The Lockwood Legacy - Books 1-6: Plus Bonus Short Stories

by Juliette Harper

  “Is that son of a bitch dead?” she asked, gesturing toward Marino’s foot.

  “Dead, and I’d say reasonably flat,” Jake said. “Are you okay?”

  She winced and nodded at the same time. “A couple of those rocks bounced off my shoulder,” she said. “But otherwise I’m okay. Did Miles make it through the door?”

  “I think so,” Jake said. “But I’m pretty sure that room collapsed, too, so I don’t know if he made it out of the cave.”

  A slight breeze ruffled Kate’s hair and she turned her head. “Do you feel that?” she said.

  Jake held his hand up and waited. “Yes,” he said. “Good. At least we won’t suffocate, and if we can find a couple of those old lanterns of your father’s, we won’t have to run the batteries in this thing down.”

  He scrounged around in the rubble, and after a few minutes came back with a dented lantern. “Look,” he said. “The glass isn’t even broken.”

  Fishing around in one of the pockets of his cargo pants, Jake pulled out an Altoids tin.

  Kate watched him curiously. “Does the lantern have bad breath?” she asked.

  “No,” Jake grinned. “Check this out. It’s a pocket survival kit.” He held out the tin and Kate saw it was packed with all sorts of tiny, useful items, including a small book of matches, which Jake used to light the lantern.

  As the wavering light filled the space, he clicked off the flashlight and replaced it on his belt. Resuming his search, he located another lantern. “They’re both almost full,” he said, lighting the second wick. “We should be good for several hours.”

  Jake sat back and took a good look at Kate, whose face was covered in dirt and grime. “You look like hell,” he said cheerfully, pulling a handkerchief out of his pocket and handing it to her.

  “Thanks,” she said, starting to wipe the worst of the dirt away. “I must say you’re in an awfully good mood about all of this.”

  “We’re alive,” he said, reaching for her hand. “Or more to the point, you’re alive,” he added.

  Kate returned his smiled and squeezed his hand. “Alive is good,” she agreed. “For both of us. So how do we go about staying that way?”

  “Well,” Jake said, leaning back and quietly slipping his arm around her, “we could just sit here and wait for them to dig us out.”

  For just an instant, Kate thought about inching away from the embrace, and then she sighed and settled back against his shoulder. “We could do that,” she agreed.

  Surprised, but pleased by her reaction, Jake started to put his hand down over Kate’s left, only to pause in mid-air.

  “Go ahead,” she said, understanding his reticence. “You won’t hurt me.”

  “The pain doesn’t go down into your hand?” he asked, softly stroking her knuckles with his thumb.

  “Sometimes,” she said, “but it doesn’t hurt to touch it. In fact, you’re a hell of a lot more comfortable than that rock wall.”

  Jake laughed, and Kate realized she liked the rumbling sound under her ear. “Glad to hear that,” he said.

  “So,” she said, “option number one is to sit here and wait, but why?”

  “Because if I had my guess,” Jake said, “Miles has already called in the cavalry.”

  “What’s option number two?” she asked.

  “We try to follow that breeze,” he said. “I think there’s another way into the cave. We might just be able to walk right on out of here.”

  To her considerable surprise, Kate’s eyelids were beginning to grow heavy. She had no idea how long she’d been awake, but sitting in the warm circle of Jake’s arm, a delicious lassitude was beginning to creep over her that was completely at odds with the fact that they were trapped in a cave.

  “Could we go with option number three?” she mumbled.

  Jake looked down, brushing her forehead with a kiss. “What’s that?” he asked, but Kate was already sound asleep. He reached up and combed the hair back from her face, kissed her again, and settled against the wall. Jake had no intention of letting either of them die, but he had to admit that at that moment, he’d go out a very happy man.

  Several hours later, a rhythmic pounding overhead brought Jake slowly to consciousness. They’d both stretched out in their sleep, and Kate’s head now rested on his chest. The sound awakened her as well. Startled, she started to sit up, but Jake lightly pulled her back.

  “Easy,” he said. “That’s just the rescue squad up top.”

  Kate looked at him, glanced down at their position, and frowned. “How did we . . . ?” She seemed unsure how to finish the sentence, and the bemused look on Jake’s face wasn’t helping.

  “You fell asleep on my shoulder,” he said. “I guess we just kinda naturally got more comfortable. That’s not a bad thing . . . is it?”

  “No,” she said, “it’s just that . . .” She looked down and played with the buttons on his shirt.

  “It’s just what?” he asked.

  “It’s been a long time since . . .” Kate felt a blush creeping up her cheeks.

  With his free hand, Jake turned her face toward his own and very slowly brought their lips together. As Kate’s response grew more welcoming, he deepened the kiss. Long minutes passed before Kate pulled back with a sigh. “Professor,” she said, “you’re damned good at that.”

  “So are you,” Jake said. “Why aren’t we doing more of it?”

  Kate chuckled, a husky, vibrant sound that Jake found he liked very much. “Oh, I don’t know,” she teased. “Maybe because we’re trapped in a cave and I’d really like to get to know you better under slightly more comfortable circumstances.”

  When Jake didn’t answer, she looked at him curiously. “You have a problem with that suggestion?” she asked, a note of doubt in her voice.

  “God, no,” Jake said. “I have a problem with that,” he said, pointing above them.

  Turning her head, she followed his line of sight and saw a web of cracks on the ceiling of the chamber that were beginning to spread right before their eyes. “Oh hell,” she said, sitting up. “I guess we go with option number two.”

  “Damn right we do,” Jake said. “Let’s get out of here.”

  He stood up, helping Kate get to her feet, and they each took a lantern. Jake fumbled in his Altoid tin again and took out a tiny button compass. “Which way is the ranch house from where we are?” he asked.

  Kate took a moment to orient herself in relation to where she knew the cave entrance was, and said, “Northwest as the crow flies.”

  “Okay,” Jake said. “That passage heads due west.” He took a step and paused. “You sure about this?” he asked.

  A rain of fine dust showered down on them. “Yes,” Kate said. “We can’t stay here. Move it, Professor, you’re burning daylight.”

  Jake squinted at his watch. The crystal was broken, but the second hand was still moving. “Technically, you’re right,” he said. “It’s 8:30 in the morning.”

  “Get me home tonight,” Kate said, grinning at him, “and we’ll finish this conversation.”

  “Proposal accepted,” he said, putting on his proper academic face but with a twinkle in his eyes. “I am always up for . . . conversation.”

  Together they stepped through the entrance into the next section of the cave and began to work their way through the maze of rooms that lay beyond. There were treasure chests in the first two, but when they reached the fifth, they found something completely unexpected, human skeletons.

  “My God,” Kate said. “Who are they?”

  Jake bent down to take a closer look. “See that?” he said, pointing to a small spherical object.

  Kate nodded.

  “That’s an Aztec nose plug,” Jake said. “I think we’re looking at some of the porters who carried the treasure into the cave.”

  “But what are they doing this far inside?” she said.

  “I don’t think they came in through the draw,” Jake said. “Really, it makes sense. If they wer
e hiding treasure, they wouldn’t have just plunked it down right inside the cave. They would have gone farther into the mountain.”

  “Which means where we’ve been all this time was the end of the line,” Kate said.

  “Right,” Jake said. “So there should be an entrance somewhere ahead.”

  “This also means there’s another way for you to get in and continue your work,” Kate said. “After we get some engineers in here and get this cave shored up.”

  Jake smiled. “That’s right,” he said. “And after we dig Marino out of that pile of rubble, we can look at that disk he wanted bad enough to put us through all this.”

  Kate shook her head. “I’m not sure more treasure hunting is such a good thing,” she said ruefully. “It seems to get us in trouble.”

  “It’s not the treasure that got us in trouble,” Jake said as they started to walk. “It was Marino that caused all this.”

  “God,” Kate said, threading around a rock outcropping. “Jenny must be half out of her mind with worry.”

  Just then a real puff of air traveled down the passage and Kate smelled water. “Is that the river?” she asked. “Where the hell are we anyway?”

  “I don’t know, but we’re about to find out. Look,” he said, pointing ahead.

  Kate followed the line of his finger and saw a patch of daylight. They picked up the pace, reached the opening, and stepped out into the bright morning sun. The South Llano River lay spread out before them, and on the bank, a blue heron fished in the shallows.

  Glancing left and right, Kate shook her head. “I will just be damned,” she said.

  “What?” Jake asked.

  “We’re at Daddy’s heron rookery,” she said. “No wonder he didn’t want anybody coming down here. He knew this was the back way into the cave all along.”

  “Can we get back up to the draw from here?” Jake asked.

  “Yes,” Kate said. “If we walk upstream and cut across the high pasture, we’ll come down into the dry creek bed. It’s no farther that way than going back to the house.”

  “Then let’s go,” Jake said. “I think there are some people looking for us.”

  91

  After Joe carried Mandy into the house and got her settled in bed with Jenny’s help, he left the two sisters alone. At the door of the bedroom he whispered, “Are you going to tell her about the draw?”

  “Yes,” Jenny said. “If she won’t hear me about anything else, maybe she’ll hear that. Don’t go too far in case we need you.”

  “I won’t,” he said. “I’ll just be in the kitchen.”

  Jenny closed the door and crossed to the bed, sitting down lightly next to Mandy, who was staring fixedly at the ceiling.

  “Mandy,” Jenny said. “I know you can hear me, but I need you to really listen to me. You have to make a decision. I know you’re heartbroken over Jolene’s death and over losing your baby. I understand that, and I’m heartbroken for you.”

  She paused, and then picked up her sister’s limp hand. “But here’s the truth of it. Jolene and Rick left Sissy and Missy in your care. By the terms of their will, you and Joe are their legal guardians. The girls are asking for you and they don’t understand why you won’t come to them.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, Jenny saw Mandy blink. Without pausing, Jenny went on. “That’s part of why I need you to snap out of this. The other part is . . . well, I need you. Katie has gotten herself trapped in the cave up in Baxter’s Draw and . . . I don’t know if she’s alive or not.”

  Jenny struggled to swallow around the lump threatening to close down her throat. “I love you with all my heart, Mandy,” she said, “but you know how it is with me and Katie. I can’t be in the world without her and without you, too. So I need you to decide to get on with your life.”

  Scrubbing at the tears flowing down her cheeks, Jenny sighed. “We all have things we regret, Mandy. Things that keep us up at night. Choices we wish we made and some we wish we hadn’t made. I wish I’d never met Robert Marino. I wish I’d never brought any of this down on us. But regretting is part of being alive. You can’t let the regrets define you. I’ve done that, and it almost destroyed me.”

  Jenny looked down at Mandy and realized her sister was actually looking at her even though she hadn’t spoken yet. Jenny held Mandy’s gaze and said, “Jolene was on your father’s place when she got killed. Phillip Baxter was the last person she spoke to. Katie met him yesterday, and she told me before she went up into the draw that he’s like you, gentle and filled with light.”

  Tears welled up in Mandy’s eyes, but she remained silent, listening to Jenny talk. “He brought Sissy and Missy home because Jolene asked him to. She told him you were the only person she trusted to raise her girls because you were the only sister she ever had. I know you felt the same way about her. And I know you’re in so much pain right now you can’t breathe. You’re not ever going to get over missing her, Mandy. You have to live with that. For the rest of your life there’s going to be a hole in your heart where Jolene belongs, but she’s given you a chance to fill it by raising her girls for her.”

  Jenny looked away and said, “If I lose Katie, that’s how it’s going to be for me. And if you don’t come back, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’d give you Jolene back if I could, and I’d give you your baby, but the truth is, you are a mother now. Sissy and Missy are yours, and it’s time you get up out of that bed and start raising them. I’m not trying to be mean to you, honey, I’m just saying that this is enough. You need to be done with this part now and get on to what comes next.”

  A ragged moan broke from Mandy’s throat. She sat up in bed and reached for Jenny, who drew her into a tight embrace. The sound of Mandy’s sobs brought Joe running in from the kitchen. Jenny tried to turn her sister loose, but Mandy wanted them both. Cradled in Joe’s arms, she clutched at Jenny, who sat with them gently stroking Mandy’s hair.

  Finally, Mandy found her voice. She looked at Joe and said brokenly, “I’m sorry about the baby.”

  “Shh,” he said. “What matters is that you’re okay.”

  “We can take Sissy and Missy,” Mandy said in a small voice, “like Jolene wanted, can’t we?”

  “I’ll go get them right now if you want me to,” Joe said.

  Mandy shook her head. “No,” she said, “First we have to make sure Katie’s okay.” She turned to Jenny, “Can we go to the draw?”

  Joe’s brow furrowed in concern, “Honey, you just got out of the hospital.”

  “I want to go to the draw,” she said stubbornly. “I want to go with Jenny.”

  Joe looked at Jenny, who said, “There’s a satellite phone in my purse on the hall table. Punch in 4732. It will go straight to Miles. Tell him to send the helicopter for us.”

  “Helicopter?” Joe said, his eyes going wide.

  “Uh, yeah,” Jenny said, “Miles has kinda expanded the operation up there.”

  Mandy threw back the covers and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. She swayed for a minute and then said, “Joe, honey, would you fix me a sandwich while Jenny helps me get dressed? I think I need to eat something.”

  “Of course I will,” Joe said. “I’ll make you two.”

  After he ran out, Jenny knelt beside the bed and looked at Mandy. Her eyes were ringed in heavy dark circles and her cheeks were sunken and hollow. “Are you really up to this?”

  Mandy looked down at her and smiled sadly. “I’m not up to anything, Jenny,” she said softly, “but that’s the whole point of being a woman, isn’t it? Doing all the things you’re not up to because so many people need you.”

  “You sound like Mama,” Jenny said softly.

  “Do you think I’ll be a good mother?” Mandy asked.

  “I think you already are,” Jenny said, standing and offering Mandy her hand. “Come on. Let’s get you dressed.”

  The helicopter landed in the pasture just beyond the pool. Before they ducked under the whirling blades to get in the
cockpit, Mandy kissed Joe. “Call Phil Baxter,” she yelled in his ear. “Tell him as soon as Katie’s out of that cave, we want the girls here with us. Tell him I can’t wait to meet him.”

  “I will, honey,” Joe said. He turned and caught Jenny’s arm, “Take care of her,” he ordered.

  “Don’t worry,” Jenny said. “You know I will.”

  The sisters climbed into the helicopter and the pilot lifted the craft off the ground, pointing the nose toward the dry creek bed. Two ATVs were waiting when he touched down, ready to carry Jenny and Mandy up into the canyon.

  When they arrived, Josh threw his arms around Mandy. “My God, little sugar,” he said, “you have no idea how damn glad I am to see you. Are you okay?”

  “Not yet,” Mandy smiled weakly. “But I will be.”

  Miles Riley joined them. “We’ve gotten into the chamber your father used and we’re lifting rubble out of the lower level. It’s slow going, but we’re making progress. We still can’t get a video image from down there, but . . .

  His words were cut off by a low rumbling from the cave. A line of men came spilling out, as once again dust and bits of rock flew from the entrance. “Goddamn it,” Miles swore. “What the hell happened?”

  One of the men joined them, fighting to catch his breath. “The rest of the roof collapsed,” he said. “We saw it was cracking, but we thought we could get through. We pushed it too far. I’m sorry, Miles.”

  “Sorry!” Jenny said, striking him in the chest with her fists. “You’re sorry? You just killed my sister and you’re sorry?”

  Josh pulled her back, trying to get his arms around her flailing body. “Honey, stop,” he said. “Please. They’re trying to help. This won’t do any good. You’re going to make yourself sick.”

  “Let me go!” Jenny screamed. “Goddamn it, let me go!” She pushed against him with all her strength and Josh released her, stepping away from the force of her fury.

  From behind them a quiet voice said, “Jenny, I’m here.”

  They all turned to find Kate and Jake standing in the draw, covered in dirt, and clearly exhausted, but very much alive. No one moved until Jenny threw herself into Kate’s arms, all the fight draining from her body in a sweet flood of relief.