Page 97 of Threat of Danger
“If you find it, can I have it?” Kaylee asked. “In case he somehow circles back.”
“It’s not here.” He hugged her tightly. He hated leaving Kaylee, but he had to go. Kaylee would be fine for another couple of minutes until the police got here. Jess might be fighting for her life right now. “Want me to leave my flashlight?”
She scoffed. “What am I? A baby? I’m not afraid of the dark. You need it more than I do. Go.”
Bravest damn kid he’d ever seen. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a Bic lighter. As basic emergency preparedness, he always had at least a lighter and a pocketknife on him.
“Here. I’ll be back for you,” he promised her. “Police are coming too. I had Zak call in the location.”
“I’ll be fine. Chill.”
Who was this cool under pressure at her age? The kid was going to be an FBI agent or an international superspy. God help the world. He squeezed her shoulder one last time before he turned to go after Jess. But then he paused to give the kid his best I-mean-this-shit look.
“Never, ever, not in a million years will you go to strangers, no matter what we have to do. You hear? I have the best lawyer coming tomorrow morning from New York. So on top of everything, don’t you be sitting here worrying about that.”
He hurried forward. This time, Jess didn’t leave a trail. Or did she?
He spotted blood on the cave wall.
“Was she hurt?” he shouted back. He was only in about another fifty feet. He panned the light. She couldn’t be too bad. No blood had dripped to the ground. But Derek’s heart pounded harder anyway.
“He shot at her. I didn’t think he got her,” Kaylee called after him.
He panned the light around once again, spotted a stained rain barrel first, then a rusty wood chipper.
The stark sight brought the thought home that Jess was up ahead somewhere with a killer.
Derek ran.
About two hundred feet in, he spotted a smudge of blood on the wall, as if Jess had braced herself for a second. Did Crane shoot Jess in the hand?She could be shot anywhere.She might press her hand against the wound. Then, for support or to catch herself from tripping on the loose rocks underfoot, she’d reached out to the wall.
He watched for more dark spots but didn’t see any. He would have loved a sign when he reached the next Y in the path. Which way had she gone?
Derek picked left, the taller, more difficult chimney. With her stunt background, she would have an advantage there. Until she hit the metal grate on top. Because, let’s face it, either way she went, eventually she’d be trapped.
And Crane evidently still had his gun, damn the bastard.
Chapter Twenty-Four
THE GRATE THAThad looked rusted from the top a week ago appeared sturdy from below. And about a foot too high to reach. Jess had hoped to reach Tall Stack. She’d reached Short Stack instead. Didn’t matter. She was here now. She was going to have to make the best of it.
She shut off the flashlight that helped nothing at this stage except letting the man behind her know exactly where she was.
“I’m going to get you,” he said in a singsong voice in the dark, about a hundred feet behind her.
“No.” She let her voice ring loud and clear. “This time, I’m going to getyou, you freaking loser.”
She shoved the flashlight into her underwear at her hip, then jumped for the grate and hung on, letting her body weight do the work.
Come on, you rusty piece of shit. Give!
Her body weight wasn’t enough.
She hung on with one hand and grabbed the flashlight with the other to beat at the single hinge.Come on. Come on. Come on.But the way the hinge was positioned, she couldn’t get in a straight hit, not with full force.
Her elbow burned and pulled where the bullet had skinned her. No doubt the open wound was filling with rust as it sifted down from above. She would worry about that later.
She shoved the long handle of the flashlight between the bars of the grate and used it as a lever.Pop.She pushed harder.Pop.The muscles burned in her arms. She pushed harder yet.Work, dammit!
