VEILED MIRROR (23 page)

That’s the past. Stay in the present.
Jason took a deep breath and looked into Beth’s eyes. She needed him to stay focused.

“Let me help you, Bob. The sheriff is on the way. He knows you have Beth and where you are. There’s only one way out of here.”

Anderson paused, eyes narrowed. “I don’t think so. You couldn’t have told him where I was going when you left the house, and there’s no cell reception here. It’ll take hours before they check this place. I’ll be back at the ranch calling 911 to report a break-in before the sheriff gets his thumb out of his ass.”

“Are you sure? I found you pretty quick.”

Anderson pressed his weapon against Beth, forcing her head over nearly to her shoulder. “Then I guess I’d better hurry up and get this over with.” His voice sounded strained, on the edge.Jason took a step back. If he pushed Anderson too hard, the man might kill Beth. He took in Anderson’s sweaty face and tight jaw. He looked desperate, and desperate people were unpredictable.

“Now move!”

Somehow Jason summoned a smile. “Take it easy, Bob. We’re all friends here.”

“Cut the crap. Turn around and get moving.”

Jason took another step backward, into the tunnel. “Why are you doing this, Bob?”

Anderson shifted his grip on Beth, grabbing her injured hand and digging his fingers into the bloody handkerchief.

A sharp cry escaped Beth’s lips, as she cringed and paled.

Anger flared again, making it hard to breathe. “Don’t!” Jason took a quick step forward, then stopped. He had to get control of the situation somehow. He had to get control of himself.

Anderson’s mouth twisted in a nasty smile. “Do it! Or do you want to see your girlfriend’s head explode?”

As if he watched through a scope, Jason saw Anderson’s finger tighten on the trigger. His heart nearly stopped. “You don’t need to do that, Bob. You’re in charge here. Take it easy.”

“Don’t tell me to take it easy. Just shut up and get down that tunnel.”

Jason turned. His shoulders itched. He hated giving his back to Anderson. “You’re not a man who likes to hurt people, Bob. Why don’t you let Beth go? Then you and I can talk about how to get you out of this situation.”

Beth hated that she
was so glad to see Jason. When he’d stepped into the mine, her heart had leapt with hope. But he was only going to get himself shot again. Killed. Because of her.

Jason paused. “I have a flashlight in my pocket. Mind if I get it?”

“You won’t need it.” Anderson released his hold on her for just long enough to click on his head lamp. Then he grabbed a handful of her shirt again.

Jason continued down the passage. Anderson followed, pushing her in front of him. The tunnel was tall enough that Jason could stand upright and wide enough to drive a car into.
Jason’s car?
Beth thought wildly.
He could hide Jason’s car in here, drive away, and no one would find us for months.

They walked in silence for maybe fifty yards, as the passage curved slightly to the left. The light from the entrance grew faint. Beth’s heart thudded hard and fast. Every step brought them closer to death. What was she doing here? She’d thought that pretending to be Ellie would draw out the killer. She hadn’t planned on this. And now, because of her, Jason was going to die too.

A tunnel opened on Jason’s right. Anderson said, “Turn there.” Jason complied, and they followed him, their steps crunching and echoing off the stone. This passage was narrower than the other had been and sloped downward. The rock changed and the air grew stale. Timbers supported the ceiling here, but they were splintered and bent with age and strain. Fallen rocks littered the floor. Beth was glad of the light from Anderson’s head lamp.

Another alcove opened to the right.

“That’s far enough,” Anderson said.

Jason turned to face them.

Beth thought her heart would beat its way out of her chest. This was it. Anderson was going to kill them,
now
. She stared into Jason’s eyes.
How can he look so calm?

“Turn around and walkover to that recess.” Anderson moved the gun away from her head and pointed it at Jason.

“No.”

The gun came back to her head. “Do it, or I
will
shoot her.”

“You’re going to shoot her anyway. But if you’re going to kill
me
, you’ll have to look me in the eye while you do it. I’m not going to make it easier for you.”

Beth’s pounding heart almost stopped.
What’s Jason doing?
Was he trying to get them killed that much sooner? “Wait! Wait! Let’s not be hasty, here,” Beth interrupted. “You know you really don’t have to kill us, Bob. You could tie us up. Leave us here. It could take days before anyone found us. You could be long gone by then.”

Anderson shook his head. “And what about my family? What about them? I can’t take them on the run.”

“I didn’t know you had a family, Bob,” Jason said. “What’s your wife’s name?”

To Beth’s surprise, Anderson answered.“Barbara.”

Jason smiled. “Any kids?”

Beth stared at Jason.
A minute ago he was trying to get us killed and now he’s chatting about family?

“What do you care?” Anderson snarled.

“I guess I envy you, Bob. I’ve always wanted to get married and have kids. Once I found the right woman.”

The air became cooler and Beth’s heart beat harder, if that was possible. What was Jason saying?

“We have two. Andrea and Tammy.”

Jason smiled again. “Girls. I’d love to have a couple of daughters. I bet they’re great.”

“They’re a pain in the butt. And expensive as hell. But yeah, they’re great.”

Beth could hear the answering smile in Anderson’s voice. She felt his hand relax where it was fisted in her shirt, and suddenly she understood what Jason was doing.

Then Anderson’s tone hardened. “And I’m not going to give them up.”

“Why would you have to?” Beth asked.

“I’m not going back to prison. Now shut up! I don’t want to talk about this!”

“Prison?” Jason persisted in a gentle tone.

“Don’t play stupid. You must have it figured out by now.”

“As a matter of fact, we don’t,” Jason said. “Why don’t you tell us?”

Beth felt Anderson shrug. “I owed some not very nice people, so I borrowed the money from Palmer. I would have paid it back, too, except he decided to go to Africa and give his entire share of the family trust to the damn church. Their audit will ruin everything. I need the inheritance from Chris to cover my tracks. It would have gone off without a hitch, except you turned up pregnant.”

“I told you—”

“Yeah, whatever. Your
sister
had to go. I knew Nyles from before, from Inside, and he owed me a favor. Only he botched it, and here we are.”

Beth felt a sudden chill. She couldn’t keep the horror out of her voice. “You killed Ellie
because
she was pregnant?”

“I didn’t kill her. Nyles did. He shot out your tire. Her death had to look like an accident. Just as yours will.”

“But you paid him to do it,” Jason said softly.

Anderson’s hand tightened in her shirt again. “Don’t you understand? I need that money! Barbara doesn’t know I did time. If Palmer finds out I took the money he’ll insist I confess my sins. He’ll want me to ‘purify my soul.’ Barbara will leave me, and take the kids. I’ve worked too hard to build a new life. I couldn’t let your sister and her brat ruin everything.” He raised the gun and pointed it at Jason’s chest. “And you’re not going to, either.”

The air grew icy. Goosebumps rose on Beth’s arms and she shivered. Anderson’s words turned to white vapor in the air.

A scream of unearthly rage echoed off the stone walls. Every hair on Beth’s body stiffened.

“What—what was that?” Anderson’s light moved around jerkily as he turned his head from side to side, looking for the source.

A whirlwind rose, blasting them with swirling grit. Beth braced her feet and raised her hands to guard her face from the stinging vortex.

A glowing form coalesced within the maelstrom. Its wide eyes were red as blood and its lips drawn back in rage. Its hands were raised, fingers hooked like claws. Beth recoiled in horror.

That can’t be Ellie
. But it was.

“You killed my husband and child for
money?
” Ellie screeched.

Beth wrenched free as Anderson gasped and stepped back.

Ellie rushed toward Anderson in a cloud of stinging debris, flying at him like an avenging angel.

H
oly shit!
Jason caught Beth as she stumbled free of Anderson’s grasp.

Anderson backed toward the alcove, his face contorted with fear. He fired over and over at the figure that hovered above him. “Get back! Get back!” His shouts were tinged with panic. Bullets bit wood from the rotten beams and slivers of stone from the walls.

The sound of gunfire in the narrow tunnel was deafening, but Jason could still hear the timbers cracking and giving way as the roof began to collapse. He grabbed Beth’s arm. “Come on! We’ve got to move!” he shouted, as a large rock fell and hit Anderson’s shoulder. Anderson screamed and fell backward into the recess. Boards splintered beneath him. His scream turned into a shriek as he, and Ellie, disappeared from sight.

The hair rose on Jason’s neck as he tugged Beth further down the tunnel, away from the falling roof. He’d never heard such raw terror come from a man’s throat before.

The temperature returned to normal. Dust choked the air as Jason hunched over Beth, shielding her with his body. He pulled his tee-shirt up over his nose. Small stones bounced off his shoulders bringing twinges of old pain. It seemed like the crashing roar of tumbling stone would go on forever …

Then it stopped.

Jason held his breath and listened. A few last rocks and pebbles sifted down in the near silent dark. Silent except for their coughing.

Beth coughed, nearly doubling over. Jason hacked. He pulled his shirt over his head and ripped it down the middle. “Here. Tie this over your mouth,” he said, handing her half. He fastened his own, then fished his mini-flashlight out of his pocket. Beth was shaking so much she kept fumbling the cloth. “Here, let me help.”

A minute later her face was covered and she was breathing easier.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“I think so. You?”

“I’m good.” He was, now that Anderson wasn’t holding a gun to her head.

Her arms went around him. “Thank God. I thought he was going to shoot you.”

He held her close, savoring her warmth, her heartbeat, her soft breath on his skin. She was alive.
Thank you, God
. For a moment he almost felt giddy, then the fear he hadn’t let himself feel before rushed through him. Anderson had come so close to killing her. Jason’s throat closed, and his eyes burned with tears. He’d nearly lost her. Again.

Is this what it’s like for the wives and girlfriends of the other agents? How do they stand it?

He didn’t want to think about what life would be like without her. Jason rubbed moisture from his eyes. Damn dust.

He forced the fear away. They weren’t clear of this yet. Unless he missed his guess, the way they’d come in was now blocked.

He made himself focus on the situation at hand. He needed to make sure Anderson was no longer a threat. How many times had Bob fired his weapon? He wasn’t sure. Jason looked in the direction that he’d last seen the man. A beam of light pointed upward in the alcove where Anderson had fallen, catching on the fine particles hanging in the air.

Jason used the narrow beam of his flashlight to pick his way over the rubble as it shifted and rolled beneath his feet. Beth started to follow, but he turned and told her, “Stay there.”

“Help me!” Anderson’s voice was faint.

Jason turned toward the sound. “Anderson?”

“Here!”

Jason moved forward cautiously, shuffling and crawling, playing his light over the uneven ground. And then his beam fell on nothing.

Jason stopped abruptly. The floor of the alcove was gone. Edges of shattered wood that had once covered a shaft now peeked from beneath dust and rock. Jason braced himself on the wall and looked down. Twenty feet below, Anderson lay twisted at the bottom, impaled on a broken board. His face was gray with dust and blotched with blood, his hands empty of a weapon. His hard hat lay cocked at an angle, the lamp shining upward.

“Help me.” Anderson lifted an arm in supplication.

Jason gagged as emotion swamped him. Horror. Anger. Grief. Satisfaction. This bastard had Chris and Ellie murdered, and had nearly killed Beth twice. He deserved whatever he got.

Anderson’s labored breathing echoed off the stone.

Jason examined the crumbling walls of the shaft. There was no way to get down there without breaking his neck.
There’s nothing I can do for him, anyway.

The other man’s mouth worked gruesomely, like a dying fish, but no sound came out. The smell of blood and bowel mingled with the dust.

Jason’s throat tightened. He did
not
want to feel sympathy for this bastard. He wouldn’t. He looked up at the dim ceiling, willing away his unwanted feelings. When he looked back, Anderson’s chest was still.

Jason stood for a moment, eyes closed, getting himself under control.

“Jason?”

He returned to Beth’s side, and folded her into his arms. “It’s all right, Bethie. He’s dead. He can’t hurt you anymore.”

Beth nodded, staring at
the beam of light shining up from the pit where Anderson had disappeared. She wouldn’t have wished him dead, but he’d killed Ellie and Chris and he’d brought this on himself. She couldn’t feel sorry for him.

And she and Jason were alive! Relief flowed over her like a river. They were trapped in a collapsed mine, but they were alive.

She started to shake, and the tunnel started to tilt. She clutched at Jason’s bare arms.

“Here, sit down.” Jason guided her to a relatively clear spot on the floor of the tunnel.

Beth’s stomach started to lurch. “I think I’m going to be sick,” she said, just before proving herself right. She pulled down her makeshift mask and doubled over, bracing one hand against the wall, while Jason steadied her and rubbed her back.

It was more than embarrassing to lose it like this, but her stomach didn’t care. It tossed her dignity onto the floor along with the remnants of her breakfast. When she’d caught her breath, she said, “I’m sorry, I—”

“—Don’t worry about it,” Jason cut her off. “It’s the adrenaline. I’ve seen seasoned agents do the same thing.”

Beth made a face. “I wish we had some water, though.”

“Here. I don’t have any water, but maybe this will help.” He pulled a roll of breath mints from his pocket and offered her one.

Beth took it gratefully. “Thanks. You’re better than a Boy Scout.”

Jason gave her the three fingered salute and a sheepish grin. “Be prepared.”

They stared for a moment at each other, smiling. She could barely see him in the limited light. His face and hair and clothing were gray with dust. She probably looked just as bad, but right now she didn’t care. She had a future again. A life to be lived, as Ellie used to say.

And what was that future? Jason had said things to Anderson a few minutes ago about family and kids that had implied—what? Or had he just been playing Anderson?

Beth shook her head. They had other things to worry about now. “How are we going to get out of here?”

“We’re going to sit here and wait for the sheriff to dig us out.”

“Connor?” Beth echoed, feeling stupid. “Shouldn’t we look for a way out?”

Jason shook his head. “I wasn’t lying to Anderson. The sheriff knows where we are. Montgomery came back with some papers and saw you and Anderson driving off. That’s how I knew where to find you. I told him to tell Connor, and I left a note on my windshield to let them know we’re inside the mine. It’s just a matter of time before Connor gets us out of here.”

A rock the size of her fist dropped from the ceiling, barely missing them.

Jason jerked her away. “Shit!”

“Maybe we should wait a little further down the tunnel, away from the loose rock,” she suggested.

“Yeah, maybe we should.”

Jason played his thin
light over the ceiling. The support timbers overhead were split and bent. So far they were holding, but he’d feel better if they found a place to wait where the roof didn’t look like it would collapse if they sneezed too loudly. He took Beth’s hand.

They’d gone about twenty feet, when he pulled them up short. “Wait. We need to leave a marker, to let the sheriff know we’re alive.” He led them back near the wall of rubble. “Help me build a cairn. They’ll probably put a camera through first, and we want them to know someone survived the cave-in.”

There were plenty of stones at hand. They were almost done erecting a two foot tall pyramid when Beth exclaimed, “Hey! I found Anderson’s gun. Not that we need it now.”

“All right!” Jason took it from her, released the clip and cleared it. The weapon still looked operational and it had three rounds left. He slammed the clip home and stuck the gun in his belt. Then he held out his empty hand and laced his fingers with hers.

As they navigated the passage, the rock strewn floor sloped downward. The tunnel curved to the right and they lost the small benefit of Anderson’s still glowing headlamp. The dark crowded around them, undaunted by his tiny flashlight. Further from cave-in, the air was cool and still and less dusty. It was weirdly quiet, as if the rest of the world had disappeared, and their footsteps and breathing echoed off the stone walls. Beth gripped his hand tightly. He was glad of the contact.

Jason pulled down his mask. “How’re you doing, babe?”

Beth pulled hers off too. “I’m okay. What about you?”

“I’m fantastic.”

“What? You’re a closet spelunker?”

Jason laughed. “Not hardly. But I have found us a place to rest.” He shined his light on the beams above them. They looked as straight and strong as the day they were put in place. “Let’s sit down.”

“Do you think any animals live in here?” Beth asked.

Animals.
He hadn’t thought of that.
What kind of animals might be in here? Mountain lions? Rattlesnakes? Bears?
“Not this far in.” He tried to sound confident. “And if there are, the shooting and the cave-in probably scared them off.”

Beth sat and leaned
against the rough wall; Jason joined her, pulling the gun from his belt and laying it beside him on the floor. They touched at shoulder and hip, still holding hands.

“I’m going to turn off the flashlight.”

She didn’t want to sit in the dark, but Jason would be with her. “Yeah, we should save the battery.”

A moment later the dark enveloped them.

“How long do you think we’ll have to wait?” Beth asked.

“I don’t know. Several hours, at least.”

“Maybe we should go back to the rock-fall. Start digging from our side.”

Jason squeezed her hand. “Believe me, I’d rather be doing something too. But without the proper tools we might bring the whole thing down.”

Beth shivered.
What if Montgomery didn’t call the sheriff? What if Connor takes the wrong road?

“Don’t worry. At worst, we might get a little thirsty by the time they find us, but we’ll be fine.”

“Okay. It’s just that … there’s all that rock hanging over our heads.”

“Don’t think about it. Pretend you’re in a movie theater waiting for the show to start. Or even better, that you’re in a darkened bedroom with me.” He kissed her. It was gentle and tender and warmed her blood.

His attempt to ease her fears made her love him all the more. “I admit that several hours in the dark alone with you does stimulate the imagination,” Beth said when they broke apart, “but the location isn’t exactly comfortable.”

“Sad, but true,” Jason agreed, kissing her temple. “Okay, we’ll save the passion for later.” After a moment’s silence, he asked, “So, what now?”

What now?
They’d found Chris and Ellie’s killer. Would she ever see Ell again? Or was her sister gone now that she and Chris had been avenged? Beth hoped her last memory of Ellie wouldn’t be that horrible face she’d shown to Anderson.

Jason rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand. It was just a small movement, but it was somehow comforting and erotic all at once.

“I don’t know.”

What was going to happen with him?
What do I want to happen?
Beth stared into the dark, hungry for some light. It was easier if she closed her eyes.
It doesn’t matter what I want.
She leaned her head against the wall. She’d never wanted to care so much about another person. She and Ellie had seen how their father’s obsession had destroyed him. But that hadn’t stopped her sister. Ellie had risked falling totally, hopelessly, in love. Even when Chris died, she hadn’t regretted her choice.

Beth had told herself it was Jason’s friendship she’d missed when he dumped her, but that wasn’t completely true. It was his love she’d wanted. Still wanted. When she’d seen Anderson’s gun pointed at Jason’s chest … The memory of that fear almost choked her.

If she was honest with herself, if she let herself imagine her deepest desires here in the quiet dark—

“Beth …”

Beth jumped, startled out of her thoughts.

Jason put his other hand on hers. “Hey, take it easy.”

“Sorry. I guess I’m a little skittish.”

“Don’t. You have nothing to be sorry for. I’m the one who should apologize.”

“Whatever for?”

“I didn’t keep you safe.”

Beth blinked in surprise. “Are you kidding? You stood up to Anderson even with a gun pointed at you. If it weren’t for you, I’d be dead now. Anderson would have shot me, or pushed me down that hole. Ellie might have scared him to death afterward, but I’d still be dead. I can’t believe you stayed so calm.”

Jason was quiet. Beth wondered if he’d heard anything she said.

Then out of the darkness, his warm voice said, “Marry me.”

Beth drew in a sharp gasp and her heart pounded in confusion. “What?”

“Marry me. Please.”

Jason held his breath,
waiting for Beth’s answer, but she remained silent. “Beth?”

“I … I don’t …”

“I hadn’t planned on asking you like this. I should have waited, taken you out to dinner, bought you a ring. And I’ll do all those things. But we’ve already wasted so much time. I know that you want stability in your life. After what you’ve been through, I don’t blame you. There are other things I can do for the Bureau. I don’t have to work undercover.”