Rattled (30 page)

The darkness seemed to press around her. They’d probably only been going a minute or two, but it seemed oddly permanent, as if this tunnel could last forever. Not hell on earth, exactly, but maybe a form of purgatory, endlessly crawling through the dark. Being between Camie and Drew offered some comfort, but at the same time she was completely boxed in.

Maybe she was a little claustrophobic after all.

Camie said, “Hang on, we’re coming up on something.”

Erin wasn’t sure whether to be concerned that “something” could be dangerous or relieved at the break from the crawling monotony.

Camie twisted and sat with her back against the tunnel wall. “There’s a drop here. Not straight down, more of a forty-five degree angle. I’m not sure how far. Hold on.” She found a pebble on the ground and tossed it into the opening. It clattered for a second and then the sound stopped. “We should be all right if we can find a way to anchor the rope.” Her headlamp flashed around the roof and walls. “Hey, there’s a metal bolt in the wall!” She tugged on it. “Feels pretty solid, but I’ll find a backup too.” Camie slipped off her backpack and got to work with her anchoring gear.

Erin turned to sit against the wall. Tiger crawled into her lap, perhaps to get away from Camie’s movement and noise. Drew sat too, his shoulder brushing against hers. Erin squinted as his light flashed in her eyes. He pointed the headlamp straight up so it bounced off the ceiling without blinding her, and Erin did the same.

Drew took her right hand and held it gently. “How’s the finger?”

“All right. Just a little numb, like the rest of my hands.” She’d had to put the finger brace on over her gloves, since it wouldn’t fit inside. She wished she could take off her gloves and feel Drew’s hands, but it didn’t seem worth the bother for just a couple of minutes.

He lifted her hand, pushed the sleeve of her jacket back to expose her wrist, and pressed a kiss there, leaving her skin tingling. He lowered her hand and his breath fluttered against her cheek as she looked into his face. The world seemed to recede, leaving them alone in a dark cocoon. Drew whispered in her ear. “Do you know what we could be doing if we’d gone back to town instead of down this hole?”

Heat flooded Erin. What did it say about Drew’s power that his suggestion sounded so tempting, even compared to finding the treasure she’d been hunting for over a year? She leaned in until their lips touched. Erin gave a murmur of pleasure. Drew’s hand stroked up her neck and cupped her head. His mouth met hers, hard and hungry. Time spun out endlessly and Erin knew nothing but the kiss.

Camie’s voice broke through. “Sheesh, will you two get a room?”

“I tried,” Drew said. “I was overruled.”

Erin pulled back, still smiling at Drew. “She’s just jealous.”

“You know it,” Camie muttered. “And I don’t see why you two should sit their necking while I do all the work.”

“Division of labor,” Drew said. “You want to cuddle, you can have the cat.”

Camie chuckled. “Anyway, we’re ready to go. Drew, I’m assuming since you were military, you know how to rappel.”

“Sure.”

“All right. You go first. Then I’ll help Erin get started and you can help her at the bottom. I’m ninety-five percent sure the rope’s long enough to reach some kind of solid ground, but there’s a knot on the end to stop your descent just in case. It’ll probably be wet down there.”

“I’ll manage.” Drew squeezed past Erin. She moved farther back to make room near the drop. Drew sat with his legs over the edge of the drop and attached himself to the rope. A minute later, he pushed himself off the ledge and turned to face them.

“Let us know if you find any cave bears,” Camie said.

“Cave bears. Right.” But his expression said he wasn’t completely sure she was joking. “See you soon.” He winked at Erin and dropped out of sight.

Camie leaned over the hole to watch his descent. “He’s doing fine. Oh good, it’s not far. Twenty feet, maybe. We could have made it sliding on our butts, but we’ll want the rope anyway for getting back up.” She called down the hole. “What’s that stuff?”

Drew’s voice echoed up, sounding ghostly. “Pieces of a rotted old ladder. We’re definitely not the first people to come this way. I’m off the rope.”

Camie turned to Erin. “Your turn.”

Erin took a deep breath and nodded. She squeezed up next to Camie and sat at the edge of the hole. She could see Drew’s headlamp flashing around at the bottom. It looked farther than 20 feet to her. She tried to tell herself it was just like being on a playground slide. A really long slide. She started to feel lightheaded, so she stopped looking down and busied herself with her gear.

“Here’s your rappel device,” Camie said. “Remember, both ends of the rope go through and then through your locking carabiner. Which hand do you want to use for your anchor?”

Erin winced. “I guess I’d better use the left.” She turned the rappel device so the hanging ends of the rope were on her left side. She hadn’t rappelled left-handed before, but she didn’t want to count on her broken finger when she had to squeeze the rope to control her speed.

“There you go,” Camie said. “Now we do a safety check. I have two anchors and they are solid. The rope goes directly through this anchor and is attached to this backup with slings. Both sides of the rope go through your rappel device, then through your carabiner. Are you locked?”

Erin checked that her carabiner lock was closed. “Yes. And my harness is doubled back.” She tapped the buckle on her waist as she made sure it was properly fastened.

“You’ll keep your hand in the brake position and push off over the edge. Turn to face me before you start lowering, so you can brace your feet against the sloping side.” Camie leaned over the hole. “Drew, you ready with a fireman’s belay?”

“Ready!”

Camie looked back at Erin. “He’s holding the ends of the rope. If you start going too fast or feel out of control for any reason, he can pull on the rope and you’ll stop. You’re perfectly safe.”

Erin nodded. She didn’t quite trust herself to speak. It should be simple enough. It was just the strangeness of being in the dark, underground, that made it seem so odd.

She clenched her teeth, pressed her feet against the sloping rock wall, and pushed off of her seat until the rope tightened between the anchor and her harness. She wobbled as she turned her body to face back at Camie, but her brake hand’s death grip on the rope kept her in place at the top of the shaft. She was seated in her harness with her legs bent and feet on the sloping wall, positioned as if she were sitting in a chair but really hanging in empty air.

“Good,” Camie said. “Lower when ready. Remember to breathe.”

Erin nodded and forced air into her lungs. She told her hand to loosen on the rope, so the rope could slide through her belay device. Her hand refused to obey. Her body felt like a piece of wood, her joints locked in place. Erin scowled. Drew was waiting down there for her, and he was going to think she was an idiot if she couldn’t do a simple thing like rappel a short distance down an easily sloping shaft. He’d gone down in less time than it had taken her to turn around. Heck, she’d done harder things than this in the last 24 hours. What was wrong with her?

She took a deep breath and forced her hand to loosen on the rope. She still didn’t budge.

She was pulling the rope straight down from the belay device, which caused enough friction to hold her in place. She had to lift her hand up to the side. At some point the rope would start sliding through the belay device and she could control her speed by the position of her hand. Good. Fine. She lifted her hand slowly, trying not to think about the hole behind her, dropping down into dark underground recesses she couldn’t see.

The rope jerked through the belay device. Erin gasped as she dropped a couple of inches. She scowled again. The whole point was to go
down,
so why panic when it actually happened?

“You got it,” Camie said. “Take your time.”

Erin gave her a grateful smile, took another deep breath, and slowly brought her hand up into position again. She let the rope slide through her gloved hand and then through the belay device and slowly started working her way down the shaft. Her light shone on the rough rock, showing an occasional chiseled groove—footholds, perhaps. With the sloped wall under her feet, it didn’t really feel like she was falling. More like walking backward down stairs. Slippery, smooth stairs in the dark.

Something touched her back. Erin yelped and her feet slid on the slick rock. She lost her footing and started to pitch forward toward the sloping wall.

Arms wrapped around her. A second later, Erin realized she was hanging in the air, a foot off the ground, with Drew holding her by her waist. She closed her eyes, feeling like a fool.

“Sorry I startled you,” Drew said. “You can let go of the rope now. I’ve got you.”

Erin forced herself to loosen her grip until she slid to the floor. She stood still and let her heart return to normal while Drew unhooked the rope from her harness.

He called up the shaft, “Off the rope!” and then pulled Erin away.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“For what? You did great.”

“Yeah, right.”

“No, really. I’m surprised you’re still standing after everything you’ve been through. I’m not sure I would be.” He cupped her cheek in his hand. “You’re too hard on yourself. You’ve had a hell of a week. But I have something that I hope will make it all seem worthwhile.” His warm smile made her knees weak.

Erin leaned in for a kiss but he turned away. It took her a second to understand that she was supposed to look where his headlamp was pointing, through a rough archway into another small chamber. It took another second before she realized what she was seeing.

An old wooden chest, about two and a half feet high and over three feet long. Metal hinges crossed over wood that still showed signs of flaking black paint.

They had found treasure.

Drew watched Erin as she stared at the chest. In the washed-out light from the headlamps, her skin looked pale, her eyes large and dark. He heard scuffling behind him as Camie dropped down, but he couldn’t take his gaze off Erin. She blinked and her eyes shone with tears.

“A strongbox,” she murmured. “We did it.” She spun and a smile lit her face. “We did it!” She threw herself at Camie and they hugged, laughing. Tiger, perched on Camie’s backpack, gave a yelp as he wobbled. Drew grabbed the cat and set him on the ground. Erin released Camie and threw her arms around Drew. “Thank you.”

“Hey, you found it. I just saw it first, which hardly seems fair.”

“No, I mean, thank you for everything. We couldn’t have done it without you.”

“Well, I don’t know about that. I get the impression you two can do just about anything. But I’ll take some credit because it’s good for my ego.” Besides, she felt great pressed up against him—but he didn’t mention that.

Camie finished unhooking herself and dropped the rope against the sloping cliff wall. She slapped Drew on the back. “You’ve earned your spot on the team, that’s for sure. Now somebody show me exactly what we’ve found.”

Drew hung back to give the women the first close look at the treasure, which stood against the wall in another small “room” in the cave. They stepped into the small chamber, adjusting their headlamps.

Erin put her hand over her mouth. “Oh, my God.” Her voice sounded choked with tears. Drew moved into the room behind her, ready to deal with whatever had upset her. From inside the room, he could see what he’d missed before. On each side of the box, a body slumped against the wall. Men, dressed in long leather coats over button-up shirts and coarse pants, like something from an old Western movie, down to their boots. One had a cowboy hat still perched over his straggly gray hair. Their skin was gaunt, brown, and leathery.

“It’s all right,” Drew said. “They’ve been dead a long time.” He reached for Erin to offer comfort, but she stepped out of his grasp and knelt, her eyes never leaving the body in front of her.

“They’re mummified! Have you ever seen anything so amazing? The clothes have some insect damage, but it’s drier in here and they’re beautifully preserved. Look at this sword. Spanish. The bodies are obviously later, probably mid-1800s.” She turned her head to smile up at Drew and Camie. “Anyway, it’s evidence that we may have found the right treasure.”

Camie looked at Drew and shook her head. “You see how she is? It’s not enough that we found a treasure. It has to be the right treasure, or it doesn’t count.”

Erin laughed. “I’m a historian. And while we definitely found history here, it would be nice to know that I was right. That I followed the clues and found what I was looking for.” Her grin seemed to light up the small chamber better than the headlamps. “I’m not saying I’ll walk away and forget about it if it’s not the right treasure. But finding Felipe La Rue’s treasure would have so much more meaning than just stumbling on something by accident. That’s my ego, I guess. It’s a way of proving myself.”

Drew felt a funny pressure build up in his chest as he gazed at her. She was more suited to an office or classroom than a muddy cave in the desert. But she’d had a goal and she’d gone after it. Not for riches, but for knowledge and to make her place in the world. She’d tackled incredible challenges, taken on everything that came her way, faced her own fears and some she’d probably never imagined. Now she could sit in a damp hole next to a couple of dead bodies, her clothes streaked with mud, and smile like a kid at Christmas.