What if it was never safe for her? And how could he make a move when they were both held captive? “You act like we’re here by choice. That when you decide we’re leaving, we can just walk out of here.”
Rick sagged against the tire and stared straight ahead. Was he just giving up? He could at least try to convince her otherwise. Shay hadn’t meant to sound that harsh, but she was exhausted. Frustrated. Caked in the grime of the outdoors.
She swung her gaze back to him. Dust covered his face and neck and the man still looked good. “I trust you to get us out of here. Just tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.”
His grin was tenuous, but it still lifted her spirits. “I’m glad to hear you say that.”
“Can you give me a hint of what to expect?”
“I hate to say I haven’t worked it out yet. But stay alert. Keep strong.”
“Great.”
“I’ve always admired that about you.”
“Admired what?”
“Your strength. On the inside and out.”
“A lot of good that does me here.”
“You’ll make some man a good wife one day.”
Some man. Just not him. Where had that thought come from? “My dad used to say that.” Daddy had hoped she’d find someone and get married before he finally died of the disease that had eaten away at him. They’d had to sell his business just to keep up with the medical bills. She knew he’d wanted her to have someone to lean on, to help her through losing him and getting her life back on track. But in the end, she’d been able to do it on her own. Her dad had raised her to take care of herself, and she had planned to keep it that way. “You know, I’m not horse flesh to be traded or sold to the highest bidder.”
“Shay,” he said, his voice more gentle than she’d ever heard it. “That wasn’t meant to be an insult.”
“I know.” Tears burned behind her eyes, but she blinked them into submission. Why the sudden jab of emotion? This situation was breaking her down, and fast.
Shouting ensued from inside the building. Joey’s partner, who’d been pacing the rudimentary decking and smoking a cigarette, froze. He flicked the butt into a puddle and glanced at them, a worried look on his face, confirming that Shay and Rick must be the topic of the argument.
Three consecutive gunshots fired off inside.
Shay’s heart jackknifed. They hadn’t seen the worst of this yet.
*
Wrists still bound, Rick shifted to his knees and then got to his feet, setting the guard on edge. From the deck, he rolled his shoulders as if he was about to show his displeasure, except he hesitated, appearing indecisive. He paced in front of the door, weighing his options. Rick couldn’t understand why he hadn’t barged straight into the structure to see what had happened. Was it really so common around here for guards to fire their weapons off when they got angry?
That could make things tougher for Rick and Shay. But then again, a group of cutthroats who couldn’t agree on things meant that he and Shay might actually have a chance to break away. Men who were divided like this were easily distracted—and if he’d noticed anything about these men, it was that they were preoccupied. He might even say troubled.
And definitely not united. After listening to Joey and his partner, Rick didn’t get the sense that they were loyal to anyone, and that meant a power struggle was probably already in progress. No one knew who was really in charge because it could change at any moment.
The situation was definitely unstable. The fact that two other guys had tried to kill them just added more explosives to the package. And that meant they had to find a way to escape as soon as possible. Hopefully lack of strong leadership would give them an opportunity to exploit that weakness before the situation got truly ugly. The last thing he wanted was for him, Shay and Aiden to end up in the middle of a cross fire, especially since he’d seen that this group of men was carrying as much firepower as a law enforcement entity, the military or organized crime. He frowned at the thought.
Shay climbed to her feet and stood a little behind him. He liked that she wasn’t the type of person who easily caved under pressure, but he also liked that she was willing to let him protect her. He wanted to protect her. In fact, that innate desire seemed to be expanding inside him where she was concerned. Problem was, he’d prefer she wasn’t even here at all.
He hoped she’d taken note of the firepower, too, so she’d understand they’d stepped into an extremely volatile situation.
Just when the guard looked as if he would march down the timber steps and tell them to drop to the ground again, the door behind him swung open. He whirled around to confront Joey, whose face was that of an angry bear.
Joey glared at Shay and Rick and motioned them over. Rick wanted to stand his ground, make him work for it rather than just obey their every command, but the three gunshots were fresh in his mind.
Rick trudged forward, Shay on his heels, their warnings about hurting her, hurting his brother, clinging to his thoughts. Dread rolled over him like a glacier, cold and heavy.
He and Shay were about to face off with the man in charge today. The source of all their troubles.
He sucked in a breath and calmed his thoughts. He couldn’t overreact or lose it. He had to play this right for Shay’s sake. For his brother’s sake. But more so for Shay—she was the lone woman, as far as he could tell, in this camp of cutthroat gold miners.
Rick reached the covered decking, making sure that Shay was right behind him. Joey eyed her, and Rick ground his molars, holding himself in check. He wanted to give the guy what he deserved, but too many muscles with guns surrounded them.
Bracing himself, Rick stepped through the door into a smoke-filled room where two additional men waited. One sat on the other side of a messy desk. Rick assumed this was Kemp. A stocky man with fierce eyes, he wore a lumberjack shirt and looked to be in his late forties. He kept his hand pressed over the grip of a gun resting in front of him on the desk.
Rick’s gun.
His lips slipped into an angry frown when he looked at Rick. Then when Shay stepped in behind him, Kemp covered his mouth and rubbed his chin in thought, as if he didn’t know what to do with them. But that had to be wrong. Joey and his partner had been sent specifically to find them, hadn’t they?
“Give me a few minutes.” He glared at the others.
A few seconds later Rick and Shay were alone in the office with him.
“Go ahead, have a seat,” he said.
Rick preferred to stand and give the illusion that he had more power.
The man got up and turned his back to them. “Coffee?”
Neither of them answered.
Patience running thin, Rick stepped closer to the desk. “What is going on here? Why did somebody try to kill us? Why have we been abducted?”
The man nodded, letting Rick know that he’d heard the questions. Scowling, Kemp poured his coffee and sat back down. “The attempt on your life was an unfortunate event that I had nothing to do with. If it were left to me, you would have found your way here on your own in search of the plane and your brother. When you didn’t show, I sent my men to look for you. They knew you’d been in town and that something was wrong. That’s when they spotted the fire and decided to investigate. But they didn’t try to kill you.”
“But they took us captive. Brought us here at gunpoint. They threatened to kill us if we resisted. Here we sit in your office with our wrists still bound. And if they didn’t try to kill us, then who did?”
Rick decided to take that seat after all, and Shay sat next to him. Exhaustion played across her features.
“You’re here because of your brother. And as to the men who tried to kill you, you survived.” Dread flashed in his eyes before angry resolve rose in its place. “I can’t tell you more than that.”
Rick didn’t see it the same way but knew he wouldn’t get more out of Kemp on that point. He edged forward in the seat. “Let me see him.”
“That’s not go
ing to happen. Not until I have your full cooperation.”
“Cooperation?”
He took a sip of his coffee, watching Rick over the rim of his cup. Measuring him. “Those men who found and brought you to the camp answer to me only to a point. You see, Mr. Savage— That is your name, isn’t it?”
Rick frowned in reply. He didn’t like the man knowing so much about him, especially when he knew close to nothing about Kemp. “And you must be Buster Kemp.” The restaurant owner from Chicago and obviously much more.
The man nodded. “What else do you know about me besides my name?”
“Nothing. We came for the plane. We don’t need to know anything else. I’d rather just take my brother and get out of here, forget we were ever here.”
“It’s too late for that. There’s something I need from you, and if I have to use your brother as leverage to get it, then so be it. I’ve got too much at stake here to accept no for an answer. You see, you and I are in the same situation. We’re both prisoners.”
Rick glanced at Shay, trying to read what she thought. Her frown said it all.
“I owe serious money to the wrong man,” Kemp continued. “I was desperate and had to use my grandfather’s mining claim as leverage. Instead of killing me, he sent me here with his men to work the claim. I have this one mining season to dig up enough gold to repay him. With interest. So far we’ve found next to nothing. If we don’t strike something big soon, I’m as good as dead.”
“You can’t just mine a claim and expect success unless you know what you’re doing.”
“My grandfather taught me all I need to know. Believe me. If there’s gold here, we’ll find it. And if we don’t find anything…I have a backup plan.” He scooted forward and leaned closer. “I’m the lone pilot in this group of clowns. And my plane is the only one here. If I use it to leave in a hurry, they won’t be able to come after me, and by the time they use alternate means to track me down, I’ll already be long gone.”
So the plane was the man’s escape hatch if things didn’t go right. “That’s why you took Aiden—you couldn’t let him leave with your only means of escape.”
Kemp nodded. “It was just bad timing on his part. I figured I’d delay him a few days before leaving. But then we started finding flecks of gold. We’re this close—” he held his forefinger near his thumb “—to striking it rich.”
Rick leaned against the chair back. The man’s face was flushed, sweat beading his brow. “You have gold fever. You’re blinded by it now. So you figure you’ll just delay us along with Aiden?”
Kemp clasped his hands behind his head and leaned back in his chair, smiling. “I remember when my grandfather got gold fever—it was infectious, contagious. People don’t usually find big nuggets in Alaska. Anything over a few ounces isn’t common. But then he found a nugget weighing in at thirty troy ounces. Before he died and left the claim to me, my grandfather took all the money from the gold and invested in the camp and the heavy equipment needed to dig out the rest. I made the mistake of opening my mouth, but I had no choice. In the end, I’m glad I had the claim to use as leverage.”
“I don’t get it. Why do you owe someone money when you have a whole gold claim?” Rick asked.
A contemplative look came across Kemp’s face, then he finally answered. “Gold mining is always going to have its risks. Long hours of hard, manual labor with no guarantees. My father didn’t share my grandfather’s obsession and started a restaurant business before I was born. I grew up learning that business and made it my own. I spent a few summers with my grandfather, but I’d nearly forgotten about this place. At least when I needed it, it was still here and waiting for me.”
Rick studied the man. He was a salesman; no doubt there. Had sold the guy he owed with the idea that he’d be able to mine enough gold to pay him back. Rick didn’t know how much he owed, but he could guess it had to be a large sum.
“The men have already seen the gold for themselves.” Kemp grinned. “All of them have gold fever now.”
Kemp had counted on that reaction.
“And no one is going to stand in their way,” Rick said.
“Now you understand. By the time I found out your brother was expecting you, the damage was done. I couldn’t let him go. I don’t need anyone sniffing around, asking questions or causing trouble. The problem is the men here don’t exactly answer to me. They answer to the guy I owe. They didn’t kill you, because, well, I convinced them it wouldn’t be in their best interest. Don’t make me change my mind on that.”
“Just how long do you think you can keep us here before someone comes in search of us?”
Kemp shrugged. “Let them come. You’re not here. We never saw you.”
Rick believed the guy had it in him to persuade these men to do whatever he wanted, but he still wasn’t sure why he’d kept them alive. They knew too much and could use that against him. “You mentioned needing something from us. What is it?”
“Work the claim with us and in a few days, when I’ve paid back what I owe, you can see your brother and all of you leave here richer. Just take me with you.”
Yeah, right. Rick didn’t believe Kemp’s story. They were as good as dead any way you looked at it. What reason would he have to let them live when they could cause so much trouble for him? The way the guy looked at Shay…
The airplane.
He needed a mechanic to fix it so he could fly it out. Idiot. If he weren’t close to exhaustion, he would have realized that before. Kemp needed Shay for that—that was why they were here. Aiden had told these men far too much, putting Shay’s life at stake. Kemp wanted to work the claim, find the gold and then make his great escape. Rick doubted he even intended to pay back the man he owed.
And once the plane was repaired, he’d leave Rick and Shay behind to face certain death at the hands of these cutthroats.
“Do we have a deal?” the snake asked.
Rick had forgotten he’d been offered one and hesitated.
“Doesn’t sound like you’ve given us much choice,” Shay said, speaking up for the first time since entering the office.
“You have a choice. It’s either work with me or die.”
“Let me get this straight,” Rick said. “You’ve abducted us and conscripted us into slaving away at your gold mine, and any attempts at escape are on pain of death.”
The guy leaned forward, a sinister grin across his face. “Yes.”
NINE
“The point is, you’re not free to leave. Act like you’re worth something around here, and I can convince the others to leave you alone.”
Shay watched the exchange between Rick and Kemp. How long did the guy plan to hold them? And how did he plan to do it? If they were made to work, he couldn’t keep them tied up the whole time. How long would it take before Connor became concerned, and if he even found them, would that be too late? Like Kemp already said, he might come looking, but none of the henchmen would admit they were here.
Uncertainty bombarded her.
Shay lifted her wrists to get Kemp’s attention. “We can’t work like this.”
He moved around to the front of the desk and sat on the edge. “Now that’s more like it. You see my dilemma, don’t you? My hands are tied, too—I can’t let you leave until we’ve struck gold and settled my debts.”
“And then what?” Shay almost wished she hadn’t asked, but it was better knowing the answer than going crazy wondering. “You’ll just let us go?”
“Something like that—if you behave and don’t make any trouble.” He scratched his head, appearing to consider his next words. “I’ll need that plane fixed, too, without letting them know my plans. If they find out, then all bets are off. Your lives, my life—they’re all forfeit.”
“I’ll need my tools. They were in the Jeep.”
“There are plenty of tools here for fixing the equipment. Depending on what went wrong, if you can’t make them work, we’ll go back to the Jeep to get your things.�
�
“Not just the tools. The Jeep also had the part I brought to fix what we think is wrong.”
Kemp eyed her as though trying to read the truth. “I’ll send Joey to bring back what he can find in the Jeep. Hopefully that’ll include what you need without me having to be specific.”
“You think they don’t already know what you’re planning?” Rick ground out the words.
“They suspect, which is why they walk around with the guns. They still have to follow most of my orders since I’m the only one who knows how to extract the gold. But I’m under guard, too, which makes it all a little awkward, being in charge and under guard.”
He removed the plastic ties around Shay’s wrists but left Rick’s on. His gaze pierced Shay’s. “Try anything and your friend here gets hurt. He’ll suffer before he dies. Any wrong moves from either of you and you’ll be locked away like the other one. You won’t see each other again. Am I clear? There’s no law here to keep them in line. There’s only me and their boss. Don’t give them a reason to hurt you.”
Shay frowned. The man knew how to use leverage effectively. Shay watched Rick’s jaw working, the pulse at his temple beating as he exerted effort to hold in his displeasure. She eyed Kemp. If Rick could pin him down, she could probably get the weapon. But they couldn’t simply walk out of the building with the gun-toting men standing on the porch and all around the camp. Kemp had made that all too clear. From what she’d overheard from Joey and his cohort on the trip to the mine, she got the feeling that the men were getting bored just waiting for an excuse to blow someone away.
Gunfire in rapid succession drove home that thought. Kemp grabbed the gun off the desk—splintering Shay’s idea to grab it herself—and bolted for the door, forgetting about his accidental prisoners.
“What’s going on?” he yelled at the guards he’d turned into unlikely miners.
He stepped through and the door closed behind him, leaving Shay and Rick alone. “Hurry, untie me,” Rick said.
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