I sighed. I’d worry about handling Touray after I survived the battle with Percy. If I survived the one with Percy.
As for Price—whatever we had together just got more complicated.
I smiled. He would come help me, if only to hopefully save some lives and make sure Percy didn’t come after me again. I bit my lips, suddenly longing to feel his arms around me, his chest warm and solid under my cheek. As much as I worried about the Tyet end of things in our relationship, there was no arguing that being with him made me feel safe and loved and just happy. Even when we were getting chased and shot at. I sighed. Clearly, I needed to be in a mental hospital.
Once I got Dalton to the cavern entrance, I pulled the white quartz stone out of my pocket and held it up. “Luke gave me this. It will show where the traps are and how to get back to the surface.”
Dalton thrust his hand out to take it. I pulled away, unwilling to hand it over. Not only would the stone get us out, it would get us back in. I didn’t trust him to return it when we escaped.
“I’ll lead,” I said.
He scowled at me, but for once, didn’t argue. Instead, he motioned Sharon to hang back with the others. Leo made no effort to fall back, standing firm beside me. Madison hovered close behind.
“It’s suicidal to stick too close together,” Dalton said slowly, explaining himself as if to a group of particularly stupid children. “If we trip a booby trap, if you’re hanging back, then at least you might survive and get out.”
“It’s a good point,” Leo said. “But I’ll take my chances.”
“Me, too,” Madison said, edging closer to Leo.
Once again she impressed me. She’d decided to play the cards she had instead of whining about Luke betraying her or freaking out about her family—which I’m pretty sure I would have done. No wonder the oversized gorilla had a thing for her. I was half in love with her myself. Of course, when she got him in her sights again, she was going to rip him a new one at the very least. I was hoping for a ringside seat.
Getting out wasn’t as straightforward as it might seem, even with our quartz disco rock. More than one passage led to the surface. It lit white over and over. Since I didn’t want to blunder into any Tyet operations, or worse, give the impression we were trying to move in on someone’s diamond claim, we had to go carefully. The passages were peppered with ordinary traps we had to find without the help of the stone. Between Leo’s metal skills and Dalton’s—whatever was up with his eyes—we got past those with relative ease. I was doing my best not to have a panic attack, especially when the tunnel turned into a pipe and I had to crawl through on my stomach.
I closed my eyes and wriggled through, pulling myself with my elbows and shoving with my toes. My head clouded, and all I knew was I needed to get out. I couldn’t breathe. I hunched upward and crashed into stone. My head reeled, and blood trickled warmly down my forehead and onto my nose. I wiped it away with a fist and forced myself to keep going, tears of pain dripping onto the ground.
It was a twenty-foot crawl, give or take. On the other side, I flung myself to my feet and bent, leaning on my knees as I panted, trying to get my breathing under control.
“Fuck, Riley, what did you do?” Leo said as he caught sight of the blood. He dug in his pack and came out with a tube of disinfectant wipes. I almost laughed. Who packed one of those? Apparently, my brother. He wiped my face with one, and then pressed another against the wound to stop the bleeding.
I put my hand over his. “I’ve got it. Thanks.” I sounded like I’d chain-smoked a carton of cigarettes, then drank a fifth of bourbon.
“What’s wrong?” Madison asked as she came through behind me.
“Banged head.”
“Claustrophobia.”
Leo and Dalton spoke at the same time. I glared at the latter. He didn’t need to sound so condescending about my fear. I bet he had a skeleton in his closet somewhere. Probably more in his pantry, laundry room, spare bathroom, and garage. Likely real actual skeletons, but somewhere in there was probably an embarrassing quirk of some kind, even if it was only toe fungus or an troubling inability to hit the toilet when he peed. A girl could hope.
“Are you okay?” Madison put a hand on my shoulder. “God, this whole thing has been hell for you, hasn’t it? You must’ve been going crazy in that cell.”
I straightened and gave her a crooked smile. “Yeah, well. I’m out now, right?”
She shook her head. “I’m so sorry.”
“Not your fault.”
“He’s my uncle.”
“He’s a giant jackass and it’s not like you gave him lessons in how to be Josef Mengele.”
She frowned and looked away without answering. I wanted to kick myself. Sure, remind her how awful Percy was when her family was at his mercy.
“We’ll get your family out,” I said softly, gripping her hand.
She didn’t reply, but her fingers tightened on mine for a moment before she let go.
The other members of the team came through the pipe, and we set off again. My whole body was shaking. I don’t know if it was the fear or exhaustion, the effect of dealing with the magical blankets, or flat-out hunger. Probably all of the above.
I started off again without a word. Dalton swore and trotted to catch up with me. He grabbed my shoulder and shoved past me. I let him. If he wanted to get blown up first, no skin off my nose. Right now, the quartz rock was glowing white. No signs of imminent danger.
Before too long, we came to a spot where water ran out of a crack up at the top of a wall. It washed to the floor and turned into a little creek. My heart lifted. We were getting closer to the outside. Maybe hope was getting the best of me, but I was certain this was surface water leaking down into the cave system. That meant the surface had to be close. I squeezed my eyes shut. Please, please, please, let us get out soon!
We marched onward. I got antsy enough to step on Dalton’s heels a couple of times. Finally, he swung around and pushed me back.
“Back off,” he growled.
I met his silvery gaze. Words spilled out before I had a chance to consider them. “What do your eyes do?”
He gave me an “are you for real?” look, then shook his head. “They see. Eyes do that, don’t you know.”
With that, he swung back around and stalked off. Okay, it might have been a rude question, but what did he expect? Inquiring minds wanted to know, and he wasn’t exactly Mr. Manners. I sighed. I really needed sleep and food. And air. I could use a whole lot more air.
The stream followed us down a steep passage that reminded me a little bit of a log ride without the logs. Grooves and holes in the floor revealed that it had once had an ore cart line running down it, which had no doubt been in use before it became a creek bed. I kept stepping into the water where it had pooled behind little rock debris dams. It was cold. Pretty soon my feet were numb, matching the little ice patches made by the clinging bits of magic. I was a patchwork quilt of cold.
We reached the bottom of the passage. Four other tunnels led away, all of them offering the white light of the surface. Trace led through all of them, though trace said that two of them had a lot more traffic. That was both potentially promising and equally dangerous, depending on their destinations. I glanced at Leo.
“Can you tell anything?”
He ran his fingers along the wall, searching for a vein of metal. He paused and closed his eyes. I felt the pulse of his magic as he sent his awareness out through the rock. After a minute, he opened his eyes. “The second from the right. Shouldn’t be far.”
It was all I could do not to sprint. I gripped my hands together and forced myself to keep to the slower pace. I swear Dalton had slowed down just to torture me.
I caught the first hints of pine and fresh air. I tried to squelch my moan, but didn’t succeed e
ven a little. Leo put his arm around my waist and squeezed, then took my hand. I clutched it hard enough to break bones. He didn’t pull away.
Light that wasn’t from our headlamps filtered through the darkness. I swallowed, my heart pounding.
“Easy now,” Leo said as the passage narrowed.
I splashed through water. The slope of the floor had eased and the creek had widened, spreading to the wall on this side. Leo swore and took the forgotten quartz from my other hand. It had turned ruby red. That meant a trap nearby. I said so.
“Dalton, hold up.”
I didn’t pay much attention to what they did at that point. My body had gone taut as a guitar string, and I vibrated with the need to get out. I forced myself to stay still, even as I leaned forward against the wall, inhaling the scents of the outside. Finally, Leo grabbed my hand again.
“It’s safe. Come on.”
He led me across the little creek to the other side of the passage, where a narrow bit of path was still above water, then let go of me and pushed me forward. Madison waited to take my hand. Leo and Dalton made sure the others made it past, and then we went another twenty steps and turned a corner to freedom.
The exit was no bigger than the entrance we’d used to get in, and the stream ran straight through the middle of it. An ice dam had formed just outside, backing the water up inside the cave until it created a pool that was more than waist-deep. Water ran over the top of the dam and tumbled down the mountainside. It sounded like there was a steep drop waiting for us. I didn’t care. I was ready to plow through the water and take my chances.
“What now?” Madison asked. “I’m not a fan of a February swim.”
“Maybe we can get a signal.” Leo took out his phone, as did Dalton. Neither had any success.
“I’ll try near the entrance,” Leo said, and splashed through to the circle of gray sky. He held his phone out through the hole and squinted. He shaded the screen. “Got one. We can get a text out. Now the question is who do we call?”
I was hysterical enough to want to answer with Ghostbusters. Somehow, I didn’t think Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray were going to be a lot of help.
“I can activate a tab. We’re close enough to the outside that my people can follow it. They’ll rescue us shortly,” Dalton said, and dug in a pocket and put his plan into action.
I had a different idea, and my idea might get us out of here faster.
“Gimme your phone,” I said, holding my hand out to Leo, who’d joined us back on dry land. He was dripping, and he’d clenched his jaw to keep it from chattering.
“Who are you calling?”
“Trouble,” I said. “Helpful trouble.” I punched in Price’s phone number and then typed out the text:
Need help. Stuck inside the mountain with no way out. Have your brother travel to us.
I eyed the screen and wondered if there was any way this was a sane move. We could wait for Dalton’s help to show up. It was coming from the same source in the end. I started to hit the delete key and hesitated. Touray could get Leo out right away instead of waiting for someone to follow Dalton’s tab. Leo was shivering. Even inside the cave, which was warmer than outside, it couldn’t have been more than thirty degrees. My breath plumed in the air. How long before he got hypothermia? If getting wet from the crotch down could do it . . . I didn’t know, but I sure as hell wasn’t about to gamble with my brother.
I handed Leo the phone. “Go send this,” I said.
He read it and flicked an eyebrow up at me, but didn’t ask any questions. He waded back to the cave entrance.
“I’ve got it covered,” Dalton said, not moving out of the way. He’d gone to the opening to send a message of his own.
“All the same,” Leo drawled, thrusting his phone up over the other man’s shoulder until he had bars. He thumbed the Send key. A few seconds later, he lowered his arm and returned to me, followed by Dalton, who managed to stomp through the water.
“Who did you send that message to?” he demanded, skewering me on his silver gaze. He still had his phone in his hand.
“Like you don’t know,” I said.
“Who?” His voice was a gunshot.
I sighed. He really wanted me to spell it out? “Your boss. One of them. Who else?”
He swore, then whirled away. “Come on. Let’s go. Double time. Full retreat.”
My other four bodyguards straightened at his whip-crack voice, spinning around and heading back the way we’d come.
What the fuck? “What are you doing?” I demanded, shock and sudden doubt crashing through me. I was putting two and two together fast and not liking results one bit.
Dalton looked over his shoulder as he followed his people up the passage. “You’ll see me again, Princess,” he said with a sharp grin, and vanished.
My mouth fell open, and I exchanged looks with Madison and Leo. “What just happened?”
“I don’t think they wanted to be here when your buddies showed up,” Madison said.
“But—” I stopped before I said something extremely stupid, like, for instance: but Dalton works for Touray! Because it was pretty obvious that that was not even close to the truth. Which meant I’d given that asshole and his team access to me, my friends, and my brother. I’d risked all of our lives. My stomach quaked as I imagined what they could have done, who could have been hurt. “Who are they? Who sent them?” Panic—way, way too late—made my voice rise.
“That is the twenty-four-dollar question,” Leo said, ice crusting his voice. “Didn’t you check them out?”
“I just—” What? I’d tried to follow their trace, but they’d nulled it out. I’d followed them, trying to find out where they lived, but they only went where I went. I had no idea where they slept or ate. I’d been recovering from my earlier injuries, then I’d been too swamped with new jobs, with worrying about who was out to get me, and the constant misery and heartache of missing Price. When a hacker friend hadn’t found anything, I’d let it go; I’d decided I knew who Dalton was working for and that I could live with it.
I’d been criminally stupid.
“Just what?” Leo demanded, shoving his fingers through his hair and looking like he wanted to strangle me. “Holy hell, Riley! How could you be so careless?”
Unable to meet his gaze, I covered my face with my hands and swung away. Tears burned in my eyes from emotional overload and exhaustion, plus hefty helpings of humiliation and self-recrimination. Dalton came and went from the diner when he wanted. He could have hurt Patti or Ben at any time. What if I’d relaxed my guard more than I had? Would I have led him to my family? He could have slaughtered them, or worse, taken them as hostages against my cooperation. Had that been his game? Or something else?
I didn’t have time to contemplate much more. The air rippled and bent. Magic exploded outward in thundering waves. It rammed me up against the wall. I twisted so that my left shoulder and hip took the brunt of the impact. That, and the side of my head. It’s not like I was using it much, anyhow.
My vision went blurry, and my head spun. I slid down to my butt and yelped as I landed on a sharp rock. Brilliant. On top of everything else, I’d managed to bruise my ass. At least the water I was sitting in would numb the pain at some point.
I touched my hand to my cheek. I’d cut it. The wound on top of my head had begun to bleed again, as well. I tilted my head back against the wall and closed my eyes, bracing hands in the water on either side of myself, trying to keep to the right side of consciousness.
“What the hell is going on? Where’s Riley?”
Damn, but I’d missed that voice. Even full of brutal menace, it sent jolts of electricity sizzling over my skin. I lifted my hand and made a dying kitten sort of sound. It was enough. I heard splashing, and hot hands ran over my hair and gently cupped my face, then m
oved down to grip my shoulders. Price gave me a hard little shake.
“God dammit, Riley. I can’t trust you as far as I can throw you. What the hell was I thinking letting you out of my sight? Fuck your rules. You got that? I’m not leaving you alone again. Not if you’re going to go around trying to get yourself dead.” Price punctuated his little diatribe with more shakes, fury ratcheting up in his voice until he sounded like his head might pop.
“Can you stop shaking me?” I asked. Whined, really. “My head hurts.”
He swore and swept me up out of the water, clamping me tight to his chest. My head flopped onto his shoulder, and I whimpered as sharp metal pinwheels whirled through my brain. He growled in response. Seriously. Growled.
I rubbed my face against him. He smelled amazing. Like soap and heat and something delectably him. If I’d been standing up, my knees would probably have melted. God, but I’d missed him.
“Get us out of here,” he demanded.
“I’m not sure she can handle the trip,” came Gregg Touray’s low baritone. “She’s in rough shape. Again. I’m beginning to think your girlfriend is suicidal.”
“You’re not taking her anywhere,” Leo said, and he grabbed me around my bicep like an anchor. “Not without us.”
His hand jerked away. No, all of him jerked away. I heard a grunt, and he crashed down into the water. “Don’t make me kill you,” Touray told him.
Fear gave me energy. I stiffened and struggled against Price’s iron hold, elbowing him in the neck and kicking my feet.
“Leave him alone! He’s my brother! Let go of me, you big rhinoceros,” I told Price. He was nothing more than a blurry shadow. His only response was to tighten his grip. I gave up trying to escape and turned my attention to Touray, who was a blocky shadow, his arm extended. I didn’t need to see well to know that he had a gun trained on Leo.
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