Close To The Edge (Westen #2) (32 page)

“Because I needed to come down here and yell at you for running after Davis. And…”

“And?”

“Because I love you.”

It had to be his imagination. His heart swelled in his chest. “I love you, too.”

“Hate to break up the romance party,” Deke’s gravelly voice rumbled in Gage’s ear. “But we think we’ve got an idea how to get you out of there, Gunslinger.”

“What’s the plan?” He tried not to sound too relieved. Way too much dirt separated him from Bobby and the surface.

“Harold Russet’s bringing in a backhoe from the highway construction. We’ll dig a side shaft down to you. Shouldn’t take…too long to get you out.”

“What aren’t you telling us?” Bobby asked. She’d heard the hesitation in Deke’s voice, too.

“There’s a chance the weight of the backhoe could collapse the whole thing right on top of you.”

“Shit.”

“Find another way,” Bobby ordered, sounding very much like the schoolteacher.

“There’s no other way.”

“Yes, there is. You find one.” Panic laced her words.

“We’ve looked at all the angles.”

“Look again.”

“Deke?” Gage needed to hear what Deke didn’t want to tell him.

“Yeah?”

“Tell me everything.”

“Russet says the spring rains have softened all the ground. With the explosions, we don’t have any idea how long you have before it all collapses anyway.”

A soft sound filled his ears. Bobby catching her breath on a whimper. His heart tore at her pain.

“Deacon,” Gage used his friend’s hated name to get his attention. “Get Bobby clear before it starts.”

“I’m not leaving you.” The pressure on his fingers increased.

“Bobby, you heard him. This whole thing can go at any moment. Thanks to you, I’ve got the air tank now. If the tunnel collapses, I’ll still have some time for them to get to me.” He didn’t know if that was true, but he prayed so. Getting her out of this trap was more important than whether or not he lived. She was his soul.

“Let me stay,” she begged.

His heart broke more.

“I need you to make sure they know just where I am.”

“Deke can do that.”

“Bobby, please.” He swallowed so she wouldn’t hear the fear in his words. “Baby, don’t make me beg you. I need to know you’re up there, safe and sound.”

A soft gasp from above. He imagined she had tears coursing down her soft cheeks. She was trying to be brave, for him.

“Okay, I’ll go, not because I’m afraid anymore…”

“I know you’re not afraid.”

“…but because I want you out of there quickly. I haven’t finished using that body of yours.”

Deke’s laughter rumbled in his ear. Heat flushed his cheeks and for one moment he was glad no one could see the stunned look on his face.

Something clanked just above him. Then Bobby slipped her fingers from his. He wanted to grasp them back, cling to her, beg her not to leave him. Suddenly, she slipped a cloth strap in his hand.

“Your air tank is lying just up on this beam. Don’t let go of that strap, no matter what. Promise me.”

“You got it.”

He gripped it tight.

She covered his fisted hand with hers. “I’m leaving the flashlight up here.”

Normally, he didn’t have a problem with the dark, but the little bit of light above him suddenly eased the tightness in his stomach. Not much, but some. And she knew he needed it. God, what he wouldn’t give to hold her in his arms one more time.

“Thank you.” It came out in a whisper.

“Ready, Bobby?” Deke asked.

“Take care of her, Deacon.”
In case I don’t make it out of here
.

“You got it, Gunslinger.” Deke knew what he’d just asked. “She’ll be right here when you get out of there.”

Hopefully in one piece and still breathing.

“Okay. Get going.”

Bobby kept her hand on his. Slowly it moved upward, until just the tips of her fingers touched his flesh.

Then she was gone. His fist clenched around the strap for the air she’d risked her life to bring him. His mind clenched around the words she’d filled his heart with.

I love you
.

Chapter Seventeen

T
he rope pulled her back up the shaft in slow jerks. It seemed to take forever.

“Careful, Deke,” she whispered into the mic. Her chest ached so badly every inch she got farther away from Gage.

Each movement could bring tons of soil down, crushing him.
Oh God, how could she leave him down there?
If he didn’t make it out of that shaft, she’d just die, too.

She sank her teeth into her lip. Now that he could hear with the radio equipment, no way was she going to let him hear her cry.

Suddenly two pairs of hands grasped her heels.

“Gotcha,” Deke said as they hauled her out of the hole.

Once she was on the surface, she squinted at the bright lights and snatched the mask from her face.

“Get him out of there!”

“We’re working as fast as we can.” Deke helped her off with the air tank and jacket she’d worn down the shaft. “We need you to draw us a picture of what the underground room and tunnels looked like before the explosions.”

She blinked and looked around. Huge stadium-type lights, mounted on truck trailers, sat spread in a semi-circle safely on the barn side of the area. People milled about like ants on an anthill, moving equipment, setting up tables.

Deke led her over to a folding table where several people in hard hats stood looking at charts. She recognized the middle-aged Harold Russet from earlier in the evening among them.

“Ms. Roberts.” Taking her elbow, Harold drew her into the group, introducing a twenty-something African-American. “This is André Danner, the construction foreman who’s going to operate the backhoe for us. Can you give us some kind of diagram where the tunnels and room were, and maybe how far back the Sheriff might be?”

Didn’t they know how little time Gage had? “Why are you just standing here talking? Not doing something?”

“Bobby.” Deke laid his hand on her shoulder. “The backhoe weighs nearly five tons. If these men don’t maneuver it just right, we’ll crush Gage.”

A small groan escaped her and both her legs wobbled. She clamped her hands onto Deke’s arms to remain vertical.

“Easy. Someone get her a chair.”

Suddenly there was a metal chair behind her and she was eased down into it. With shaky fingers she took the pen someone handed her and drew a sketch of the area around where Gage was trapped.

“Good. Excellent.” Mr. Russet said, pointing to the large X she’d marked where Gage might be in comparison to the graph. “How far down do you think he is?”

“I’m not sure.” Shaking her head. “I’m so bad with distances and it seemed like I crawled a mile to get to him.”

“We had a fifty-foot rope tied around her, Harold,” Deke said. “Given how much lay on the ground when Bobby got to him, I’d say he’s between twenty-five and thirty feet beyond the tunnel entrance.”

“Good.” Russet nodded. He turned to the backhoe operator and pointed to the map. “If we move the backhoe close to the entrance, but at about a forty-five degree angle from it, we should be able to dig the side shaft on this side of the whole mess.”

André sprinted off to his equipment.

“I’m going to go back to the tunnel entrance, Bobby,” Deke said as the other men in the group scattered to clear the path for the big rig. “You going to be okay?”

She clutched at his arm. “Just get him out of there, Deke. Please. Hurry.”

He pressed a radio into her hands. “Keep him talking. Listening to you should keep him from panicking.”

She clutched the radio as he ran to the tunnel entrance. Bobby stood, shivering from fear more than the early morning air. Suddenly a warm blanket was perched on her shoulders and she was engulfed into firm arms.

“There ya go, honey,” Lorna’s matter-of-fact voice tickled her ears. “That boy is gonna be okay. You just wait and see.”

Bobby leaned into the older woman. “I’m so scared.”

“Nonsense,” Harriett handed her a cup of hot tea. “Drink this. Deke and the boys here aren’t going to let anything happen to the sheriff. They’re smart men.”

Flanked by Lorna and Harriett, Bobby looked around her and for the first time realized how many people were in the area.

“Gage, you should see this,” she said into the radio.

“See what?”

His voice crackling over the radio sounded so good. Each word a testimony that he was still okay.

“Most of the town must be here. Men are helping move debris. The Baptist Ladies Society are serving everyone hot tea and coffee. Lorna and Harriett are with me.”

“Why?”

“Because they all care about you.”

“But I let them down. Davis killed two—no, three—men, and I didn’t have a clue. The drugs. The meth lab. He could’ve killed more.”

“But he didn’t. These people know it. And they’re here because they love you and need their sheriff saved.”

“You tell that boy to stop talking nonsense,” Harriett said loud enough for him to hear.

“Clint’s over next to the paramedic’s ambulance, along with all your other deputies.”

“How are Cleetus and Daniel?” he asked. Bobby held the radio up to Harriett.

“Both on their way to County Hospital,” Harriett answered. “Both awake, and doing good. Cleetus’ gunshot was a through and through, so Doc says they’ll be there overnight at least.”

“Good. I’m glad. Tell Cleetus I’m sorry about…”

“Hush. You tell him when you get your fool behind out of this mess.”

Bobby gave a whisper of a smile to the nurse’s words. She had a feeling she wasn’t the only one who planned to chew him out once he was safe and sound above ground.

“What about Emma?”

Bobby’s heart clenched. Even in his predicament, the welfare of his cousin and his deputies filled his mind.

“Doc made her stay home. Didn’t want her getting hurt out here in the dark.”

Harriett didn’t say what they were all thinking. Clint didn’t want his pregnant wife out here in case her cousin didn’t make it out of there.

Bobby slowly inhaled. She would
not
think like that. Positive energy, that’s all she’d send his way.

The earth around them rumbled. All movement stopped. Everyone held their collective breath as they watched the backhoe lumber forward.

The earthen prison shook around Gage, more dirt rained down. Careful not to release his hold on the air tank strap, he wiggled his other arm up to wipe the dirt off his mask. Barely any light shone from the flashlight Bobby left for him.

“Must be the backhoe getting in place.”

“Russet says the safest plan is to dig a second shaft on the MacPherson side of where you’re trapped. The ground is more stable there, less likely to collapse around you.” Deke’s voice rumbled in his ear. “How you doing down there?”

“The beams above me are holding. At least for now.”

Almost as if they knew he’d been talking about them, both beams shifted above him showering him with more soil.

“Whoa, Deke.”

“What’s up?”

“Everything just moved.”

The rumbling stopped. He held his breath and waited to see if the beams and dirt would crash down on him.

Other than a slight groan from the beams above, nothing else moved.

“Gage?”

“It’s okay. Do they have to move closer?”

The radio buzzed then stopped. Had they knocked out his line of communication or were they just deciding on a plan? Or just deciding how much to tell him?

Get a grip, man. Deke wouldn’t be anything but upfront. No bullshit, no matter how much. That’s the way they’d always been. Yeah, but this time Bobby was listening, too.

Patient.

“Gunslinger?”

“Yeah?”

“Remember the State football championship?”

“Yeah, I was the quarterback and you were the only wide receiver we had on the team.”

“Our odds of getting you out are about the same.”

Shit. That would be slim to none.

“Ready when you are.”

The rumble started again and the side of his prison facing the burned-out barn shook. He clutched the strap to the air tank. The beam from the flashlight shivered and cast eerie shadows above him. His mind on the petite brunette who’d climbed down in the shaft to bring him air and light, he prayed for the first time since his father’s death.

As the backhoe lowered its giant arm with the ragged-toothed bucket toward the earth, Bobby inched closer. Her mind knew this was the only way to get Gage out fast. Her heart wanted to believe it. Her fears made her want to scream at them to stop.

The people around her moved closer too. It wasn’t just her love buried in that tunnel. These people all had a vested interest in Gage’s rescue. Their friend and sheriff was down there. Their worry warmed a tiny piece of her heart. All eyes were glued to the huge piece of machinery.

The bucket pounded the earth.

Bobby squeezed the button on the mic. “Gage?”

“What was that?”

Every time his voice came over the radio she forced herself to inhale. “That’s the backhoe trying to break through the ground.”

“Hope they don’t have to do that too much. I’m taking a bath in dirt right now.”

The bucket hit the ground a second time, this time breaking into the grass and soil, scooping it out like a giant ladle.

“They’re digging through now.”

“Bobby?”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry about the jail thing that first day.”

Now he apologizes?

“It wasn’t so bad.”

“Just wanted you to know.”

In case he died in there? She wouldn’t consider the possibility. She wasn’t going to let him think like that either.

“You can make it up to me when you get out of there.”

The backhoe kept hauling more dirt out of the ground. Each scoop one more foot closer to the level where Gage lay trapped.

Deke jogged over to where Bobby stood.

“We’re almost at twenty-five feet.”

“How much longer?”

“Maybe another bucketful or two. Harold wants to be actually lower than Gage.” He squeezed her hand and jogged back to the digging site.