The Rancher's Redemption (The Millers of Morgan Valley Book 2)

by Kate Pearce

  “She begged me not to go out to the rig. I was supposed to be attending some function with her, and I bailed at the last minute. She thought I should’ve let one of the other guys deal with it, but I was never that kind of boss, and she hated that. She blamed me for going.”

  “Still not liking her much,” Rachel muttered.

  “Did you forgive your mom for walking out on her sons and husband?” Cauy asked.

  “That’s different!”

  “How so? I could say the same things about your mom. Everyone who met Annie out here liked her a lot, and no one could believe she’d up and leave like that.”

  “She was . . . ill. She had postpartum depression after having me.”

  “And she acted out of character. She broke up her marriage, and I broke up mine. Both of us changed.”

  “They are not the same at all.” Rachel struggled to sit up and face him. “Your ex-wife didn’t have the depth to care for you when you were sick, my mother . . .” She paused. “My mother walked out on her family and never looked back.”

  “Lorelei didn’t look back either. She married my best friend the day after the divorce came through.”

  Rachel winced. “That sucks.”

  He held her gaze. “I deserved it.”

  “Why? Why do you keep saying that?” Rachel demanded.

  “Because I frightened her.”

  Rachel went still and just stared at him until he stumbled on. If the mine was going to collapse around him he might as well get everything out and really alienate her forever.

  “As I said, I was in pain, I had terrible headaches and blackouts. One night I woke up to her screaming and fighting me.” He took a much-needed breath. “She said I tried to strangle her—she had marks on her throat.” He shuddered. “She moved out that day, straight over to my buddy’s house. He wanted to set the cops on me, but she wouldn’t allow it.”

  “Because at some level she knew you didn’t mean to hurt her.” Rachel touched his cheek. “She knew it was an aberration.”

  “She should’ve called the cops. She was probably just too scared of me to do it,” Cauy insisted. “I was way out of line. That’s when I knew I couldn’t get better all by myself, and went to see a shrink. I also weaned myself off almost all the painkillers.”

  “So you tried to make things right,” Rachel said. “Did you tell her that?”

  “Of course I did, but she wasn’t into listening to me anymore.” He sighed. “And Rod was very happy to cosset her, and insist that she’d never have to deal with me again. She liked being protected. Nothing wrong with that.”

  “Some best friend.” Rachel shook her head. “You certainly know how to pick ’em.”

  “When I married her I was trying to fit in—to be like everyone else,” Cauy confessed.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I was never good at parties or all that other stuff, but Lorelei loved to socialize so I tried hard to be the man she wanted.”

  “So maybe, in the end, Lorelei did you a favor?” Rachel met his gaze.

  Cauy let that thought sink into his head. “Yeah. Maybe she did in a weird ass-backward way. After the accident things changed for me—my priorities changed. I changed. I wasn’t willing to pretend to care about all those superficial things anymore.”

  “Okay, I don’t hate her now.” Rachel patted his cheek. “And you know what? If she’d really been scared and wanted to get back at you, she could’ve called the cops, taken you to court, and would probably have gotten even more in the divorce settlement.”

  “She didn’t do any of that,” Cauy pointed out.

  “Exactly. So she used what happened to get out of a marriage that no longer appealed to her, took what she was owed, and moved on.”

  Cauy just stared at her until she frowned at him. “What?”

  “You are relentlessly optimistic about everything, aren’t you?”

  She shrugged. “I try to be.”

  “It’s weird.”

  “It’s the way I learned to survive.”

  Cauy took off his jacket, folded it up, and put it against the wall behind them. Rachel did the same with her puffy coat. Then he gathered her up against him again and sat back against the pillows.

  “Why do you think you have to be positive all the time?” Cauy asked.

  “You’re asking me questions now?” Rachel groaned. “The world really is about to end.”

  Cauy took a look at the thousands of pounds of rock above their head and devoutly hoped she was wrong about that.

  “Why does being positive make you a survivor?”

  “Because my mom needed me to be that way.” Rachel rubbed her cheek against the sleeve of his fleece. “Are you sure you don’t want to try sleeping?”

  “Stop avoiding the question,” Cauy said firmly. “Your mom’s happiness wasn’t dependent on you.”

  “It felt like it was. When I was little, and there was just the two of us, I always felt like everything was my fault somehow—that I was this massive inconvenience to her. I worried that if I didn’t behave just right she’d leave me. I used to store food under my bed and keep my clothes packed just in case she didn’t come home one night.”

  Cauy’s hand drifted into Rachel’s hair. “But she took you with her. If she really thought that, she could’ve left you behind with the others.”

  She stiffened in his arms and buried her face against his shoulder.

  “Mom didn’t mean to bring me.”

  Cauy eased a finger under her chin so she had to look up at him. “Come again?”

  “She didn’t intend to take me. HW snuck me into the back of the guy’s truck she left with.”

  “Why?”

  “Because she loved HW best, and he thought if he left me with her she’d bring me back and take him.”

  Cauy took a while to process this, and then shook his head. His heart literally hurt for her. “Wow, that’s messed up.”

  “As soon as I found out what really happened I realized why I’d always felt like Mom hadn’t wanted me around. She did improve once she met Paul, and she was able to settle down. Things were way better then.”

  There she went again, making the best of a bad situation. Cauy cuddled Rachel closer wanting to do something, anything to comfort her for a hurt that could never be healed. She was nothing like him at all, but he admired the hell out of her.

  “I don’t mind if you complain about stuff,” Cauy murmured. “In fact I appreciate it.”

  “Liar.” She playfully punched his arm. “You’re a terrible sulker.”

  “I like to think of myself more as an inarticulate loser.”

  She chuckled, making his shoulder vibrate. “Okay, I can go with that. How come Jackson is so chatty then?”

  “Probably because unlike me, he never doubts who he is or where he comes from,” Cauy said.

  She sighed. “You and me, both.”

  Cauy glanced over at the pile of rocks blocking the door. “I still can’t quite believe this is happening. I must be the unluckiest guy in the universe.”

  Rachel smoothed her palm over his stubbled chin. “You might as well lie down beside me and relax. It’s going to be hours before they start digging us out. I’m sure we could find something to do to while the time away.”

  “Relax?” He gulped as she ran her thumb down the zipper of his jeans. “You have to be kidding me.”

  She blinked at him. “That wouldn’t make you feel good?”

  “Not when I’m worrying about several tons of rock falling on my head, no.”

  “You’re sure?”

  He removed her hand. “Absolutely. I’ll take a rain check.”

  “Okay.” She sighed and rubbed her face against his shoulder. “I’m actually quite tired. It’s been a busy day.”

  “Then sleep. I’ll let you know if we’re in imminent danger.” He eased down on their makeshift bed and arranged her more comfortably against him, liking the way it felt so natural to hold her.


  “I’m not worried about you sleeping with me and strangling me, you know,” Rachel murmured sounding half-asleep already.

  “I haven’t slept with a woman since that night,” Cauy acknowledged. “But I’m in a far better place these days.”

  “I know that, and I trust you.” She kissed his chest. “I’m really comfortable right here.”

  “Good.” He smoothed a hand through her hair wondering how on earth she could say such a thing when they were stuck in a freaking mine. “Go to sleep.”

  He’d told her the worst thing about himself, and she’d tried to make him feel better about it. That was the kind of person she was. Her outward composure and confidence had been earned the hard way, and he respected that—and wished he could be the same. His struggles had turned him inward. Rachel had used her stressful past to reach out to others in a positive way. He could learn a lot from her.

  He already had.

  Her cell phone was still sitting on the top of the sleeping bag so he went to move it to a more convenient place. The screen flashed up her messages, and he noted the network icon was missing. Her last two texts showed as undelivered, and nothing new had come in.

  So she hadn’t quite been straight with him after all . . . but he didn’t have the heart to blame her. If she hadn’t calmed him down he’d probably still be at the rock face scrabbling to get out. Keeping one arm around Rachel, he turned to pick up her backpack and hooked it into his lap before stowing the phone safely inside. There was a large folded map in the bag labeled HISTORIC MORGAN MINE, which he took out to study.

  He might as well try to work out how this arm of the mine connected to the main one. Just in case they needed another way out . . . He had to suspect that someone in the Lymond family had used this place recently, and that the dude ranch guests had just discovered the entrance and taken it over for their own purposes.

  Unfolding the map he squinted at the faint markings, and used his finger to trace a line from where he thought he was up to the main entrance. There was some kind of connection, but it wasn’t exactly straightforward. The question was, had that route been blocked as well? With the recent earthquake activity, and the nearby remains of the creek that had powered the stamp mill it was highly likely. He still wasn’t sure he could venture deeper into the darkness without pissing his pants. But what if the rescue tomorrow morning went wrong? What if they caused the cliff above to come down and bury the entrance under a mile of rock?

  Cauy forced himself to breathe. Worrying about what hadn’t even happened yet would get him nowhere. Rachel was an engineer; if anyone could get them out safely, it would be her.

  He carefully refolded the map and leaned back against the wall, his eyes half closing despite him. Rachel was right. It had been a very long day....

  Chapter Nineteen

  Rachel woke up to a faint buzzing sound in her ear, and irritably swatted a hand around her head. That was the thing about living on a ranch. There were flies everywhere.

  There was a grunt, and she opened her eyes to see Cauy squinting down at her.

  “Was I snoring?” He yawned. “I can’t believe I actually fell asleep.”

  “I’m sorry I smacked you. I thought you were a fly.” She smiled up at him. Despite everything it was remarkably fine to wake up next to Cauy Lymond. “What time is it?”

  He still wore a watch so he angled his wrist toward her. “Six in the morning I guess—unless we slept through another day.”

  “I doubt that.” Rachel settled back into Cauy’s embrace. “I don’t think we’re going to be rescued before it gets light.”

  “If we’re rescued.”

  “You think the Morgans would leave me here?” Rachel snorted. “You, maybe, but not their precious little sister.”

  “I suspect they’d do anything to rescue you,” Cauy agreed.

  “And, at least they know where we are,” she reminded him.

  “I was looking at the map in your backpack.” Cauy gestured to her bag. “There’s definitely a link between this branch of the mine workings and the main one—or there was.”

  “It looked clear as far as I went, and the trajectory was definitely upward,” Rachel said. “Do you want to see if we can get out by ourselves?”

  Cauy frowned at her. “Can you imagine what your family would do to me if they broke in here and found you’d disappeared?”

  She pouted. “So you wouldn’t even attempt to come with me and find out?”

  “Not unless my life depended on it.”

  “Okay.” She sighed. “But would you freak out if I just went and took a look before the cavalry arrive?”

  “I can’t exactly stop you, can I?” He removed his arm from around her shoulders and she immediately felt bereft. “You’re a grown woman.”

  Belatedly she remembered the rules of their no-strings-attached relationship. Last night she thought they’d gotten past that, but she should have known never to assume.

  “You’re right.” She eased away from his side and got out of the sleeping bag. The temperature was frigid, and she hastily put on her coat and boots. “I’ll go and take a look.”

  “You probably think I’m a coward,” Cauy said slowly.

  Rachel glanced back at him as she zipped up her coat. “Not really. If I’d been through what you have, I’d probably stay put as well.”

  “I feel like a coward.”

  “Then that’s on you.” Rachel held his stare. “I promise I won’t be long. I’ll take the map with me and borrow your big flashlight, okay?”

  Cauy nodded as she consulted the map and made some preliminary plans. He’d made it clear that he wasn’t responsible for her choices, and she had just returned the favor. What he made of that was up to him.

  She folded the map until it showed the relevant section and set off, her hard hat on her head and her backpack in place. The tunnel went by the hollowed-out section where she’d found Sean and Carlson, and snaked upward. Her booted foot hit what felt like old metal railings or possibly just the remaining pins. She doubted any valuable metal had been left in the abandoned mine.

  She used the flashlight to examine the passage, and continued upward as it narrowed and grew steeper. It definitely felt like she was in a connecting tunnel. She put her hand on the wall and held still as the space suddenly widened in front of her and the cold breeze intensified. Fresh air was flowing into the works from somewhere.

  The map indicated a straight line that appeared to go up toward the main entrance, but the tunnel appeared to end. Rachel turned in a slow circle noting the wooden crates, an abandoned pick, and a couple of old glass bottles half buried in the dirt from the roof. Puzzled, she rotated again and then focused the light upward and saw a large hole with what looked like the remains of a ladder attached to the side.

  “Straight up indeed,” Rachel murmured, her voice echoing in the cavern. “I don’t think either of us are going up there.”

  She turned and made her way back, pausing every so often to check out the structure of the workings and the construction of the tunnels. It was truly amazing to see how carefully the mine had been erected, and how long it had remained intact. She could even see the marks of individual pickaxes. There was no water damage and, apart from the odd fall of soil, the issues at the top of the mine didn’t seem to have impacted this level.

  There was something about the silence of the place that appealed to her. Was it because she was a Morgan and her ancestors had mined here? Was that why she’d instinctively gravitated toward an engineering career before she’d even known about her heritage? She reached the alcove where she’d found the ranch guests and considered the filing cabinet anew. What on earth had possessed someone to use this space as his or her office?

  If Chase was willing to remove the filing cabinet before permanently shutting down the mine they might find out. Seeing as this branch of the mine was on the Lymond side, she suspected it might actually belong to Cauy.

  She arrived back to discover that C
auy had rolled up their temporary bed and put on his coat and boots. He’d also rediscovered his hat, dusted it down, and set it firmly on his head.

  “Anything happening?” Rachel asked as she took off her backpack.

  “I haven’t heard a thing yet.”

  He glanced back at her from his position by the entrance where he appeared to be gingerly clearing rocks away.

  She joined him and hunkered down at his side. “We can shift some of this stuff. Don’t touch anything close to the actual exit wall. Some of those rocks are still holding that wall up.”

  “Got it.” Cauy placed another sizeable chunk of rock to one side. “I figured it might help to clear a path. How was the tunnel?”

  She sighed. “The map was surprisingly accurate, but it ended in a hole in the ceiling with a vertical climb out and no usable ladder.”

  “Then let’s hope they can get us out this way,” Cauy said.

  “I’m sure they will,” Rachel assured him.

  He was amazed at how calm he was, and attributed that entirely to the woman at his side. She’d done more to cure him of his fears than a year of seeing a shrink or trying to pretend nothing was wrong. She’d even told him to suck it up and not project his insecurities on her, which he’d deserved.

  How could he let her walk away from him?

  Cauy went still. Where had that thought come from? He had no right to expect anything from her. She deserved so much more, but he wanted her, he wasn’t going to lie to himself anymore.

  If they got out of the mine—when they got out—he would take the time to think things through and work out how to ask her if she’d be interested in taking things further with him. She’d probably laugh, but he had to ask.

  “Are you okay, Cauy?”

  He looked over at her. “I’m good, thanks.”

  Her smile warmed his soul. She’d done the unthinkable—made him believe that not only could he have a future with her, but that she might like him just the way he was.

  A rumble of sound vibrated through the outside wall of the mine. Cauy tensed as Rachel jumped to her feet.

  “It’s got to be them!” She grabbed Cauy’s hand and kissed his cheek. “We’ll be out of here in no time!”