Extreme Exposure (3 page)

“You go first,” he said. When she shook her head, standing her ground, he said, “It’ll be better if you don’t have somebody above you. You’ll feel less closed in. Trust me.”

Yeah, and that way you’ll make sure I go.

Matt reached into his knapsack, pulled out a headband, and tied it on. It made him look rough, almost savage. “Once we start going, we’ll get out fast. I’ll shine the flashlight up so you can see.” He grabbed the knapsack, but left his tripod in the boat.

The first part wasn’t a problem. The hole wasn’t straight up, but steeply pitched, and there was enough room that they could have climbed side by side. She concentrated on finding places to put her feet and hands, and then pulled herself up. Water rushing below was a reminder of the need to hurry. After several minutes, arm muscles sore, she let her legs do the work.

The wide part ended. Ahead, the chamber veered to the left and narrowed abruptly, like an upside-down funnel. Stomach churning, she stopped, called out over her shoulder, “Why don’t we stay here? Wait for the tide to go out, and then we can climb back down.” The boat, smashing against the rocks, was barely visible in the darkness below.

“Too risky. Those men can get in when the tide drops.” Climbing up beside her, he put a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll talk you through this. It’s not far to the top and it’s on a slope. We should be able to crawl.” He handed her the flashlight. “Push it along in front of you.”

“You go first this time.” She wouldn’t get very far, and there wasn’t enough room for him to get past her if she stopped. He had to go first.

He hesitated, seemed about to argue, then said, “Keep in mind that if I can get through, you’ll have no problem. You’re a lot smaller.”

After a quick smile, Matt pushed his knapsack into the hole, crawled in. First his head disappeared, then his shoulders, torso, and legs. Soon just the soles of his boots were visible, before they too vanished.

Her chest tight, she pulled in a deep breath, let it out, then got down onto her hands and knees to follow him.

You can handle this. Don’t panic.

After a while, the tunnel narrowing, she had to drop onto her belly and use her arms to pull herself along. It was no longer of any use trying to convince herself she could handle it. She couldn’t. Her heart beat so hard she wondered if this was what a heart attack felt like. Closing her eyes, she tried to slow her breathing, but the thick, putrid smell of decaying earth filled her lungs and she opened them.

Water swirled in the chamber below them, still rising. If she didn’t move on, it would soon lap at her feet. She wanted to ask how far they would have to go to be out of its reach but the effort seemed too much. The rock was wet, making it impossible to tell if the water at high tide came this far. Above her, the flashlight illuminated Matt’s boots but little else.

“Keep coming.” His voice was muffled but calm. “We’ll get out of here.”

Stifling a curse, she took shallow breaths, not daring to risk deeper ones because it would make her bigger than she already was. Progress was by inches now. The passage had shrunk so much it seemed incomprehensible he could squeeze through. She came to a corkscrew, twisting first her upper body, then the lower to get through. The rock walls were a dark, writhing monster pressing against her. Cold, slimy. A wave of nausea churned her stomach. She fought the urge to vomit.

Matt’s voice broke through again, soothing, encouraging. Closing her eyes, she slithered forward, heard his voice without taking in what he was saying. Time passed—it was hard to tell how much, maybe twenty minutes, maybe an hour. When she looked up, daylight began filtering down the tunnel, like flakes of softly falling snow.

“Hurry,” she called up. Every cell in her body screamed to be out of the cave. Now.

“Just a minute.” His voice was a harsh whisper. “I hear something.”

Her heart squeezed, as if a heavy boulder had fallen onto her chest. The flashlight slipped out of her hand, bounced off the walls as it dropped down the passage below.

“Something’s moving around up there,” he said, more urgent now.

Fighting for air, she didn’t care. If she didn’t get out, she would die. She tried to tell him, but her throat was tight and no words would come out. Her mind cut back to a familiar nightmare. She was a child, maybe two or three, locked in a dark place—there was no recollection of how she’d got there—screaming to get out.

No scream came now. She had the sensation of going under water, as if she were drowning. Her numb fingers lost their grip on the slippery rock. Beneath her, the gaping black hole was like a big mouth waiting to swallow her.

CHAPTER THREE

E
mily!”

A voice drifted down through the tunnel into Emily’s consciousness. She was lying down, her check pressed into the cold rock. Dark spots, black and purple, floated in front of her eyes. Shaking herself out of her daze, she lifted her head and saw someone peering down the hole, a dark head surrounded by a halo of blue light.

“Come on,” the voice said, low but urgent. “We’ve got to get going.”

It was Matt. He was reaching down to her with his right arm.

She was having trouble thinking clearly. Air couldn’t enter her lungs. Where was she? A cave. Stomach cramping, she clawed at the rock with her fingers, pulled herself up. Let Matt drag her above ground.

Collapsing on her back on the hard ground, she closed her eyes against the blinding light, sucked fresh air into her lungs. Her heart started racing anew as she remembered he had heard something when they were in the cave. Fighting dizziness, she forced herself to sit up.

“What did you hear? Is somebody around?”

He looked down at her. “Must have been an animal. I can’t see anybody, and I don’t think it would be too hard to spot them if they were out there.”

As her eyes adjusted to the light, it wasn’t hard to see what he meant. They had emerged on the tip of a barren peninsula, a vast moonscape of gray bedrock that stretched for miles. It was broken by a scattering of pine trees, all runts, and occasional patches of green and brown where low grasses and shrubs struggled to grow.

It was the middle of nowhere. They had emerged from the horror of the cave into even greater danger. They were wide-open targets now. Her heart raced, and her arms and legs began shaking. He said, “Are you okay? We should get going.”

She gulped air, struggling for control. After a long moment, she was able to glance up. “I’m fine. I just need a minute.”

He didn’t say anything but his look seemed a good imitation of what a nasty drill sergeant might use on a slow recruit.

She said, “You go ahead.”

He picked up the knapsack, got out a water bottle, and handed it to her. She grasped the bottle with two shaking hands, tilted it up to her mouth, and took a long drink. Her breathing was still too rapid, but she’d managed to get it down a bit. At least her heart didn’t feel like it was going to explode.

Brushing a hand across her face, she stood, ignoring a feeling of wooziness that made her stumble. Steadying herself, she faced him squarely. “Thanks for helping me. I’d be dead if it weren’t for you.”

Mumbling something in reply, he put the water bottle back in a side pocket of the knapsack. Standing there, he looked as rugged and virile as the hero of an action movie, the filthy shirt and khaki headband only adding to the effect. He had everything but the weapon in his hand, the blood running down his face. A real-life Rambo, but leaner, better looking. Way better looking.

But definitely not her type. And way too much to handle right now. She was in no mood to tag along behind this guy, especially since it would put his life at further risk.

Her head clearing, she looked around, muttered a curse. It would take a day to walk out of here. The peninsula was about ten miles wide and fifteen miles long, jutting like a stubby finger out to the sea. There was open sea on two sides, and a long, narrow cove ran the length of the third. To the north, low gray hills of rock stretched down the finger and widened into forest at the end of the peninsula.

She turned back to him. “Do you know this area?”

“I’ve been here a few times. It’s pretty simple. We have to get to the nearest town, Egerton, which is forty miles—”

She cut in, “Do people know about this cave entrance?”

“It’s on all the park maps.” He took the knapsack off his shoulder, pulled out a map. It showed the state park, just over three hundred square miles, with the cave entrance clearly marked. “If the guys know about this entrance, they may come. I think we have to assume they will. We’ve got to move quickly—”

She put a hand on his arm to interrupt him, felt the tension in the taut muscles, quickly withdrew it. “I really appreciate what you’ve done for me. I wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for you.”

Dark eyes stared at her. “But?”

He was a big guy, standing close, but she wasn’t about to let him intimidate her. She tilted her head back to meet his eyes. “We split up here.”

He was about to speak but she said, resisting the urge to touch him again, “You should take the quickest route. I’ll do a wide circle—”

He didn’t give her a chance to finish. “Why are you so bloody stubborn?”

Her mouth fell open. “What are you talking about?”

“You refuse to accept help, even to save your own life.”

Crossing her arms, she stared up at him, tried to keep her face neutral. She was trying to spare him, so why was he being such a jerk about it? He should be jumping at the chance, not acting like some hot-to-trot hero.

She said, “Our chances are better if we split up.”

The muscles in his jaw clenched. “No, they’re not.”

Her chances wouldn’t be as good, but that wasn’t the point. She was fit, but not like him. She’d slow him down. They both knew it. She took a deep breath. Just put it in terms he could accept. “I’ve got a big target on my back, and I don’t want you to be collateral damage.”

“I’m not leaving you. And I’m not going to get killed, at least not without putting up a good fight. Neither are you.”

“If you get out first, you can call for help.”

He scoffed.

“I’ll be perfectly fine on my own.” It wasn’t like she had zero experience. Two years of Girl Guides counted for something, didn’t they? “This isn’t your decision to make. It’s mine. And I say we’re splitting up here.” She hated the idea that he thought she was helpless almost as much as she hated dragging him into this mess.

“Where’s your water? Food?”

Gritting her teeth, she said, “Okay, I need water. Give me a little bit, whatever you can spare. I can do without food.”

The small smile that formed on his full lips was a surprise. So was the strange little flip-flop in her stomach.

He said, “We’re in this together.”

The conversation wasn’t going at all like she had wanted it to. He wouldn’t listen to reason. Worse, he seemed to have some kind of pull over her. Not good. Normally, she wouldn’t go near a macho type like him with a ten-foot pole.

She blew out a noisy breath. “I’m not so big on togetherness.”

“So I noticed.” He put his hands on his hips, the smile still there, gently mocking. His upper lip was a bit bigger than the lower, with a little indentation that looked just big enough to fit a pinky finger.

He said, “I’ll make you a deal.”

She raised her eyebrows but didn’t say anything, already knowing the way this was going to go. She was going to be stuck with him. He had her pegged as a damsel in distress and himself as the hero.

“As soon as we’re out of this park and get to town, we go our separate ways. Okay?”

Huffing out a breath, she pretended to think about it for a second before nodding. It was more blackmail, but she had to have water. If he got killed, it would be his own fault. Besides, maybe her luck would change. There was always a chance those thugs thought she was already dead and weren’t coming at all.

Matt was pointing to a road on the map. “We have to hike to this road. It’s about fifteen miles, give or take.”

The road came straight down from the north to the top of the cove, then curved as it followed the cove on the other side down to Egerton. He was pointing to the top of the cove, where the road was the closest.

She said, “Then we’ll catch a ride to town?”

“That’s right.”

“What if those guys come?”

“If they’re coming, they’ll come along the road. They’ll probably wait there, because the only way across the barrens is on foot. But we’ve got an advantage. They won’t know for sure that we made it out alive.” He looked at the map again. “There is another option.”

She furrowed her brow. Not that she could see, unless her wannabe hero had wings and could fly.

He said, “We could hike to the cove, find a cabin to hide out in. I know there are a few in that area. The cove is closer than the road by about five miles.”

“We’d still have to cross it to get to Egerton at some point. How would we do that? I’m not a very fast swimmer.”

“Too cold to swim anyway, and too rough. But we could find a phone and call for help.”

That would mean the police. She held up her hands. “No way.”

Folding the map, he looked at her for a long moment. “We’ll go for the road then, hope they think we didn’t make it out of the cave. If we move quickly, we should hit it sometime this afternoon. We could be in Egerton tonight.”

“That’d be great.”

“Then you can be by your lonesome again.” There was a tiny hint of amusement in his tone, as if he wanted to make sure she knew he’d won this round.

Shooting him a fake smile, she picked up his knapsack, shoved it into his chest. She had a sudden urge to sprint to Egerton, so she could ditch him. She was getting all kinds of weird signals about this guy—the strongest being red and pulsing like a strobe light across her brain. Lead the way, Rambo,” she muttered under her breath.

*  *  *

The wind off the sea lashed against Emily’s back as she scrambled after Matt. He had started slowly, but after a few minutes picked up the pace and they now leaped across the rocks. She shed the mud-coated sweater, tied it around her waist, and after a few minutes found her stride, synchronizing her breathing with the footfalls of her squeaky wet sneakers on the rough rock.