first.”



Zane looked from Nick to their prisoner, who was staring at them with wide eyes. Earl glanced over his shoulder when he heard Nick’s words. He met Zane’s eyes, then nodded. They’d already tried asking him questions. It hadn’t been very effective, with Fraser repeatedly refusing to answer and demanding legal counsel. It was time for a new tack.



Earl and Zane picked Fraser’s chair up, carrying him between them into the game room next door, where the billiards table took up most of the space. Nick followed them, still shirtless. He grabbed a towel from behind the bar and threw it over his shoulder, then he sat to unlace his shoes and pull them off.



“What’s he doing?” Fraser asked when they set his chair down, eyes still wide. Earl checked his bonds, refusing to answer.



Nick took one of his socks off, then stood and strolled over to the billiard table. He glanced over at Fraser as he reached into one of the pockets, then pulled one of the billiard balls out and dropped it into his sock. His expression stayed completely blank the entire time.



Fraser began to shake his head. “You’re insane. You can’t do this!”



“This can be avoided if you tell us what we need to know,” Zane said. “Who paid you?”



Fraser glared at Zane. His hawklike nose was badly broken and his eyes were swelling shut from the beating Kelly had given him.



“Start talking, Fraser, or I let him at you,” Zane said with a jerk of his head at Nick.



“You’re bluffing,” Fraser spat.



Zane shrugged. “I may be.” He glanced over his shoulder at Nick, who was standing and staring at Fraser with the same dead-eyed expression he’d awoken with. “But he’s not.”



Earl patted Zane on the shoulder and headed for the door. Zane lingered, giving Fraser a last chance to talk and watching Nick with a sinking feeling in his stomach. Nick met his eyes, letting the heavy billiard ball swing in its sock, demonstrating just how effective it would be as a weapon.



Fraser jutted his abused chin out, refusing to speak again.



Zane didn’t say anything more before retreating through the door. When he turned to pull it shut, he got a glimpse of Nick standing in front of Jockie Fraser, his feet shoulder-width apart, his bare back covered with a Celtic cross tattoo that followed his spine from the base of his neck to the small of his back. Three whiplike scars crisscrossed his muscular back and shoulders. The makeshift ball and chain hung from his hand, swaying as Nick wrapped the end around his fingers.



Zane lowered his head and pulled the door shut before the first scream could tear through the great hall.



Ty turned the corner and almost smacked into a brick wall before Deuce could follow with the flashlight. He held his arm, trying to keep it from throbbing as they stood in the dead end of the corridor, fuming and desperate.



“Backtrack,” Ty murmured, and they made their way back to the last intersecting corridor. Ty made a large X on the wall, and they continued to retrace their steps.



“Will you let me at least tie your arm down?” Deuce asked.



“I need it. It’s fine,” Ty insisted, and he slid his hand into his waistband as a makeshift sling.



They met up with the other three at what Ty had deemed the crossroads, a large section of tunnel that appeared to have been cut from a natural cavern.



“Anything?” Deuce asked the others. They all answered with negatives, and they all looked sympathetic to Deuce’s increasing desperation.



“We’ll find her,” Frost assured him. He even put a hand on Deuce’s arm to offer him a little comfort.