by Rita Herron
Brett gripped the weapon with sweaty hands and inched across the wood floor. A bedroom to the right made his heart stop. A single metal bed sat by the wall, ropes discarded on the floor, a food tray, a ratty stuffed animal...
This was where they’d held his son. And they’d probably brought Willow to the same room.
But no one was inside now. He looked for blood but didn’t see any. That had to be a good sign, didn’t it?
He stepped into the hall and found Maddox frowning. “There’s no one here, Brett.”
Fear knotted his insides. “Where is she, Maddox?”
“Let’s ask Day. He’ll know.” Brett followed him back outside but Day was barely conscious.
Brett dropped down beside him and snatched the man by the collar. “Where did your partner take Willow?”
The man looked up at him with glazed eyes. “Doctor...” he rasped.
Brett held up his phone. “I’ll call for help when you tell me where they took her.”
Day spit at him. “Go to hell.”
Brett lifted Day’s own gun to the criminal’s head. “No, that’s where you’re going if you don’t talk.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“You won’t do it,” Day rasped.
“You’re sure about that?” Brett said darkly. “Because that little boy you kidnapped is my son. And his mother means everything to me.”
The man’s eyes bulged, and he coughed up blood.
Maddox aimed his gun at the other side of Day’s head. “Where is she, Day?”
“The old mine off Snakepit Road.”
Brett shoved away from the man, sick to his stomach. That mine had been shut down for years. And the road was dubbed Snakepit Road because miners had complained about the hotbed of snakes in the area.
“I have to go,” Brett told Maddox.
Maddox looked down at Day. They both knew he wouldn’t make it, but could they just leave him?
“Go ahead. I’ll call for an ambulance and be right behind you.” Maddox caught his arm. “Be careful, little brother. Don’t do anything stupid. Wait for me to move in.”
Brett muttered that he would, although if he had to go in on his own to save Willow, they both knew he’d do it.
Without Willow and Sam, his life meant nothing.
* * *
WILLOW SHIVERED WITH cold and fear as Norman tossed her to the ground inside the mine. She’d grown accustomed to the dark trunk, but this dark cavern wreaked of decayed animals and other foul odors she didn’t even want to identify.
Norman cast his flashlight around the hole where he’d put her, and she cringed at the sight of the dirt walls. He must have dragged her a half mile inside. Wooden posts that supported beams inside the mine had been built when the mine was being worked, and Norman dragged her over to one and tied her to the post. Rocks and dirt scraped her arms and jeans, the jagged edges of loose stones cutting into her side.
“I wouldn’t fight it too much,” he said with an ugly sneer. “These beams are old and rotting. If one comes down, the whole mine may cave in.”
“Why are you warning me?” Willow demanded. “You’re going to leave me here to die anyway.”
His thick brows drew together in a unibrow as he looked down at her. Then he turned and left her without another word. A snake hissed somewhere in the dark, and she pressed herself against the mine wall and pulled her knees up to her chest, trying to make herself as small as possible.
Not that the snake wouldn’t find her anyway.
The light faded as Norman disappeared through the mine shaft, and she dropped her head forward, fighting despair.
Brett would have no idea how to find her. She was going to die here in this hellhole, and he would never know how sorry she was that she’d kept Sam from him.
Or that she’d never stopped loving him.
* * *
BRETT SCANNED THE DIRT road and deserted mine ahead as he sped down Snakepit Road.
There were no cars, no trucks, nothing to indicate anyone was here.
Fear seized him. Had Day lied to them? Had they taken Willow somewhere else?
His tires screeched as he barreled past the sign that marked the mine and threw the truck in Park. He jumped out, shouting Willow’s name as he ran toward the opening of the mine, but just as he neared it, he noticed dynamite attached to the door and some kind of trigger, as if it was set with a timer.
Terror clawed at him, and he rushed to tear the dynamite away, but he was too late. The explosion sent him flying backward against some rocks, the sound of the mine collapsing roaring in his ears.
For a moment, he was so disoriented he couldn’t breathe. Dust blurred his vision. His ears rang.
But fear and reality seeped through the haze. Was Willow inside that mine? Was he too late to save her?
He shoved himself up from the ground, raking dirt and twigs from his hair and clothes as he raced back toward the opening. “Willow! Willow, are you in there?!”
He dropped to his knees and started to yank boards away, but when he did, all he found was dirt. Mounds and mounds of it...
She might be buried alive in there...
Tears clogged his eyes and throat, and he bellowed in despair. But he lurched to his feet, ran to his truck, grabbed his cell phone and punched Maddox’s number.
“I’m on my way, Brett.”
“Get help!” Brett shouted. “They’re gone, but there was dynamite outside the opening of the mine and it just exploded. I think Willow’s inside.”
A tense moment passed, then Maddox’s breath rattled over the line. “I’ll call a rescue crew and an ambulance,” Maddox said. “Just hang in there, man.”
Brett jammed the phone in his pocket and ran back toward the mine, yelling Willow’s name over and over and praying she could hear.
It seemed like hours later that Maddox arrived. His brother Ray shocked him by showing up on his heels. “Just tell me what to do,” Ray said, his dark eyes fierce.
“We have to get her out,” Brett said. “She has to be alive.”
“A crew is on its way with equipment,” Maddox said. “We need an engineer, someone who knows the mine, Brett, or we could make things worse.”
How in the hell could they get worse? Willow was trapped, probably fighting for her life.
Ray cleared his throat. “Let me take a look. Maybe there’s another entrance. Another way inside.”
Ray’s calm voice offered Brett a glimmer of hope, and he followed his younger brother, hoping he was right. They walked the edge of the mine shaft following it for half a mile, searching brush and rock structures for a second entrance.
“There had to be an extra exit for safety,” Ray said.
He walked ahead, climbing a hill, then disappeared down an embankment. Brett was just about to give up when Ray shouted his name. “Over here. I found it!”
He looked up and saw Ray waving him forward. The sound of trucks barreling down the graveled road rent the air, and he looked back to Maddox who was waving the rescue crew toward the site.
“I’ll tell Maddox I’m going in this end and check it out,” Ray said.
Brett nodded and waited until Ray went down the hill, then he dropped to his stomach and crawled inside.
He couldn’t wait. Every second that passed meant Willow was losing oxygen and might die.
The mine shaft was so low at the exit that he had to slide in on his belly. He used his pocket flashlight to light the way and slithered on his stomach, dragging himself through the narrow tunnel until he reached a taller section that had been carved under rock. It was a room with supports built, giving him enough room to stand up.
“Willow! Can you hear me?”
He waved the light around the tunnel, searching for other crawl spaces, and spotted one to the left. He dropped down again, ignoring the dust and pebbles raining down on him, well aware the whole damn thing could collapse in seconds.
“Willow!” He continued to yell her name and search until fin
ally he heard a sound.
“Willow, can you hear me? If you can, make some noise!”
Please let her be alive.
He crawled a few more feet, then reached another clearing where more supports indicated another room, although it appeared the roof had collapsed in the center. Willow must be on the other side. “Willow!”
“Brett!”
He breathed out in relief. “Hang in there, honey, I’m coming.”
He started to dig with his hands, but realized tools would make the process faster, so he crawled back the way he came. It seemed to take him forever to reach the exit. He sucked in fresh air as he crawled out and raced down the hill to where the other men were starting to get set up.
“I told you to wait,” Ray said.
Brett blew off his concern. “I found her. But I need a shovel or pick to dig her out.”
“We’ve got this, Mr. McCullen,” one of the rescue workers said. “It’s too dangerous for you.”
Why? Because he was a damn celebrity. “I don’t care. I have to save her.”
“They’re the experts.” Ray stepped up beside him. “One wrong move in there, Brett, and you could bring the whole mine down.”
Maddox placed a hand on his back. “Brett, let them do their jobs. Besides, it won’t help Sam if you get yourself killed.”
“Who’s Sam?” Ray asked.
Brett rubbed a hand down his face and began to explain to his younger brother that he had a son.
* * *
WILLOW FADED IN and out of consciousness. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t find the air.
What had happened? One minute she’d been tied down here, praying Brett would find her. Then...something had exploded.
The roof had come tumbling down, rocks and dirt pummeling her. She’d tried to cover her face and head, but it had happened so quickly, and now dirt and rocks covered her. She tried to move her legs but they wouldn’t budge.
Either she was paralyzed or the weight of the dirt was too heavy...
Her head lolled to the side, and she forced herself to inhale shallow breaths to conserve air. She thought she’d heard Brett calling her name.
Or had she been hallucinating because she was so close to death?
She closed her eyes and tried to envision someone rescuing her. Pictured Brett carrying her to safety and fresh air. Saw the two of them walking with Sam in the pasture, sharing a picnic, then telling Sam that Brett was his father.
Next, Brett was proposing, promising her they’d be the family they should have been all along.
The earth rumbled, some loud noise sounded and the mine began to tremble and shake again. She closed her eyes and mouth against another onslaught of debris, but when she opened them, her head was almost completely covered, and she choked on the dirt.
* * *
WITH EVERY SECOND that ticked by, Brett thought he was going to die himself. Maddox let the rescue crew take charge of finding Willow, while he issued an APB for Wally Norman. Authorities were alerted at airports, train and bus stations, and the police in states bordering Wyoming. He even notified border patrol in Mexico and Canada, although they didn’t intend to let Norman get that far. Tire marks indicated that he’d been driving a sedan, although he could ditch that anywhere. Hell, he could have changed vehicles already and picked up a disguise.
“We’re almost through!” one of the men shouted. They’d set up a man on the outside with receivers to communicate, as the two other rescue workers crawled inside.
Brett paced by the exit, grateful when an ambulance arrived.
“I can’t believe you have a kid,” Ray said.
“Me either.” And he’d almost lost him and Willow.
But he was grateful Maddox and Ray were here. They hadn’t exactly spent any time together since he’d returned. The three of them had retreated to their separate corners, just as they had as kids.
Except now Maddox had put his job on the line for him. And Ray...well, he’d come to his aid, no questions asked.
“They’ve got her!” one of the men shouted.
Brett rushed to the outside of the exit, desperate to see Willow. Ray stood behind him, silent but strong, as if he’d be there to catch him if he fell apart. It was an odd feeling, one he hadn’t had in a long time.
Everyone in his business and the rodeo wanted something from him, wanted to build off his fame, wanted his money, wanted a part of him. But his brothers were here, just to support him.
Their father would have been proud.
Another agonizing few minutes stretched by, but finally one of the men slowly emerged, dragging a board through the opening.
A board with Willow strapped to it.
She was so filthy and covered in dirt and bruises that he could hardly see her face.
He held his breath as he dropped to her side and raked her hair back from her cheek. Her eyes were closed, and she lay terrifyingly still. “Willow?”
He looked up at the rescue worker, desperate for good news.
The man looked worried, his expression bleak as his partner emerged from the mine.
Brett cradled Willow’s hand in his as the men lifted the board to carry her to the ambulance.
“Get the paramedics!” one of the rescue workers yelled.
More shouts and two medics ran toward them.
Brett whispered Willow’s name again. “Willow, please wake up, baby. Sam and I need you.” Suddenly he felt a tiny something in his hand. Willow’s fingers twitching, grasping for him.
Brett choked on tears as she finally opened her eyes and looked at him.
* * *
THE NEXT TWO HOURS were chaos. Brett rode with the ambulance to the hospital, whispering promises to Willow that he wouldn’t leave her side. She was weak and had suffered bruises and contusions and possibly a concussion. She also needed oxygen and rest.
“Gina,” she whispered. “My friend.”
“What? You want me to call her?”
“No. She was in on it,” Willow rasped. “She was helping Leo. She told Norman to kill me.”
“I’ll tell Maddox to issue an APB for her, too.”
She broke into a coughing spell, and he helped her sip some water. “Sam.”
“He’s home with Mama Mary,” Brett said. “I called and told them you’re all right. I’ll bring Sam to visit tomorrow.”
Willow clung to his hand. “No, I’ll go home and be with him.” A tear slid down her cheek. “Only I don’t know where home is. I can’t go back to that house where Leo was killed.”
“Shh.” Brett stroked her cheek. “Don’t worry about anything tonight, Willow.”
She breathed heavily, then looked up at him again. “About Sam, Brett...”
“I told you not to worry about anything,” he whispered. “We’ll find a way to work it out.”
Although, as she faded into sleep again, Brett laid his head against the edge of the bed and clung to her hand. She had kept Sam from him once and bitterness still gnawed at him for what he’d missed.
Still...he loved Willow and wanted to be a father to his son.
But would Willow want him now after he’d let her down all those years ago?
Chapter Twenty-Three
Willow lapsed in and out of consciousness all night. She dreamt she was dying and that Brett saved her. She dreamt that he left her and walked away and was marrying someone else.
Every time she looked up, though, Brett was there. He stayed by her bed holding her hand and reassuring her she was all right. He fell asleep in the chair. He gave her water when she was thirsty and wiped her forehead with a cool cloth and held her when she woke screaming that she was drowning in dirt.
But sometime in the early morning, she stirred and heard him on the phone.
“Yes, Ginger, I know the movie offer is a big deal.” Pause. “I realize it’s a cowboy part, that it would take me to a new level.”
Willow closed her eyes, her heart aching. Brett was already planning to leave her just
as he had before. Except this time when he left, he would know he had a son.
She steeled herself to accept his decision. She would no more trap him now than she had five years ago.
And she’d never let him see how much he’d hurt her.
* * *
BRETT HAD NEVER prayed so much in his damn life.
Even when they’d finally moved Willow from the ER into a room, he’d been terrified she’d stop breathing.
Her screams of terror had wrenched his heart.
The nurse checked her vitals, the doctor appeared to examine her and Brett stepped out to call home. Maddox answered on the first ring.
“How is she?”
“All right. How’s Sam?”
“Asking about her, but Mama Mary and Rose are feeding him funny-face pancakes and he’s gobbling them up.”
Brett had always loved Mama Mary’s funny-face pancakes. Especially the chocolate-chip eyes.
“There’s more. We caught Norman and Gina. They’re being transported back here to face charges.”
“Thank God.” He swallowed hard. “What about me and Willow?”
“I explained everything to the local judge. And this morning I arrested Boyle Gates. Seems Day spilled Gates’s involvement and the way they framed Garcia. Gus is going to be released. I offered him a job here on the ranch, so he and his wife and daughter can have a fresh start.”
“You’ve been busy.”
“I just like to see justice done. And Garcia needs a second chance.”
Maddox was a stand-up guy. “Dad would be proud of you.”
“He’d be proud of you, too, little brother.”
“I don’t know about that. Willow would never have gotten in this mess if I’d stuck around.”
A second passed. “Maybe not. But that was then. What are you going to do now?”
Brett glanced back at the hospital room. “I’m going to fix things, if I can.”
He ended the call and went in to see Willow. She was sitting up in bed, but her expression was guarded, her eyes flat.
“How are you feeling?”
“I need to go home and be with Sam.”
“I’ll tell Mama Mary to bring you some clothes and if the doctor releases you, I’ll drive you back to the cabin.”