by Misty Evans
Even with his extensive training, he couldn’t make heads or tails of them, yet Charlotte seemed to have no trouble at all.
Every once in a while, Charlotte’s light would land on a notch in the cave wall or a cleft or scratch on the floor and she would say, “this way” and take him off into another tunnel. They’d been going downhill for the past fifty yards or so. “I had a little help,” she said.
Help? Her soft voice seemed at odds in the harsh, rocky environment. He heard the trickle of water up ahead, but the low-hanging ceiling played havoc with sounds. The caves had a different type of quiet than the forest. A tight, airless quality that resonated with the earth and what was long ago buried here. Even the sound of his own breathing seemed to echo back at him.
He kept his own flashlight beam on the floor so he didn’t trip from the stalagmites that seemed to pop up when he least expected them. They hadn’t met up with any of the cave dwellers she’d told him about and that was just as well. The fewer people who knew they were in these parts, the better. “What kind of help?”
Knowing her, she’d built a travois to carry his bruised and broken body, but navigating these tunnels and then the forest outside while pulling him behind her couldn’t have been easy. In fact, he’d wager it was downright impossible.
She rounded a bend without answering, disappearing out of his sight momentarily. “Come on,” he heard her call. “It’s up here.”
Well, that had been easier than he’d thought if they were already to the spot she’d hidden the USB. Once they had that, he’d get Charlotte back to the plane, send Beatrice a copy of the video and see if she could get a positive ID on the terrorist and his last known location. With any luck, the man was still somewhere in these mountains. Either way, Bourean would know. Once Miles had Charlotte safely back with Jax, Jax could take her to London and let her clear her name. Meanwhile, Miles was going back for Nicolae Bourean and his accomplice. He had a score to settle.
Miles went around the bend and nearly conked his head on a stalactite hanging down from the ceiling. The tunnel grew smaller so that he had to scrunch over to keep going, the echo of Charlotte’s footsteps shepherding him forward.
He caught the slightest whiff of fresh air. Light flickered on the ground, stronger than what Charlotte’s flashlight could give off. As Miles went down on his hands and knees, hunkering down even tighter to squeeze through another, even smaller opening, he wondered if there was a hole in the ceiling far above them, allowing light and air to circulate.
Which meant he just had to hold his breath, squeeze a little tighter, shift his shoulders to the left, and…
He dug his heels in and gave a push, angling his body at the same time. With a grunt, he popped through the tunnel hole and landed on his right shoulder.
Light met his eyes as he rolled over. Above him, Charlotte’s face appeared as he sucked in a deep breath and let his chest expand to normal size again.
“Hi.” She smiled down at him. Her face was bathed in a golden glow, not from an overhead skylight, but from sconces burning on the walls that had opened up. “Glad you could make it. You looked like Santa trying to get down the chimney.”
“You didn’t tell me I’d have to squeeze through a pin head.”
One of her gloved hands reached down. He grabbed it and let her help him up. He stopped short when he saw a man with a scraggy beard, long hair, and a tattoo on the left side of his neck, staring at him.
The guy was a giant, at least two-fifty, his arms and legs the size of tree trunks. He stood with arms crossed over a massive chest and belly. He wore a scraggly beard and his long hair was pulled back in a ponytail.
Miles automatically went for his gun. “Who the hell is that?”
“The help I told you about earlier?” Charlotte said, a quirky smile dancing over her lips. “This is Moose. Moose, you remember Miles. You two have already met, but Miles, you were unconscious at the time.”
The man’s gaze was on Miles’ hand where it hovered over his weapon. The name Moose fit him, but Hagrid might have been a better one. “Do you need the silverware?” he said low under his breath.
She patted his arm. “Not yet.”
Moose spoke to her, but it was in a language Miles didn’t understand. There was Romanian and broken English mixed with what he suspected was Gypsy jibs, a dialect of words Charlotte had told him about.
Charlotte replied, also in a mix of languages. Then in English, she asked, “How is Renalda?”
The man’s gaze bounced away, back to Charlotte’s face. He swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down sharply. His voice fit his body. “She is…unwell.”
“She didn’t have a change of heart about the chemo, I take it?”
He shook his head, looked down at the floor.
“Renalda is a distant aunt of my mother’s,” Charlotte explained. “She has lung cancer. Her whole clan lives in the caves during the winter when it’s too harsh to live outside.”
Although the caves were interesting, why anyone would want to live in them was beyond him. “She’s related to you?”
“I knew when I took this assignment I would have the chance to return to my mother’s birthplace, to possibly find a part of my family’s history. The whole time I was here, I never got anywhere with my research until the day I hid in this cave and watched Bourean’s men shoot down the plane. Renalda and her clan heard the crash, came to see what had happened and discovered me. They started to chase me away, but Renalda recognized something of my mother in me. My aura, she says, but I’m guessing it was my eyes. I have my mum’s eyes. They look like Renalda’s own. I told her I was a mixed blood Gypsy, who my parents were, and explained my situation. She and her clan are the guardians of the safes inside this cave. The family has been entrusted for centuries with the wealth and valuables hidden down here. The cross necklace you’re wearing belongs to her. The USB is in Renalda’s own personal safe.”
The secrets this woman had. “And why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“Would it have made a difference?”
He supposed not. “Why not just call her and ask her to send you the USB?”
Charlotte chuckled. “There are no phones here. No electricity. This section of the cave is heated by a natural spring not far away from where they get water. It’s said to have healing properties, and Renalda believed it would be enough to heal her.” She glanced at Moose. “Apparently, it wasn’t.”
“Why not come directly here after you escaped Bourean?”
Moose grunted and said something in that hybrid language that made Charlotte smile. “Yes, he does ask a lot of questions, but he has the right to know.” She spoke to Miles. “I needed the key.”
“She’s your great-aunt. Are you telling me she wouldn’t open the safe unless you gave her the cross back?”
“There is only one key that fits the safe.” She pointed to his chest. “That one. It’s been in the family all these centuries and is hailed as having both a blessing and a curse as part of its makeup. It protects those who are worthy and protect it in turn. Anyone who misuses it or doesn’t respect it is cursed with bad luck.”
“You don’t really believe that.”
Another grunt issued from Moose, his belly jutting out at the sound.
“It doesn’t matter what I believe, Miles. It’s the Gypsy way. Renalda is leader of this clan and she bestowed a gift on me. She set your leg and gave me the salves to heal your cuts and bruises. She hid my valuables in her own personal safe and trusted me with a family heirloom to open it. I owe her a great debt. Now that we’re here, we can return the necklace, retrieve the USB, and I can try to talk some sense into Renalda about the chemo. If she doesn’t go to the doctor, she will die.”
A man emerged from the opposite wall near Moose. Seeing Charlotte, he yelled and swept Charlotte up in his arms. Once again, Miles’ hand went to his weapon, but Moose stepped forward as if to shield them.
“Timothy! Put me down,” Charl
otte said, but she was laughing as the man swung her in a circle before depositing her on her feet.
He was a smaller version of Moose. Just as tall, but lanky, with the same beard, long hair, and tattoo. The man looked Miles over from head to toe with beady eyes. “This is him? The man you rescued?”
At least Lanky spoke decent English, even if his accent was thick.
“Miles Duncan.” Miles kept his hand loose and ready to reach for his gun. “And you are?”
Charlotte adjusted her jacket. “This is Renalda’s son, Timothy. My second cousin.”
Timothy picked up Charlotte’s backpack and cocked his head toward the entrance he’d emerged from. “Renalda said you would honor your family and come back. We mustn’t keep her waiting.”
As Timothy disappeared into the tunnel, Charlotte looked at Miles and smiled. “I’ll try to keep the family reunion short, but they are Gypsies. Prepare to be fed and take part in some dancing before we get out of here.”
Dancing? Miles hesitated before following her, Moose’s beady eyes watching him every step of the way.
THE PARTY WAS IN full swing. Charlotte wiped sweat from the back of her neck, accepted a drink from Timothy. The up-tempo music echoed between the caves and Charlotte laughed as Miles tried to learn a dance step from a group of teen girls.
Renalda, a hundred pounds of jewelry on her frail body, sat next to Charlotte and laughed along with her.
“Your man is very serious,” Renalda said, clapping her hands to the beat. “He has a long face.”
Long face was Renalda’s way of saying someone was somber and un-smiling. “He’s been through a lot.”
Miles glanced over, shooting Charlotte a help me look.
She gave him a thumbs-up.
Renalda smiled. “His face brightens when he looks at you.”
Full of good food and enjoying this reprieve from the real world, Charlotte smiled back. Here, she could be herself. She could admit truths she couldn’t outside these cave walls. “I love him.”
“He did right, coming back with you. His aura is strong, bright.”
Was Renalda giving her blessing? Her great-aunt believed she was gifted with the Sight and could predict outcomes, especially with love matches.
Charlotte humored her. “Are we compatible?”
Renalda stopped clapping. “You have difficulties to overcome.”
True enough. Didn’t answer her question, though. “If we succeed with those, do we have a chance?”
“His heart has darkness in it. Be careful, or he will pull you into that.”
Miles had survivor’s guilt and wanted revenge for the death of this men. Charlotte understood both. The darkness that lived inside her seemed a thousand times worse.
Miles had given her the cross earlier. She removed it from a pocket and held it up for Renalda to see. “Can we open the safe now?”
Renalda touched the cross as if it were a long, lost friend. Her rheumy eyes closed for a moment as she held it to her chest. Then she opened her eyes and took Charlotte’s hand. Together, they stood, and Renalda lead her deep into the cave, leaving Miles behind.
Chapter Seventeen
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HEAVY CLOUDS ROLLED over the Transylvanian Alps as the sun dropped behind them. A storm was brewing—a bad one from the look of those clouds—and the hair on the back of Charlotte’s neck stood up from the electrically charged air.
But she couldn’t keep the smile off her face. She had the USB.
During the dancing and feasting, Miles had tugged her away from the festivities for a few minutes. In the shadows of the cave, he’d kissed her mindless and ran his hands under her shirt. They’d stayed that way, making out like a couple of kids for a long time. She’d wrapped her legs around his hips and he’d thumbed her through her pants until she cried out from an orgasm. Luckily, the music was loud and he’d smothered her mouth with his to keep their make-out session against a cave wall a secret.
They’d danced and ate and sang along with the songs even though they didn’t understand the words Renalda taught them.
As she threaded her way down the mountain now, Miles a few steps behind her, she felt an undeniable lightness. Happiness she hadn’t felt since their six weeks alone in the cabin.
From the look of the storm moving in, they might end up stuck in the cabin again.
“We need to get to the truck and get out of here before that storm hits,” Miles called to her.
“We could end up driving right into it,” Charlotte called back. The wind was picking up, the pine tree limbs above her head lifting and falling on the breeze. The creaking sound they produced was ominous. “I need to see a weather report. Maybe we can connect my portable satellite at the cabin to one of our phones and check the radar.”
She paused as they crested a small ridge and saw the cabin down below, the last of the sun’s rays peeking between the clouds and the mountain range and bathing the cabin in a soft peach glow.
A part of her wanted to stay in the cabin another night. One more night of just the two of them alone.
The practical part of her knew they could end up stranded here again. Storms here could dump multiple feet of snow in a matter of hours. They often came one right after the other with no let up in between.
Would that be so bad? a tiny voice inside her head asked.
It would, she mentally answered. She had the USB, but Madeena was still in Nico’s possession. Without Charlotte there to buffer his attacks, Madeena was being subjected to all of his brutality, his sick appetites.
Miles stopped next to her, scanning the area around the cabin. She wondered if he, too, considered spending another night there.
He wasn’t going to like it when she told him the second half of her plan—where she sent him on to hook up with Jaxon and get the USB to authorities while she went back for Madeena.
But no one was going anywhere until she checked on this storm system.
“Area looks clear,” he noted as he started down the incline.
She followed. Once they reached the backside of the cabin, he handed her his backpack. “Go on in, see if you can copy what’s on your USB to my laptop. I’ll work on setting up the satellite.”
Making a copy of the USB contents was a good idea, and since she planned to send Miles back to the plane while she went back for Madeena, he’d have a copy of the video while she hung on to the original. “I’ll make some coffee.”
He nodded, already working on standing up the satellite base.
Charlotte dumped the backpacks on the kitchen counter and filled the tea kettle with water. She lit the wood stove, and while the water heated, set up the mugs with a couple of teaspoons of instant coffee. Then she unloaded a very cold laptop from Miles’ backpack and laid her gun on the counter.
She walked into the living area to set up the laptop and came to a dead stop.
The man sitting in front of the fireplace tapped a gun against his thigh. “Hello, Agent Carstons.”
“CB?” Charlotte laughed out loud, the sound too loud in her ears. “Oh my God. What are you doing here?”
His bald head was covered with a black, knit stocking hat. The rest of his outfit was all black, too. “Looking for you, of course.”
“But how did you know I was here?”
“I followed you. At least for awhile. You’re a slick fish to catch, Carstons. Almost had you in San Diego, then again at the airport. But you evaded me.” He chuckled. “I knew you’d come back here. It was only a matter of time.”
This didn’t make sense. “You…? I’m sorry, did you say you followed me to San Diego?”
He nodded, the cat who’d swallowed the canary.
A scary sense of understanding snaked across her mind. “You sent the men at Van Nuys.”
A wink. “You catch on fast.”
“But why? Why would you turn me into MI6 when you know I have to clear my name.
”
He held out a gloved hand. “The USB. Hand it over.”
It was in her pocket. She had no intention of giving it to him.
Her head felt heavy, a new kind of cold seeping into her system. Resentment, disbelief. He’d betrayed her.
Hurt, sharp and brutal, stung inside her chest.
The only question was, in how many ways? “What do you want with the USB?”
“I promised Nicolae he could have it.”
Charlotte kept herself from glancing at the gun in his hand. “You’re in cahoots with Nico?”
Another smug smile.
“You set it up to look like it was me in order to cover your own arse.”
Norris dropped his outstretched hand and smiled. “Surprised you didn’t figure that out before, but you were a little busy, weren’t you? Fucking the SEAL, being tortured by Nicolae, going on the run from MI6.”
Hysteria rose inside her. She needed to get that gun away from him. Keep him talking.
“Why sell out to Nico?” Covertly, she adjusted her grip on the laptop. Thoughts settling once more, she figured she might have to use it as a shield or whip it at his head to create a diversion. “You’re a patriot through and through. You hate scum like Nicolae Bourean.”
“He’s the key to tracking down the man I’ve been chasing for years. The one that got away. The one whose capture will put me in the history books.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The terrorist you said you have on the video. He’s mine.”
Madeena’s father. “Why do you want him?”
“I didn’t get bin Laden. He’s second on my bucket list.”
He was nuts. If she kept him talking along enough, Miles would come in. Two against one, they could take him. “I’ll help you take him down.”
He laughed as if this were the best joke he’d heard in forever. “You’re helping all right, but not like that.” He raised his gun. “Give me the USB.”