Out of Control (22 page)

Rafe almost ran away. It was an evil impulse. But he wanted out.

Seth was being eaten by monsters.

The cave was a monster coming for him next.

They'd slid down into the mouth of a creature who would feast on their bones. To run, to leave Seth was weak and ugly, but for a moment Rafe almost did it. He almost abandoned his little brother to run for the sunlight.

How many times had Pa told him he had to protect his little brothers? Then Pa would ride off for days, weeks. But instead of protecting them, he'd brought them down here, and now he wanted to run. Save himself. He fought to do the right thing, and it felt as if sleet coursed through his veins.

Just a couple of steps behind Rafe, Ethan pointed at a black entrance to a side tunnel. “He's down there.”

Ethan rushed into the opening.

“Be careful,” Seth yelled. “There's a hole!” Seth was talking, warning them. He wasn't being eaten alive. He wasn't already dead. They ran toward him.

Wherever their little brother was, he was keeping his head. After those few shouts of terror, he'd gained control of himself and shouted directions and caution.

It was a good thing he did.

Seth's warning saved Ethan. With a short cry of fear, Ethan skidded to a stop right on the brink of a gaping hole in the cavern floor.

“Seth!” Ethan dropped to his knees.

Rafe went cold clear through but was glad of it because his mind seemed to work better with his gut turned to ice.

“Back up.” Seth's voice came from the darkness below where Ethan knelt. “The ground won't hold.”

Rafe knew there were holes in this place that seemed to be bottomless. How would they get Seth out of there?

“Won't hold what?” Ethan reached out his lantern. The light trembled as Rafe came up beside Ethan without looking at his face. He couldn't stand to see how Ethan was. Of the three of them, Ethan was the one who didn't like this place. He always came along and never acted scared. In fact, he delighted in pretending all his spooky ideas were for fun, but Rafe could tell Ethan really was spooked.

Rafe leaned forward. Ethan lowered the lantern past the edge of the pit, and Rafe saw that he and Ethan were kneeling on stone as thin as an eggshell.

The ground won't hold.

“Back up, Ethan,” Rafe ordered as he quickly scuttled backward. Then he shouted, “We'll get you out, Seth.”

Ethan started back just as the stone under his hand cracked and his whole arm fell through the floor.

Ethan landed hard on his face and belly. An ugly crack sounded when his chest hit. Ethan yelled in fear and scooted away from the fracturing hole, flat on his stomach.

“Hurry, Ethan!”

Ethan shoved himself backward and the stone broke again and again, as if the collapsing ground followed him, wanted him. Was hungry for him. Then it all shattered and he plunged forward. Rafe grabbed him by the waist of his pants before he went into the abyss.

The lantern fell and shattered. Flames shot up from below as the kerosene spread and ignited. Ethan dangled, head down.

“Fire!” Seth screamed in pain. “Rafe, help me!”

The ground quit breaking off. Terrified for Seth, Rafe yanked hard and heard Ethan's pants rip.

Seth's screams grew louder. Flames shot up until Rafe thought he was staring right into the entrance to Hades.

Ethan cleared the ledge with a backward lunge. Rafe flew back along with Ethan. A jagged piece of rock raked Rafe's forehead. Stars exploded behind his eyes. Seth screamed again and Rafe threw himself forward.

Flames coated the rocks below. Seth was lit up, leaping. “I'm burning. I'm on fire. Rafe! Ethan!” One arm and the whole back of Seth's shirt blazed, splashed with kerosene.

“Get your shirt off, Seth!” Rafe roared to be heard over the distance and the yelling and the crackling fire. “Get it off!”

Seth caught the front of his shirt with both arms, one on fire, and jerked his shirt open, throwing it aside. Throwing the fire off himself. Seth slapped at his hair, still on fire, and shrieked with pain.

“You're all right. We'll get you out.”

“My arm is burned, Rafe!” The rocks were still flaming between Rafe and Seth. There was no way down or up. Rafe's cool control slipped. He fought down his panic. How would they get Seth out of there?

“Just be careful of the fire. We're here. We'll get you.”

“My arm hurts. I don't think I can use it to climb up, even if there is a way.” Seth's voice cracked, and a muffled sob came from down in that awful, burning lake of fire.

The fire on the kerosene-soaked rocks was dying. Which made Rafe think of something else. He gave one look at Ethan, who even in the darkness, looked pale as milk. Ethan was sitting, relaxed, leaning against the wall of the tunnel as if he didn't have a single worry in the world.

“Ethan, go get one of the torches.” A moment of dizziness almost stopped Rafe, but he fought it off.

“What?” Ethan sounded unsteady, dazed, his eyes locked on the flames.

Rafe lifted his hand and touched hot liquid coating his face. Blood. There was no time to attend to that. “Ethan!”

Ethan barely managed to turn his eyes from the glowing depths. Ethan wasn't close enough to the hole to see Seth. But he could see the light cast by the flames. Rafe knew, even if Ethan didn't, that when those flames died, they'd be trapped in the pitch-darkness.

He lunged toward Ethan and grabbed his arm hard enough to leave bruises. “I'm going for a torch.”

“What?” Ethan lifted his head too slowly and looked Rafe in the eye, but he didn't seem to understand.

“We're going to be down here in the dark in a couple of minutes. I'm going for a torch while the fire from down there can still give me a little light. Talk to Seth. Make sure he knows we haven't left him.”

Another of those muffled sobs sounded from below. Seth was the toughest guy Rafe knew and had been since Rafe's earliest memories. He must be in agony to cry.

The light diminished. Even now, Rafe would be fumbling along in the darkness for a long time walking back to the last torch they'd left.

“Talk to him!”

Ethan shuddered so hard he almost shook off Rafe's hand.

From fury and fear and a simple need to hurt somebody, Rafe clenched his fist and slammed it into Ethan's face.

“Hey!” The blow seemed to bring Ethan out of whatever shock he'd been in.

Seth's cries grew louder as the fire dimmed. “Talk to him. Talk to Seth. I'll be right back.”

“No, don't leave us!” Ethan clawed at Rafe. That was when Rafe figured out his brother wasn't thinking right at all. He probably
had
hit his head. And Rafe had just hit him again. Stupid, cruel thing to do.

“I'll be right back. Talk to Seth.” Taking a split second to wonder if the floor of this place had any more stretches made of rock that broke like glass, Rafe jumped to his feet.

He ran away from the light and suddenly he was running wild. Running away.

Rafe shook his head and was back with Julia.

“Seth was so badly burned. For weeks we weren't sure if he'd live. After he'd cheated death, he was never the same. The pain made him . . . made him crazy. He had terrible nightmares. Ma and Pa couldn't stand it. Ma was always a quiet woman, but after the accident she spent most of the time crying and sitting in her chair. Pa couldn't stand the nightmares and got so he didn't come home much. Ethan got so he wouldn't take anything seriously. He knew, more than anyone else, how close I came to abandoning him and Seth in that pit, and he's never fully trusted me again. Never cared about me or anyone again.

“If I'm tested like that again, I can't promise to do the right thing.” He didn't look her in the eye. He couldn't. “I wouldn't blame you if you were afraid to join your life to mine.”

They knelt face-to-face on that tunnel floor, and he waited for her to stand up and walk away in disgust. Leave him. Any decent woman would.

Her arms came around him and she gathered him in.

He shouldn't let her. He wasn't up to the job of protecting her and her family. He should let her find a man who was strong enough, controlled enough to put her ahead of everyone else, for sure ahead of himself.

Her arms tightened and Rafe couldn't push her away.

He set the lantern aside and dragged her into his arms.

He smiled to think of coming at them from the deep heart of the cavern.

Then he thought of where they must be standing, right on the brink of that hole in the floor. It was the one place he hated. The ledge was so narrow on the side of it and he'd have to cross it.

He found one of the many torches his friend had made and struck a match. He'd reveal himself and see if they let him get close. If they did run, he'd shoot out their lanterns and they'd run into pure darkness.

Fervently he hoped they wouldn't recognize him as a danger until it was too late.

He quickly set his torch aside and took off his holster, then tucked his gun into the small of his back. Laughing quietly, he reclaimed the torch, then made his way forward, wiping his palms on his tattered pants.

Tired of the waiting.

By the time Rafe quit kissing her, he was almost completely in control again—except for the part of himself that kept finding excuses to kiss Julia. At least he was distracted from all the twisting shame inside him.

They held each other, kneeling together.

“And . . . and you were here?” Julia asked. “You knew this exit to the cavern was here all along?”

“No, we were on the other side.” Rafe's eyes followed the hole to the far side just as a man holding a torch stepped into view.

Julia screamed and tightened her hold. “That's him! The man I saw duck into this cave the other day. And it's got to be the man who stranded me down here.”

The man tensed for a moment as if prepared to run, but he . . . didn't.

Instead he straightened and lifted his torch.

Rafe stared, slowly rising to his feet, pulling Julia up with him. The man looked bone thin. He had a full beard and hair so shaggy, long and wild, a grizzly would have offered him a comb. The clothing hanging from his skeletal frame was in rags, the sleeves torn into strips. Holes showed his legs to the point of indecency. Rafe rubbed his eyes and looked again. And saw the same impossible thing.

“We need to get him.” Julia yanked on Rafe's arm. “We'll take him to town and turn him over to the sheriff.”

“We're not going to have him arrested, sweetheart.”

“Oh, yes we are.”

“Oh, no we're not.” Rafe couldn't look away.

“But he's dangerous. I could have died.”

“Not only aren't we going to have him arrested,” Rafe said, looking down at her but only for a moment, afraid he was seeing a vision that would vanish if he looked away from the man, “we're going to have to let him live with us.”