Close To The Edge (Westen #2) (31 page)

He listened again.

Tap-tap-tap—taptaptap—tap-tap-tap, sounded from behind the rubble. Morse code for S.O.S.

“He’s alive!” Wes shouted next to him.

“Gage! I hear you, man. Just hang tight!”

He wiggled back from the tunnel’s edge on his stomach then stood.

“We just gonna leave him down there?” Wes asked.

“I need to get him some air down there.” The problem was the only passage looked too small for him to get down through without sending the rest of the debris down and sealing Gage inside.

“What do we do?” Cleetus asked, leaning heavily on Wes.

“Let’s get you over to the doc. I’ve got a couple of air tanks and rope in my truck.” He started to heft the big man’s other arm over his neck, when Cleetus pulled back.

“Wes can get me to the doc. You get the air to Gage.”

Deke didn’t hesitate another moment. He ran as fast as he could over the rough terrain in the dark. Past the brief light surrounding Clint, Bobby and Daniel. At his truck he pulled out two air tanks, masks, radio mics and one hundred feet of rope.

What else? He grabbed two bottles of water from the backseat cooler he always kept on hand and the giant flashlight. Now if he could get this stuff to Gage without collapsing what little access there was. There had to be some way.

He would
not
lose another friend.

The alarms of sirens sounded from up the road. More help for the wounded. He glanced in that direction and saw several headlights following the flashing lights in the distance. Too far away to help Gage.

He stopped briefly next to the doc where Wes had just deposited Cleetus.

“Gage?” Bobby’s pale face and dark, worried eyes were full of questions.

“He’s alive,” Deke said. It was all the reassurance he could afford for any of them at that moment.

He handed Wes one of the air tanks and they jogged back over the dark terrain.

“You think we can get him out of there?” Wes asked.

“First we have to keep him alive, then we need to dig him out. Any chance there’s an engineer with a backhoe in the vicinity?”

“Harold Russet’s a civil engineer and head of road maintenance. He’d be the person most likely to get us what we need. And they started the new highway build between here and Columbus at night. Maybe we could use the high-powered lights, too.”

“Good. Call him and tell him the situation and tell him to get some equipment out here ASAP.”

At the entrance they dropped the supplies on the dew-covered grass. Wes took the cell phone and started hunting down Russet. Deke leaned over the edge again, shining the flashlight inside. More debris filtered into the narrowed hole. No way could he or Wes fit into the only access left.

“Gage! I’ve got some air tanks here. Not sure how to get them down, but we will.”

He heard more tapping. Gage still hung in there.

“Cleetus and Daniel are okay for now.”

More tapping.

“You won’t fit.” Bobby’s soft voice whispered beside him.

The stark terror in her eyes as she looked into the abyss and slight tremor in her words tore at Deke’s gut. Gage finally had a woman worthy of him and he might never know it.

For a moment he considered their options. Wait for the backhoe and only find a dead man in the tunnel? Send the tanks down and pray they didn’t knock debris down on him and bury him further? Attempt to go himself and knowingly accomplish the burial? Or…

“Someone has to go down there, at least far enough to get one of these tanks to him. If it’s a meth lab, the fumes could kill him.” He watched her carefully, making sure she understood what he was asking.

“There are two tanks.” She didn’t blink, just pulled her lip between her teeth.

“The other tank is for the person risking their life to go in there.”

“Right now I’m the only one who’ll fit in there, right?”

He nodded.

“Tell me what I have to do.”

“I have to tell you I can’t guarantee either one of you will come out alive.”

“Deke, you’re wasting time Gage doesn’t have.”

Her determination moved him to action. As he helped her on with the equipment, he explained how the air tank and mask worked. He showed her how to turn the voice amplifier on to allow her and Gage to talk with the masks on. He also showed her how he could communicate with them. Next he tied the rope around her to help him control her descent into the tunnel. He didn’t tell her that he wanted to be able to haul her up at the first sign of the opening collapsing. Her fear was already a palpable thing.

“Do you know what kind of cavern Gage is in down there?” he asked once she was ready to go down.

“It’s not a cavern.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a room used to hide runaway slaves more than a century ago, dug deep and behind the old Byrd place. Probably fifty feet from here, if I had to make a guess.”

“Was that the meth kitchen?”

“No. It was only a place Davis stored the drugs in rock form. Gage suspected the kitchen was elsewhere.”

“Okay. That’s good. We can’t take the chance some of the chemicals aren’t getting to him, but the situation sounds better.”

After he helped her lie on her stomach on the opening’s edge, he laid the other tank in front of her. “Bobby. Once you get down into the tunnel, if it looks like the thing’s going to completely collapse tell me and I’ll get you out. Understand?”

She nodded.

“Okay. Here we go. Take it slow and careful.”

He stood, giving Wes the flashlight to keep the beam shinning in front of her. He wrapped the rope around his body. She slowly wiggled forward, head first, guiding Gage’s air tank ahead of her.

God, don’t let them lose either of these people.

***

One inch at a time. Just take it one inch at a time. Gage is depending on you.

Dear God, why had she agreed to do this?
Because no one else could.
Because the man she’d fallen in love with was trapped down there.

It was insane. She couldn’t do it. She should just pull on the rope, get out before the walls caved in around her.

Gage was trapped down there. He could die before any other help arrived.

No choice
.

Bobby pushed the air tank along the solid part of the chasm, not thinking about the dark below or the narrow space surrounding her. Her vision grew dark for a moment, her pulse pounding in her ears.

Stop it! You will not black out
.

She would do this. She
had
to do this.

The tank knocked a large stone loose. Dirt and more stones poured into the hole.

Dammit
. She paused. Caught her breath, willed her heart to slow.
Think about the man down there. That’s all that matters
.

“You’re doing fine, Bobby.” Deke’s voice sounded out of the mask’s radio. A beacon of reassurance.

If he only knew how badly she wanted to pull on that damn rope. How badly she wanted to crawl back out of this hole. He wouldn’t sound so damn reassuring.

“You’ve gone about twenty feet. Almost halfway.”

Crap! Only halfway?

She couldn’t do this. Couldn’t breathe. Her pulse pounded in her ears like kettledrums marking the orchestra’s crescendo and the opera heroine’s demise. She had to get out of here.

STOP IT! If you don’t go down there, Gage could die.

She paused. Forced air in her lungs. Exhaled slowly. Sweat dripped into one eye. The air mask kept her from wiping it away.

Okay. She was half there. Only a little farther to go.

Gage wasn’t too far below.

Carefully watching the tunnel ahead she pushed the tank forward another inch, wiggling up behind it, like an inchworm making its way along a tree branch.

With each movement she focused on Gage’s actions.

Big, bad frickin’ man! He just had to get the bad guy. Just had to put himself in danger for a town he swore he didn’t care about. Yeah, right. Talk about denial.

Now look at the fix the two of us are in!

He’s gonna hear about this! Just as soon as they were above ground. He’d damn well better appreciate her playing mole for him.

“He’ll appreciate it, Bobby. You’re doing great,” Deke coached in her ear.

Damn, had she said those words out loud?

She allowed her anger at Gage for running into the damn tunnel after Davis to override the fear bubbling just beneath the surface of her mind. Anger was way more productive than panic.

Suddenly, she heard tapping from below. Her heart swelled and her panic ebbed further with the positive proof he still lived. But why was he tapping instead of talking? Was he injured?

“Gage?” she called, wondering if he could hear her.

No answer. She pushed the tank forward, avoiding the grapefruit-sized rock just in front of her. The light from above barely reached this far down. Another few feet and she’d be in total darkness. She wanted to see his face, hear his voice.

“Gage, dammit can you hear me?”

***

“Gage?”

Gage shook his head.

Bobby? Had he just heard her voice?

No. No way could she be that close to him.

Before the second beam fell and the earth tried to swallow him up he’d seen the size of the shrunken tunnel. She wouldn’t be able to get to him. Not in that narrow space above him. She hated small closed rooms, a shaft less than four feet wide would do her in.

Great.
Trapped below ground in a small space, seven feet by four feet on three sides, and a couple of beams holding more earth above him wasn’t bad enough? Now he was hearing things.

It was his own stupid fault he was trapped. He’d let everyone down. He’d come home to lick his wounds, got caught up in losing Dad and believing danger only existed in the city, not in sleepy little Westen.

Idiot
.

How many times over the years as a cop had he found the most innocent-looking situation held the most dangerous outcome? Davis had murdered and manipulated his crimes under the radar for a long time, risking countless lives. Now, the whole town depended on him to protect them from evils such as Davis and he’d failed.

Light flashed above him. Then it was gone. Had he really seen it? Or was it just another hallucination like hearing Bobby call him?

Maybe that beam that hit his head had done more than daze him. Maybe the meth kitchen’s explosion spread chemicals down here and they were messing with his brain. He had to be hallucinating.

Ah, but what a great hallucination to have before dying. Bobby’s sweet, sexy voice. The voice that reminded him how great she felt writhing beneath him. If he was going to hallucinate, he might as well enjoy it.

“Gage, dammit can you hear me?”

Okay, Bobby just cussed at him. That wasn’t a hallucination. She really was just up the narrow shaft from him. What the hell was she doing there? And why had Deke let her climb to the shaft in the first place?

“Bobby!” He croaked out around the dust that clogged his throat.

“Thank God! Are you hurt? Can you reach up into the hole?”

“I’m a little dazed.” His dry throat hurt to talk. “Beam hit me. It’s blocking part of the passage.”

“Okay. I’m coming down farther. I’ve got an air tank and some bottled water for you. Will they fit?”

“Water, yes. Don’t know about the tank.”

Pebbles rained down on him. He closed his eyes until they stopped. Something clanked against the beam a foot over his head. Damn, let it hold.

“Bobby, stop.”

Bracing his back and feet against the small space’s walls for purchase, he wiggled close. His head one foot below the largest beam, he reached up.

Fingers caught with his.

Warm, soft, sweaty fingers.

Bobby.

She’d faced her worst fear to come after him.

Tears filled his eyes. Other than Dad, no one had ever sacrificed so greatly for him.

“Gage,” she whispered and he heard the relief in her voice.

He swallowed around the lump in his throat.

“Why?”

“Why am I here? Because you need air until we can get you out of here.”

He swallowed again. “No. Why are
you
down here?”

“Because Deke and Wes wouldn’t fit.”

“You hate small spaces.”

She didn’t answer him.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. It took great courage for her to come down here and now he’d reminded her of her fear. What if she panicked now?

“Here take this. You put the cloth thingy over your head.” She thrust something into his hand.

Taking the cloth, he fit it over his head. “Ready.”

She slipped a bottle of cold water in his hand. “Drink first.”

It tasted like manna from heaven. Cold, clean, wet.

As soon as he’d finished it, he dropped the empty bottle below him. The hollow sound of plastic bouncing echoed beneath him. “What’s next?”

A hard plastic mask was thrust into his hands.

“This snaps on the front. You inhale deep to seal it.”

Following her instructions he fit the air mask in place. Instantly he inhaled clean air. The mask also kept the dirt out of his eyes and mouth.

“Push the button on the side of the mask to amplify your voice so we can hear you.”

With one hand, he pushed the button, the other groped above him, only to be met by her fingers. He curled his around them. God, they felt good! She gave his a little squeeze.

“We’re going to get you out of here.” The confidence in her words brought an ache to his chest.

“You need to get out of that shaft before…” the words clogged his throat. He didn’t want to think about her dying here with him. Dying from the thing she feared the most to be with him. He swallowed. “…before it collapses.”

“I’m not leaving you alone down here.”

The defiance in her voice stroked that vulnerable spot deep inside. She needed to get out of here, but dammit he didn’t want to let go of her.

“Why?”

“Why am I not leaving you alone? Because I
need
to know you’re alive.”

“Why?”

“Why?” Her voice grew soft.

“Tell me.” He squeezed her fingers. He wanted to hear the words. Needed to hear the words. Once, before…