Page 94 of Threat of Danger
“No,” Jess said, calm and in control as she stepped between Kaylee and the man.
Jess only wished she could see the surprise on the Loser’s face, but she couldn’t see past the flashlight. To remedy that, as the first order of business, she kicked the damn thing from his hand.
The metal hit the rock a dozen feet away, the light pointing at them and illuminating them. He had the gun trained back on Jess, some kind of a snub-nosed revolver, a big step down in size from the hunting rifle he’d used the first time around.
She sneered at him. “A woman’s weapon, huh? I thought about getting one for my mom for her purse.”
“To the wall!”
“The mask muffles your voice,” she said. “It kind of ruins the effect.”
He shot at her.
The sound was deafening in the cave. The bullet grazed her arm before it ricocheted off the rock behind her, not hitting him in the face, unfortunately.
“Jess!” Kaylee screamed, not with pain, thank God, but only with fear. She didn’t sound like she was hit.
“I’m fine.” The wound burned, but Jess had been burned on set before. She’d lost skin on set before. Lost blood. Had her shoulder dislocated, twice. More often than not, she’d continued her stunt so they didn’t have to retake the scene.
“When you have bad aim,” she told the man, “it’s better to use a shotgun. Especially at this range.” And then she charged him, because she didn’t want him to squeeze off another shot and hit Kaylee by accident.
Shoulder to the solar plexus, and the guy plowed into the rock behind him with a satisfyingly pained grunt. Jess’s head had been down, but now she brought it up, skull to the tip of his chin, snapping his head up. The back of his head bounced off the cave’s wall, and he slumped, sliding down to the ground.
Jess kicked the gun away, then reached into his pocket, tossed the keys at Kaylee. “See if you can unlock yourself.”
Where was his knife?
In the other pocket.But he was recovering and shoved Jess back hard. Still, she had the knife in hand.
She danced away as she opened it. She was shivering so hard, she fumbled with cutting the damn plastic tie around her wrists.
He lunged after her.
She dropped the knife.Dammit.Her fingers were stiff from the cold.
He kept coming, and as she jumped back, he picked up the knife. “You get back here.”
“I’d rather not.” She backed away fast, swooped down for the flashlight, then ran farther into the cave.
The tunnel narrowed rapidly—no good place to stop and fight. She couldn’t swing her arms right since she was tied. The man had a knife. And she couldn’t even attempt another good roundhouse kick. She needed to get to a place where the passage widened again and she had room for maneuvering.
Except, no matter how far she ran, the passage stayed tight, to the point of being claustrophobic. She hadn’t been here for so long, she hadn’t remembered this part.
Even having the light was a double-edged sword. She wouldn’t trip on the rocks or fall into a crevice, but the man could easily follow her. Yet her having the light was better than him having it.
Jess’s mind raced.Get ahead of him. Find a spot where the tunnel splits. Turn the light off.
If he couldn’t see her, having the knife might not be that big of an advantage to him. And she wasn’t completely unarmed. The flashlight was one of the weighted metal ones, heavy enough to be used for a weapon.
Her biggest problem was the damn plastic tie. Without the use of her hands, balancing her body was more difficult, slowing her down. Yet how many stunts had she done tied up? At least restraints didn’t scare her, didn’t make her panic.
Nor was she overly concerned that the man would stop chasing her and go back to Kaylee. Jess was the primary target. Kaylee had been just bait.
Up, up, up Jess went, following the tunnel’s slow climb. The passageway forked from time to time, twisting and narrowing even farther. Some of the branches were supposed to be unstable. The ceiling could come down from vibrations as minor as her shoes slapping on the ground. Relentlessly she shut out all thoughts of falling ceilings. She had to keep pushing forward. Even when, at times, the passage turned so steep she had to climb on her hands and knees.
Then she finally came to a wide fork she recognized. One of the passages led to the top of Short Stack, the other to Tall Stack. She had no idea which was which. She’d only been this deep inside once, with friends, on a dare, and they’d turned around right here.
Tall Stack was the one with the long chimney, a straight vertical opening to the top of the cliff, so probably the more difficult passage out. Maybe she could get farther ahead of the man there. She was a good climber.
