Calamity Jena

by Janet Elizabeth Henderson

  That was when the doorbell rang. With a grump about being interrupted, Jena went to answer it. She wiped her hands on her faded jeans and tugged at her vintage Backstreet Boys T-shirt. Her hair was in a messy knot on top of her head and her feet were bare. Whoever was at the door would have to take her as they found her.

  Her smile disappeared as soon as the door swung open. Frank was smirking at her.

  “Thought you’d get rid of me that easy?”

  Jena jerked back as she tried to slam the door. Frank was too fast for her. He pushed the door back and grabbed her arm.

  “You’re coming with me,” he spat at her. “You’re going to come back to Atlantic City and do as you’re told. Or you’ll regret it.”

  “I already regret knowing you.”

  He lifted her, holding her tight against his body as he marched towards his car. Jena struggled, clawing at Frank. Yelling for help. It was useless. He just propelled her towards his car.

  She noticed two other cars beside his. The men leaning against them were hard, scarred and terrifying. Jena stiffened with fear, making Frank laugh.

  “I picked up some friends of mine on the way through Glasgow. What you and that asshole cop keep forgetting is I got connections. You don’t mess with me and get away with it.” He wrapped his hands tight in Jena’s hair to stop her from struggling. “Boys, get it done.”

  One of the men nodded. He leered at Jena as he pulled his car door open. “Do we get to play with her on the way back?”

  “If you don’t do any damage. I need her in one piece to dance at the club.”

  Jena felt her head spin with his words. Her breakfast fought to come up her throat.

  “We can do that,” the guy said before he climbed into his car.

  To her horror, he revved the engine and aimed for her house. The car crashed through the living room window, hitting the house at an angle so the passenger side took the brunt of the damage.

  Jena screamed. Frank laughed. The maniac in the car climbed out and sauntered over as though he drove into houses every day of the week.

  “See,” Frank said against her ear, “it’s like this. When we’re through, there’ll be nothing to keep you in Scotland. This piece of shit house is about to be demolished. You’ll have nothing left. No house. No money. Nothing. You’re out of options, Jena. Time to do as you’re told and work off the money you owe me.”

  “No,” Jena wailed. Tears streamed down her face. Her house. The home she was making. The work she’d put in. “No!”

  Frank laughed. “Two minutes enough, boys?”

  “More than.”

  Frank threw Jena into the back seat of his car. She scrambled to get out. He leaned in and smacked her across the face. “Kid locks. You ain’t going nowhere.”

  Jena cradled her face as he climbed into the driver’s seat.

  “Better buckle up, baby—this is gonna get real.” He backed down the road at full speed, making Jena scream. He screeched to a halt at the side of the road, coming alongside the other car. He nodded at the men. Someone held something up, gave her a sick smile and pressed a button.

  And the whole world exploded.

  “Hell yeah,” Frank shouted. “Shut up or I’ll smack you again.”

  It took Jena a minute to notice she was screaming. She bit her lip and whimpered as she fought to keep silent. Tears streamed down her face as she looked at the site where her house used to stand. The car had been rigged. It had taken the house with it when it blew. There was nothing left except rubble and smouldering ashes.

  The men were laughing when the second explosion rocked them. Frank’s car slid off the side of the road into the ditch. Jena screamed as she tumbled inside it. Her head struck something. Pain shot through her. She blinked hard to get her bearings. Frank was up on the road. He’d been thrown away from the car. The driver’s door was still open. Jena scrambled for it.

  “What the hell was that?” someone shouted.

  “I only rigged one explosion,” the other guy yelled.

  Jena ran. Fast. Hard. Stones and sticks bit into the soles of her feet. She had to get away. She had to get help. Frank shouted. Jena cast a quick glance over her shoulder. He was chasing her, but she still had some distance on him. She ran across the field. She saw Abby standing on her front stoop. Abby shouted. Jena didn’t hear the words. Her lungs burst as she pushed herself to go faster. She could make it. She had to make it.

  The earth trembled. It began to disappear under her feet. Jena screamed as she fell. The mine beneath her collapsed. Darkness overwhelmed her.

  She was underground.

  38

  The desolation that confronted Matt almost brought him to his knees. The house was levelled. There was no sign of Jena.

  “Keep it together,” Harry ordered him. As though Matt had any other choice.

  “Over here,” Lake yelled. “Two guys. Both injured. One unconscious.”

  Matt ran to where Lake was standing beside the road. A car had been thrown off the tarmac into the bushes. A guy lay out cold beside it, blood on his head. The other one was propped against a tree, cradling his arm. Matt recognised the type—Glasgow thugs.

  Matt strode over to the one who was conscious. “Jena. The woman. Was she in the house?”

  The thug ran his tongue over dirty lips. “Naw. She was in Frank’s car.”

  Matt looked around. He didn’t see a car. “Where?”

  “Up the road a wee bit.”

  “Lake?”

  “I’m on it.”

  Matt took a step towards the guy. His body vibrated with barely contained rage. “Is she hurt? Did you hurt her?”

  The hard Glaswegian thug licked his lips again nervously. “We didnea touch her.”

  He was leaving something out. Deliberately. “Did Frank touch her?”

  “Just a slap.”

  The rage inside Matt turned cold. Frank Di Marco was a dead man.

  “Matt.” Lake’s voice was eerily calm as it came through Matt’s earpiece. “Get over here. We have a problem.”

  Matt felt fear battle anger. “If anything has happened to her…”

  He watched the man pale before he turned and ran towards Lake. He barked an order over his shoulder at Jason, telling him to watch the men.

  Lake was standing at the edge of what used to be a field. Now it was a series of ravines. The earth had collapsed into the old mine shafts. Matt could hardly process what he was seeing. Before the explosions there had been a grassy expanse between Jena’s and Abby’s houses. Now there was dust, rubble and holes in the earth. Beyond the field he could see Abby standing on the doorstep of her house, Katy in her arms. Matt pulled out his phone and dialled her number. He watched as she reached into her pocket and retrieved her phone.

  “She was running over the field and just disappeared.” Abby’s voice shook.

  Matt stilled. “Jena?”

  “She fell into the mine.” It was a whisper.

  Matt’s heart actually stopped as he stared at the mess in front of him. She was under this?

  “Lake.” Matt looked at this friend. “Jena’s under here.”

  Lake’s jaw clenched. “We need silence.” He pressed his ear and gave the order. Matt relayed the word to Abby. The whole area went deadly silent.

  That was when they heard it. The best sound Matt could ever have heard.

  “Help, somebody help me.”

  Jena.

  Jena was pretty sure her ankle was broken. From the pain she had when she took a breath, she would guess there were a couple of cracked ribs as well. She used the light feature on her still intact cell phone to look around her. She’d slid down with some earth and landed in an old tunnel. The whole area between her house and Abby’s was a warren of tunnels and shafts. Some of them quite close to the surface. From the time it’d taken her to fall, Jena guessed she wasn’t buried very deep. She looked up at the earth packed above her and swallowed hard. Okay, deep was relative—she was still pretty far under
ground.

  The earth had collapsed on either side of her, leaving her in what looked like a small room. There was no way out. All she could do was hope the support beams holding up the dirt over her head would stay where they were. One of the collapsed dirt walls had an old pipe sticking out of it. A wide, rusting metal pipe that had come down with the explosion. Jena waved her hand in front of it—there was air coming through it. A slightly cooler breeze.

  Her heart raced. If there was air, then the other end of the pipe had to be above the surface. She dragged her broken leg closer to the pipe, breaking out in a sweat as she did so. The pain made her sob. She clenched her teeth as a wave of dizziness swept over her. She couldn’t pass out. She wouldn’t pass out.

  She checked again to make sure it wasn’t possible to ring for help, but, unsurprisingly, there was no cell reception underground. Taking a deep breath, she pressed her mouth to the pipe and shouted for help.

  Someone had to hear her.

  The alternative was too horrific to contemplate.

  “There.” Lake pointed to a dip in the ground with an old broken pipe sticking out of it.

  They ran to it. Matt sank to his knees. The pipe was wide, large enough for him to fit a hand inside. Jena’s voice came out through it. She sounded strained and terrified. Without hesitating, Matt put his mouth to the pipe.

  “Jena, we’re here. We’re going to get you out.”

  He heard faint, relieved sobbing.

  “It’s okay, princess. It’s going to be okay.” Damn, he hoped he was telling the truth. She had to be okay. There was no other option.

  “I’m in a bit of the tunnel that’s still standing. There’s a collapse on either side of me,” Jena shouted.

  Matt looked around him and knew exactly where she was. There were two large sinkholes with an island of grass between them. One of several islands in a sea of ravines and potholes. His heart raced. She’d been lucky. She could have easily been buried with one of the sinkholes instead of being pushed into a cavern.

  “I think my ankle is broken and my ribs are cracked.”

  He closed his eyes. “We’re going to get you out. I promise.”

  “I’m scared, Matt.”

  “I know, princess. It won’t be long. Just hold on tight.”

  “Is that her?” Magenta and Harry came running up to stand beside him.

  “I picked Magenta up,” Harry said. “She’ll know what’s down there.”

  Magenta took in the alien landscape in front of her. “She’s at a junction. Those have extra reinforcement.” She pointed over the field. “See the pattern? Every grassy bit is a junction.”

  Now she’d pointed it out, Matt could see the pattern. The junctions were grass islands in a sea of dirt.

  “That’s good, right?” He didn’t want to sound desperate, but he couldn’t help it.

  Magenta nodded. “Really good. If they haven’t collapsed by now, they probably won’t. She’s safe.” She bit her lip and cast a worried look at Harry.

  “What?” Matt demanded. “What else?”

  “She’s safe unless there’s another explosion.”

  Matt’s stomach clenched. “Is there likely to be another explosion?”

  “I don’t think so.” Magenta looked at Harry, and there was uncertainty in her eyes. “I found some explosives in the mine when I checked it for Abby. I cleared them out and called in some munitions experts to check the rest of it. They’re due out this week.” She looked devastated. “I didn’t think there was a need to rush. I’d cut off that whole section of the mine.”

  “The second explosion.” Matt rubbed his face. “That was explosives in the mine?”

  “Yeah,” Magenta said. “The good news is, if there are more explosives, they should have gone off with the first lot. Chain reaction sort of thing.”

  “Okay.” Matt clenched his jaw. “Let’s assume everything that could explode already has. How do we get her out?”

  Magenta looked around. “We need to dig through the most stable area, otherwise we’ll bring more dirt down on her. There.” Magenta pointed to the middle of the grass area. “Dig in the centre. Keep it small. You shouldn’t have to go down too far. You might even be lucky and hit an old air shaft, and speed things up. This area is covered in them.”

  Matt looked at the gaping hole between him and the island of grass. “How the hell do we get a digger over there?”

  “We can do it,” said a voice. It was Grunt.

  Matt looked up to find Grunt, Joe and Lake standing there, looking like members of the A-Team.

  “We did stuff like this all the time in the marines,” Joe said.

  Matt looked at Lake, who nodded confidently. Matt took a shaky breath. “You got what you need?”

  “I’ll get it,” Lake said.

  The men set off at a run as Matt turned back to the pipe. “We’re coming to get you. Magenta is here and she knows where you are exactly. Lake, Grunt and Joe are getting the equipment we need to dig you out.”

  Magenta tapped his shoulder. “Can I talk to her?”

  Reluctantly, Matt moved out of the way.

  “Jena,” Magenta shouted into the pipe. “I need you to find a corner under a beam. Can you see down there?”

  “I have a flashlight app on my phone.”

  “Good. Get to a corner under a beam. Stay there. We’re going to dig through the middle of the ceiling above you. The rubble trapping you shouldn’t get too disturbed, but you might get some dust. Do you have something you can use to cover your mouth and nose?”

  “Yeah,” came the trembling reply.

  Matt clenched his fists. This was the last time he was ever going to let her out of his sight. Every time she was unsupervised she got injured. The woman was a magnet for accidents and mishaps. He hung his head as he tried to calm his breathing. He’d wrap her in freaking cotton wool if he had to.

  “If the air gets too stuffy, breathe at this pipe,” Magenta shouted. “You aren’t that far down. It shouldn’t take long to get to you. Try to stay calm.”

  Magenta signalled for him to come to the pipe. “Talk to her. Keep her calm. Make sure she’s okay. This shouldn’t take long once the equipment is here. Look, you can tell how deep she is by how much the earth has fallen on either side of her. This part of the mine is near the surface. She was lucky.” She gave him a quick hug. “I’ll go get my climbing gear. Don’t worry, Matt, we know what we’re doing.”

  She ran for her car. Harry patted Matt on his shoulder. “You stay here. Talk to your woman. I’ll coordinate with the emergency crews. They should be here any minute. We’ll get the area checked out and cordon the dangerous bits off. I already sent someone over to check on Abby. She’s shaken up but fine. The mine doesn’t run under her house, so that’s good, but the mushroom farm was taken out in the blast. There’s no way to salvage her business.”

  Matt ran a hand over his face.

  “Frank?” he asked Harry.

  “In the wind. I’ve put out the word to keep an eye out for him. His car’s still here. He can’t have gotten far.”

  “How the hell did he get back here so fast? He must have just jumped another flight as soon as he got back to the States.”

  “I’ll find out what happened.” Harry’s tone was grim. He nodded to the ground. “Let’s get Jena sorted first, then we’ll deal with that moron.”

  “Aye.” Matt nodded.

  “Matt?” Jena’s slightly panicked voice drifted up to him.

  He knelt beside the pipe. “It’s okay, princess, I’m here.”

  39

  Jena wedged herself into the corner closest to the pipe. It wasn’t directly in front of her, but she could lean forward to shout through it. She could hear Matt, which was the most important thing. Without his voice she would be all alone in the darkness. She felt like she’d been stuck underground for hours, but it couldn’t have been that long. Could it? Matt had been talking to her, telling her tales of life with the twins and his cousins.
Telling her all about the trouble they got into as kids. His voice was the only thing stopping her from having a complete and utter meltdown.

  Her broken leg was stretched out in front of her and throbbed with pain that made her want to wail. She dug her fingers into the dirt beside her every time it became too much. Her ribs didn’t ache as much as her ankle, but moving and breathing were uncomfortable. She was pretty sure she was covered in cuts and bruises. Her head still ached from the tumble in the car, and she didn’t even want to think what bugs were nested in her hair.

  Sounds echoed down through the pipe. People shouting. Orders given. An engine revved. Something heavy hit the ground with a thud, making some loose dirt shake down onto her. She shuddered.

  “Matt? What’s going on?”

  “They’re laying down a couple of wooden beams for the hobby digger to roll across.” His voice sounded tight with tension. “You’re under a kind of an island; there have been cave-ins all around you. We’re trying to get the equipment to the right spot without causing any more damage.”

  She rested her head back against the wall behind her as a shiver of fear went through her. He meant they were trying to avoid burying her alive. Yeah. It would be real good if they did everything they could to avoid that. A spasm of pain hit her, making her groan through clenched teeth. She was shivering and sweating at the same time. Adrenalin reaction. Nothing she could do about it except distract herself.

  “Frank—did you get him?”

  “Not yet.” The promise of pain was clear in those two words.

  “I don’t understand why he’s still in town. Didn’t you send him away?”

  “Harry checked. Frank didn’t make the connecting flight in London. No one thought to tell me.”

  Jena closed her eyes. The thought of seeing Frank again made her shudder.

  “You’ll get him, right?”