Rescued by the Ranger (24 page)

Abruptly, they lost the signal, and silence fell over the forested trail. Garrett held his breath while Jonathan redialed the last number over and over again with no luck.

A growl escaped with Garrett’s breath. “I’ll kill that son of a bitch when I find him.”

Jonathan gave a harsh laugh. “Not by yourself.”

“What now?” Jase paced back and forth between the ruts.

“We know she’s in the forest, that she got turned around on the way to the cabin, and she doesn’t know where she is. She can’t be up too high or she’d have better cell reception. I didn’t understand all of what she said, like
they took hers
and
let her go
. Did they really turn her loose out there? And took her what?” Garrett mulled over the information they’d received.

“Wait a minute. She said
they took . . . mine
, but the connection was really bad and there was a pause before
mine
.” Luke turned toward his brother. “What if she was saying
they took me to the mine
? There are plenty of old mines around here, aren’t there?”

“Damn right,” Jonathan said.

“One in particular.” Garrett looked to Jonathan for confirmation. “Not too far away. One that Rachel accused Riley and his brothers of planning to dump her in that day at the bar.”

Jonathan nodded. “Addison’s Mine. It’s about six miles from here.”

“What’s the likelihood that Riley and one of his crew are the extra footprints we found?”

Jonathan strode toward him, his phone outstretched in his hand. When he was close enough for Garrett to shine his light on the face, he read the name
Arnold Metcalf
. Garrett furrowed a brow.

“Rachel was using Arnold’s phone. Arnold is Riley’s oldest brother.” Jonathan took the phone back and shoved it in his pocket.

Anger burned hot within Garrett. His patience had disappeared an hour ago. He wanted to go find Rachel now, and if Jeremy or any of Riley’s crew got in his way, that would be okay, too. Breathing deeply, he tried to funnel his frustration into something he could use.

“Let’s get back to the lodge and get some wheels. We’ve got a place to start. If she’s still out there, Cowboy will find her.” Garrett pushed off the rutted trail back the way they’d come. He set a fast pace, pushing through the pain in his back and thigh, realizing it didn’t hurt nearly as bad as the cruel emptiness where his heart used to be.

Chapter Twenty

R
ACHEL REDIALED
J
ONATHAN
’
S
number a half dozen times before she finally gave up. Two bars apparently weren’t enough to make the connection more than once. With her swollen and throbbing ankle, she wouldn’t be climbing higher anytime soon. She turned the phone off to conserve the battery and tucked it in the pocket of her skirt.

She’d tried to tell them where she thought she was, but the connection had been spotty, and she had to face the fact that they might not have heard enough to find her. Surprisingly, she wasn’t dwelling on that as she might have, because miraculously, she’d heard Garrett’s voice. He was alive. She’d been so afraid that Garrett would die and that others at the lodge would be hurt. To know that they were unharmed had lifted a huge weight off her shoulders.

If only she hadn’t gotten her foot stuck under one side of a huge log and toppled over, twisting her ankle before her foot finally popped free, she’d feel light enough to walk right off this mountain.

It still made her sick when she thought about sitting down at the lodge dinner table and making small talk with the man who murdered Chance. How was it that she’d not had a clue? She’d even
liked
the guy . . . and his wife. Poor Linda, married all those years to a perverted freak . . . and now, if she could believe Jeremy, Linda was probably dead, murdered as well.

A shudder washed over Rachel, and she again found herself silently thanking Arnold for letting her escape, even though she’d gotten turned around. She might as well admit now that she was completely lost. The maddening part was she’d covered all of this ground before . . . in the daylight with Jonathan. The darkness and her panic had not worked in her favor.

She looked out over the downhill slope before her. The mountains around her home were beautiful, and she had no fear of them. It was the omnipresence of Jeremy that scared the holy crap out of her. That’s why she’d been rushing blindly through the forest to her own detriment. Finally she slumped to the ground and remained sitting at the base of a big pine to catch her breath and calm her racing heart.

It was a warm night for the month of May, and she’d have been comfortable if she’d been allowed to dress for the occasion. However, her sleeveless shirt, short skirt, and heels made less than appropriate hiking attire.

A nice breath of pine floated in on the breeze, and she inhaled it, letting it work its down-home magic on her soul. By the light of the full moon, she could see the shadowy outline of a break in the trees below her and a good distance from her position. She’d bet the river that ran by Amanda’s cabin nestled in the fold. With a huge sigh, she heaved herself to her feet and leaned against the tree for a few seconds before she pushed off in the direction of the clearing.

If Jonathan and Garrett understood enough of her conversation, they’d look for her at the cabin. She bit back a cry at the sharp pain in her ankle and forced herself to put one foot in front of the other.

S
HARDS OF PAIN
shattered behind her eyelids every time she took a step. Rachel had long ago lost track of time and distance. The only thing that mattered was finding the cabin. Not the critters she heard scurrying through the brush now and then. Not the pain or the voice in her head telling her she’d never make it that far. Not even the one that said she was doing irreparable damage to her ankle. Garrett would look for her at the cabin, and she had to get there.

Each time she topped a rise or dragged herself to the slope of a ridge, she looked to the east to find her landmark so she could adjust her course accordingly. This time, she was close, and for the first time, optimism stole over her. She took a moment to rest and stare at the eastern sky, beginning to lighten with the first sign of dawn. The morning dew, touching her chilled skin, got her moving again.

The rush of swift water reached her ears, and she shuffled faster. As she broke over the last rise, the trees thinned and the river rolled through the clearing below. Rachel fell to her knees, breathing in the familiar scents. But where was the cabin? Slowly she turned to the right, then to the left, searching for the dock she’d sat on a hundred times, swinging her bare feet in the cool water. There was nothing, yet she had to be close. The mountains in the skyline, silhouetted by the gathering light of morning, looked just like
her
mountains. The cabin had to be only a short walk down the banks of the river.

Rachel sighed and rested her head in her hands for a moment. A short walk for her yesterday would be an excruciating trial of her determination today. Well, no sense in feeling sorry for herself. That wouldn’t get her any closer to Garrett.

She used her arms to push herself off the ground, and one of her hands fell on something hard. A limb. Balancing precariously, she bent to pull one end of the limb off the ground. It was about as thick as her arm and longer than she was tall, but it was sturdy and maybe she could use it to take some of the weight off her injured ankle.

Taking a couple of hobbling steps forward, using the limb to support her right side, she marveled at the instant relief. She wouldn’t kid herself, though. Bracing herself on the makeshift walking stick would take a toll on her arms and shoulders, so the fewer steps she had to take the better. Hobbling closer to the river, she studied the banks in both directions. Which way should she go?

A distant sound drifted on the breeze. She raised her head and stilled, turning this way and that, hoping she’d really heard excited barking, and that Cowboy would appear any moment . . . followed by Garrett. But it must have been her imagination or wishful thinking. The sound never returned.

Okay, this is nuts. Just pick a direction and find the cabin. Right. I’ll go to the right first.

Rachel struggled toward the bend in the river, stopping every few feet to gauge her progress and rest. Something caught her eye in the trees ahead.
Was that a light?
The quick flicker disappeared, and she dismissed it as the white bark of a tree. She raised the corner of her shirt’s hem to wipe the sweat from her eyes.
God, I’m almost there. Don’t let me go crazy now.

She hopped two more steps before the flicker was back, morphed into a circle of light that bobbed crazily in front of a dark shadow that was closing in on her.

Her heart started to beat wildly. “Garrett?” It had to be him, for the sake of her sanity if nothing else.

Why didn’t he reply? He just kept walking toward her, shining that light in her direction. She lifted her hand to shade her eyes, but she still couldn’t make out his handsome face or the smile she longed to see. A twinge of uneasiness sent a wave of fear that lodged in her stomach.

“Garrett? Is that you?”

The figure stopped twenty feet away. “No, my sweet. Unfortunately, your friend Garrett is dead, and good riddance I say.” Jeremy’s maniacal laughter drained all the blood from her extremities, and she would have fallen if not for the tree limb she braced herself with.

“Jeremy?”

“That’s right, love.” He strode closer. “I couldn’t believe it when I learned those Metcalf boys let you walk out of the mine. Lucky for them, it didn’t take too much to convince the older one to tell me where you were headed. I doubt anyone will find them down that shaft, so they’re probably regretting their decision by now.”

Rachel’s stomach churned. “You put them down the shaft?”

“They had to be punished, as do you, Rachel.” He clicked off the flashlight and took another step.

Without the light in her face, Rachel could see Jeremy’s crazy eyes. He was a killer. How well she knew that. It was only a matter of time before he got around to her. There was no reason to stand still and let him take her alive. She leaned her weight on her good leg, picked up the end of the limb, and swung with all of her might. A guttural scream tore from her throat the same time the wood cracked into Jeremy’s head.

He fell like a load of rocks, groaning and squirming.

Rachel stumbled with the force of her swing, resulting in a tearing pain in her ankle, and she fell to her knees. She watched in horror as he staggered to his feet. Blood trickled from a cut on his forehead, and he held his left arm immobile across his body. She scrambled to regain her feet as he strode toward her. Breathing hard, she lifted the limb, bracing it across her shoulder like a bat, and waited. He had to be close or she’d miss, and she’d have only one chance.

She let him take two more steps and then swung with everything she had. Jeremy knocked the limb from her hands effortlessly, then caught her against his body with his uninjured arm. Rachel slumped as though she were falling, and when his grip loosened, she suddenly straightened and thrust her elbow backward into his ribs. Jeremy let out a whoosh of air and grabbed for her elbow. Rachel turned her body into his, bringing her other hand up, and angled the heel of her hand toward his nose. It was a glancing blow at best, but she felt the cartilage crack, and Jeremy released her and lurched backward, sprawling in the dirt.

This time Rachel didn’t wait to see if he got up. She ran, doing her best to ignore her throbbing ankle.

“You stupid bitch!”
His cry of pain propelled her faster. “You’ll pay for this. You can’t get away.”

Rachel gritted her teeth and shuffled faster. Certain she couldn’t outrun him, she changed directions and took to the slope of the mountain, planning to hide herself in the thick forest above. Big mistake. Without her walking stick, she couldn’t push off her bad leg, so she resorted to hands and knees to climb the slope, slippery with loose dirt and shale.

Halfway up, Jeremy grabbed her hair and jerked her head back. “You can’t get away from me. I haven’t kept track of you all these years to let you slip away now.” His other hand delivered a punch to the side of her head that numbed the whole left half of her body.

As the numbness receded only seconds later, pain took its place, and she curled into a tight ball, breathing in short gasps because her chest ached too much to take a deep breath. Jeremy stood over her, his fist poised, and for several painful breaths, she waited for the next blow to fall. When it didn’t, she rolled to the side and pushed herself up, clenching her jaw at the pain in her ankle.

T
HEY SWITCHED OFF
the lights of Sally’s Explorer as they approached Addison’s Mine and coasted to a stop. The next hundred yards they’d cover on foot. Garrett was the first to reach the mine entrance, followed closely by Jonathan, Luke, and Jase. Cowboy was stuck to him like glue, anticipating a mission of epic proportions, no doubt. Hopefully, that wouldn’t be the case. Quiet reigned inside the cavern until Garrett called Rachel’s name. Then all hell broke loose.

“Down here! Get me the hell outta here! Hey! Whoever you are . . . don’t leave us here!”

Riley.
And he didn’t sound happy.

They all followed Jonathan deeper into the mine until they stood on the edge of a hole that he outlined with his flashlight. Garrett assumed it was the mine’s old shaft. It could be hundreds of feet deep. A wooden contraption that looked like a jerry-rigged elevator hung over the hole, tied off with thick ropes that looked newer than everything else the miners had left behind.

“Who’s down there?” Jonathan growled.

“There you are. It’s about damn time. Riley Metcalf and my brother. Some lunatic forced us into that cage at gunpoint and left us down here.”

“Arnold?” Jonathan shone his light down the shaft.

“Yep. That’s my brother. He’s here, too.” Riley was being all kinds of helpful.

Garrett stepped toward Jonathan. “Arnold, tell us what happened to Rachel.”

“Get us out of here first.” Riley was starting to sound belligerent.

“Shut up for once in your life.” The new voice must have belonged to Arnold, and Riley did as he was told with only a small amount of grumbling.

“She slipped out of here when I went to check on my brother.” Arnold’s deep voice was calm and confident.

“So you don’t know where she headed?” Garrett clenched his fists in frustration.

A moment of hesitation passed. “She was heading toward Amanda’s cabin.”

Garrett jerked his head up. “That’s crazy. How would she find it in the dark?”

Several seconds of silence ticked by. “I showed her where to go.”

“What?” Riley cried. “You stupid bastard. That’s why Jeremy was so mad after he talked to you? You’re the reason we’re down here.” Riley was apparently slapping his brother around for his supposed sins, but the fighting abruptly stopped when a punch landed one of them in the dirt.

Garrett presumed it was Arnold still standing since the fisticuffs had stopped. “Arnold, did you also give her your phone?”

“Yeah. Now, Riley, you just stay put. That no-good SOB that hired us is bad news. You know it as well as I do. He would have hurt Rachel as soon as look at her. Is that what you wanted? Don’t you remember what she did for us? Her and Peg and Amanda? They was good to us after Mama died.”

For once, Riley had nothing to say, and Garrett experienced a moment of gratitude just for that.

“Don’t be thinkin’ I done her no favors, though. When that son of a bitch came back and figured what I’d done, he threatened to shoot Riley, and I spilled my guts. He knows where she’s goin’, and he’ll have plenty of time to get there ahead of her.” It went quiet in the cavern below again.

Garrett glanced at the rest of the guys, and each in his turn motioned back the way they’d come and disappeared. Garrett lingered a moment longer, Cowboy moving nervously beside him. “I want to thank you for what you tried to do tonight, Arnold. We’re going after her.”

“What about us?” Riley was apparently into whining mode now.

“I’ll call the state police and tell them where you are . . . and why. I’m sure they’ll have a question or two for you. Arnold, when this is over, come and see me at the lodge. We’ll talk.” Garrett backed away, turned, and made his way to the entrance.

“Do you believe him?” Luke was waiting for him just outside.