Deadly Promises (25 page)

She turned to face him when she got off the phone. “That was Mia. She wants that second set of bones as soon as I get them excavated. The FBI’s been calling her.”

“The FBI?”

“Something about a missing-person’s case. Mia thinks the missing person could be one of their agents. They’re really pressuring her for an ID.”

The sat phone rang again and she picked it up.

“Hello?” She listened neutrally for a moment, and then her face clouded with worry. “Are you sure? Rohit said—” She paused, then crossed the trailer and jerked the door open. Rain pelted it as she peered outside. “Well, he’s not here. Have you tried the lodge?” She closed the door and shot Gage an anxious look. “Okay, call me if you find him.”

“Dylan’s still AWOL?” he said after she hung up.

“He’s not at the bar, the diner, or the lodge.”

“Car trouble, maybe?”

“No one spotted him on the way into town.”

Gage’s gaze settled on the camera that was sitting on a chair beside Kelsey’s baseball cap, and something he’d wondered about this afternoon was back in his head.

“Maybe he never went to town,” he said.

“Where else would he go? There aren’t a lot of options around here.”

“I’m not sure.” He stood up and grabbed his keys off the table. “But I’ve got an idea.”

I
N THE FADING
light the petroglyphs looked oddly modern, like some strange graffiti made by pre-Columbian teenagers. Kelsey stepped back from the rocks, trying to imagine where Dylan would have stood to capture the most impressive angle.

“Are we sure he was up here earlier?” she asked Gage.

“You said that, not me. I haven’t seen the guy today.”

She surveyed the area for clues. “He
said
he was coming up here. His research includes these engravings.”

“Well, his footprints are here.”

She turned to Gage.

“Two sets of tracks, one coming in, one going out. Keen hiking boots, size ten.”

She gaped at him. “You know his shoe size?”

He shrugged. “It’s an estimate. But the boots, I know. I noticed them the other day because I used to have a pair.” Gage pointed to a footprint in the dust. The limestone overhang had kept the rain from obliterating it. “See that? The logo’s part of the tread.”

She looked at him with a renewed sense of appreciation. Her “hired hunk of muscle” comment had been way off base, and she felt a twinge of remorse. How would she have felt if he referred to her as a piece of meat? But he’d treated her with nothing but respect since his arrival. He was firm, yes, but always respectful.

Gage was looking out over the valley now. He glanced at her over his shoulder. “Come here for a sec.”

“What?”

He took her arm and tugged her over, then turned her until she was facing due south. He left his hands on her shoulders and she pretended to be relaxed.

“What am I looking at?”

“Same thing Dylan was probably looking at when he was up here with his zoom lens.”

“Okay.” She took a deep breath and tried to concentrate on the landscape. It was twilight and everything was washed with periwinkle. No shadows. Just endless desert dotted with scrub brush and the distant vegetation line that marked the Rio Grande.

“I still don’t know what I’m looking at.”

Gage sighed, clearly disappointed with her powers of observation.

“Hey, I was never an Eagle Scout,” she said. “You’re going to have to spell it out for me.”

His hands dropped away. “This is the same view we had from on top of that mercury mine the other night. Remember with the night-vision goggles?” He pointed at something straight in front of them. “I was looking right at that mesa. At that same stand of mesquite trees, in fact.”

She turned around. “I was stuck in the cave with all the
bats
. You were the one traipsing around with the high-tech toys.”

“Okay, point is, what if Dylan was out here taking pictures and he saw the same thing I saw? Maybe he got curious later and decided to drive out there and take a look.”

“You’re talking about the vanishing SUV?”

“Or whatever it was.” Gage’s attention was fixed on the horizon now. He shrugged out of the backpack he always carried and unzipped it, then pulled out a pair of binoculars. “You see his black Explorer down there?”

“I can hardly see anything. It’s getting dark.”

“I’m thinking maybe he left the dig site to go get a beer, like he told Rohit, then decided to take a little detour first to do some exploring.”

The idea made Kelsey’s stomach knot. She envisioned one of her students down in that valley, near where that girl had been dragged from her car and shot. She scanned the horizon, desperate now for any sign of the SUV. Would Dylan really have driven down there?

Gage passed her the binoculars. “I don’t see jack.”

“What about the night goggles?”

“Not dark enough yet.”

Kelsey peered through the binoculars. The light was terrible. If his car
was
out there, would she even be able to spot it? She saw a clump of mesquite trees. A twisted oak. A dip in the landscape. More mesquite.

And then she spied something. Black. Rectangular. Poking out from behind a clump of scrub brush.

“Oh, God.”

“What is it?” Gage asked.

“I’m not sure. Probably nothing.” But the knot in her stomach tightened because she knew she was wrong. It
was
something. Something that didn’t belong down there.

Nature doesn’t like straight lines
.

“Oh God, Gage.” She looked up at him. “I think I might have found his Explorer.”

“M
AYBE IT’S JUST
a stalled car.”

Gage turned to look at her as the pickup bumped over ruts in the primitive highway. He didn’t say anything. He couldn’t. He didn’t want to encourage her to get her hopes up.

“Or maybe he had a flat.” Kelsey stared straight ahead through the windshield as the headlights lit up the muddy road. “He’d stay with his vehicle, right? I mean, if he couldn’t get a cell signal. That’s what they say. If you’re stranded in the desert,
don’t
leave your car.”

Her voice was firm, confident. As if saying it with enough conviction would make it reality.

Gage was pretty sure he knew the kind of reality they were going to find when they drove up on Dylan’s Explorer. It wasn’t going to be pretty. And no matter how many skeletons Kelsey had pulled from the ground, it was going to hurt her. It was different when it was someone you knew.

“Try my cell again.” Gage fished his phone from the cup holder and handed it to her, mainly as a distraction. “Maybe we’ll luck out, get a signal. Sattler can’t be doing anything tonight, right?”

Like a robot, Kelsey dialed the numbers. Again, no dice. She let the phone drop into her lap and just stared out the window.

She felt responsible, and Gage ached for her. He knew that feeling well, and it sucked. And to make things worse, he knew this was a bad idea. What they should have done was double back for the sat phone and call the sheriff out here. But Gage had seen the look on Kelsey’s face after she’d spotted the SUV. No amount of persuasion would have kept her away. If Dylan was out here alive, he probably needed help, and Sattler wasn’t known for his quick response time.

Gage tore his gaze away from Kelsey and focused on driving. This was a crappy road under normal conditions, but with the rain earlier it had become a mud pit. The highway jogged east and Gage slowed as he pulled off. The headlight beams bounced along the pitted terrain, lighting up cacti and rocks and scraggly bushes. He tried to drive by feel, letting his tires find the natural path that had been carved out by repeated use. This was the most basic kind of road—no pavement, not even gravel, just a strip of land made bald as people sought out the shortest distance between point A and point B.

The headlights flashed over a clump of mesquite trees. He spotted an odd-shaped boulder that looked familiar. This was the spot.

But no black Ford Explorer.

Gage rolled to a stop beneath a gnarled oak tree and parked. He reached into the back of the cab and retrieved his rucksack, which contained a collection of weaponry, including his backup gun. He tucked the pistol into the waistband of his jeans as Kelsey watched him, wide-eyed.

“When I get out, scoot into the driver’s seat,” he said. She had her radio clipped to her belt alongside her gun, and he reached over her to switch it on. “Keep the engine running. If anyone approaches you, take off.”

“But what about you?”

“Get your Ruger ready. And don’t be afraid to use it if you feel threatened. You got that?”

“No. I’m coming with you.”

“I need you to stay in the truck,” he said. “It’s not safe for you to—” She pushed open the door and got out. “Goddamn it, Kelsey!”

She stalked right over to the stand of mesquite. She did a complete turn and gestured at the trees. “It was just here a minute ago. I
saw
it. How could it disappear like that?”

Gage scanned the area for threats as he joined her beside the trees. He’d never met a woman who was so bullheaded.

“I need you back in the truck while I look around.”

She turned to face him. “It was
here
. Right near this weird boulder. I
saw
a black SUV sticking out from these trees. You saw it, too.” Her eyes looked slightly wild now as she glanced around in the dimness. “Am I going crazy here? Is this the Bermuda Triangle?”

“No.” Gage wasn’t sure what it was. But he had a hunch the explanation was frighteningly simple.

Giving up on getting her back in the pickup, he pulled her closer to the big rock. “Stay here. And be quiet a second.”

She fell silent, and Gage took a full minute to absorb his surroundings. To their west was a low mesa. Less than a mile south, the river. The valley rose gently to their north until it butted up against the limestone cliffs that marked the southwest boundary of the dig site.

Gage looked west, where the sun had disappeared behind the mesa. Night was falling faster than usual because of the cloud cover, and in ten minutes it would be nearly impossible to see.

“Stay here,” he repeated, squeezing Kelsey’s shoulder to reinforce the command. Then he moved off toward the boulder.

The rain had stopped, but the air felt saturated, and he knew it was going to be one of those on-again off-again storm nights. Thunder rumbled low to the north, as if echoing his thoughts. Wind rustled through the scrub brush. An animal snarled in the distance, but he heard not a single sound that resembled a motor.

His eyes had adjusted, and he could still see somewhat, despite the coming darkness. He walked all the way around the rock, looking for any sign of Dylan or his SUV, half expecting to stumble over the guy’s bullet-riddled body. He circled the clump of trees. He even pulled out a penlight and combed the ground around them.

Fresh tire tracks, leading back toward the highway. But no Dylan.

Gage stood there, running through scenarios. Dylan could have been out here changing a tire, then left, just as they’d been coming to his rescue. But, if so, why hadn’t they passed him on his way back to camp?

The kid could have heard them coming and been afraid for some reason and driven away. Maybe he’d been injured by someone or something and had just now made it back to his vehicle.

He could be dead, and someone could have taken his SUV.

Gage made his way back to Kelsey, letting his flashlight beam trail over the ground.

“Gage,” she hissed. “Come look at this.”

And that’s when he spotted it.

Camouflage netting tossed carelessly over some bushes. Only it wasn’t careless at all. And suddenly everything fit together—the traffic, the shootings, the disappearing vehicles. He crouched down and lifted a corner of the netting, revealing a small metal grate.

“Gage, you have to—
oh!
”

He whirled around. “Kelsey?”

She didn’t answer.

Seven

Kelsey blinked up at the blackness. She couldn’t see. She couldn’t breathe. She tried to sit up but it felt like sandbags were piled on top of her chest.

“Kelsey, answer me, damn it! Where are you?”

She opened her mouth to talk but all that came out was a strangled cough.

“Kelsey?”

His voice was moving farther away, and she summoned every ounce of strength to turn onto her side and push herself up on an elbow. “Here,” she wheezed.

He was beside her in a heartbeat. His hands were all over her—her arms, her legs, her face.

“Are you okay? Did you break anything?”

“I hit my… solar plexus… knocked the wind out.” She was getting her breath back but she still couldn’t see, and she clung to Gage’s arms. A flashlight blinked on.

“Is anything broken?” He shined the light in her face and she squinted. “You fell about ten feet.”

“I’m fine.” She experimented, moving her legs, her arms. “My coccyx hurts a little, but—”

“Your what?”

“My tailbone. I’m fine otherwise.”

The light blinked off, and his quiet laughter surrounded her. At some point he’d put his arms around her, and she leaned into him now, absorbing his heat as she tried to catch her breath.

“Guess you’re all right if you still know your anatomy.” He eased her away. “Can you stand up, you think?”

He helped her to her feet. She felt unsteady so she held onto his arm.

She glanced around. The air felt cool and damp, but she still couldn’t see anything. “What is this hole?”

“Not a hole. A tunnel.”

She blinked into the darkness and turned around. There seemed to be more light behind her, a very faint glow.

“A tunnel,” she repeated. “You mean like a mine shaft? I saw an opening. It’s probably a mercury mine.”

“It’s not. Maybe it was at one time but that’s not what it is now. It’s a border tunnel.” The light flashed on again, and he directed it over the walls around them.

“Oh, my gosh,” she murmured.

The passageway was wide and tall. They both could have stretched their arms out and not touched the sides. And unlike the mine shaft near the dig site, these walls were made of cinder blocks.

“They have these between San Diego and Tijuana,” Gage said. “But I’ve never heard of any in the middle of nowhere like this. And I’ve never heard of any this big.”

He switched off the light and began guiding her toward the dimly lit end, which must be the way out. She’d thought it was dark outside, but this was an entirely different level of blackness.

“This is huge,” she said. “Big enough to drive a truck through.”

“From the smell of it someone has.”

She sniffed the air and realized how else this place was different from the mine shaft. Instead of guano, she smelled gasoline fumes.

Gage halted.

“What?”

“Someone’s coming.”

She heard it then, the faint rumble of a truck. It was coming from the direction of the glow. From outside.

“Where do we go?” she yelped.

“Don’t panic.” And then he was towing her into the blackness, deeper into the tunnel.

She resisted. “But we don’t know what’s in there.”

He pulled her against the wall and moved faster. “I’m feeling for a door. A turn. Anything where we can duck out of sight.”

The rumble grew louder until it was nearly a roar. They were running now, and her foot caught on something as she struggled to keep up.

“Come
on
.”

“I’m coming.” Her heart galloped. Her legs burned. She moved as fast as she could but the noise was closing in. He hooked an arm around her waist and practically lifted her off her feet as they surged forward. The noise was like a freight train bearing down on them.

“Gage!”

Lights illuminated the far side of the tunnel as the truck rounded a bend. In an instant, they’d be lit up by headlights and mowed down. Suddenly her arm jerked sideways and she was smashed against a wall, Gage’s body pressed against her.

“Don’t move,” he yelled into her ear.

He’d found some kind of nook, and she was flattened against the back of it as the engine noise reverberated all around, making even the walls shake. Kelsey held her breath as the tunnel brightened and the noise became deafening.

And then it receded. Just like that, it was fading away, along with the light.

Gage eased back a fraction and Kelsey let out a breath. She was still clinging to him, gripping his T-shirt in her fists. Something hard dug into her neck and her back.

“You okay?”

“Uh-huh.” She managed to let go of him.

“That was close,” he said, and the utter calm in his voice sounded unnatural. Her feet were frozen in place. Her heart hammered.

“Come on,” He took her hand and tugged. “Let’s get out of here before it happens again.”

Numbly, she took a step forward and pushed off the wall. She paused for a second and turned around but it was too dark to see what she’d felt.

“There could be more, Kels. We need to move it.”

“Wait.” She curled her fingers around something straight and wooden. She pulled her other hand free and groped around. “I think I found a ladder.”

G
AGE PUSHED UP
the grate and moved it aside, then swiped away the camo netting. He climbed out of the hole and reached a hand down for Kelsey.

“Careful. That last rung is a bigger stretch.”

She hoisted herself up onto the ground and brushed the hair from her eyes.

Gage glanced around, on alert for even the slightest noise. Whatever traffic was moving through here, he didn’t want Kelsey anywhere near it.

He stood up and pulled her to her feet. It was dark out but not as dark as in the tunnel, and he was able to get his bearings from the shadow of the ridge to the west of them. They were southeast of the big boulder. He still hadn’t laid eyes on the supposed “mine” entrance, but he guessed it was tucked into the nearby canyon wall.

“What is this, some sort of ventilation hole?”

Gage replaced the grate and the netting. “Air. People. Guess anything can move through it.”

He took her arm and led her toward the spot where he’d parked the pickup. He chose his steps carefully, wanting to avoid another uncovered hole. Beside him, she was limping slightly, and he knew her fall had been worse than she’d admitted.

“You think Dylan found this place?”

He heard the dread in her voice. But as much as he wanted to, he couldn’t candy coat it for her. “Yes.”

The word hung over them as they trekked back to the boulder. “I found something interesting, too, while I was looking for you. There was a big delivery truck parked near the entrance to the tunnel.”

“Did anyone see you?”

“Don’t know. The truck was empty but there might have been a security cam.”

“How do you know it was empty?”

“Cargo door was up. No one in the cab.” Gage stopped and looked around. A few more paces and he stopped again. He studied the shadows. He consulted the compass on his watch. He pulled out his penlight and beamed it around uselessly.

“Well, fuck me.”

Kelsey moved closer. “What now?”

“They stole my truck.”

She halted beside him. “You can’t be serious.”

“I’m completely serious.”

Gage did a three-sixty but it was no use. He knew where he’d parked the damn thing. They’d fucking boosted his pickup.

He took a few steps toward the boulder and the hair on the back of his neck stood up.

“This has to be a mistake. Maybe—”

“Shh!” He jerked her down beside him as he pulled out his SIG.

“What?”

“Quiet.” He eased close to her, until his mouth was nearly touching her ear. “Two men, about fifty yards east of us. Walking this way.”

Rat-tat-tat-tat!

He hauled Kelsey behind the nearest boulder, then whirled in the direction of the gunfire. A muzzle flashed, maybe eighty yards south.

Two shooters directly south. And two men approaching from the east, probably armed.

Another staccato of bullets, and Kelsey yelped beside him.

“Oh, my God,
Gage!
” She crouched in a tight little ball against the rock.

He rested his arms on top of the boulder and peered over it. Another muzzle flash, about fifty yards out.

“Why don’t you shoot
back
?”

“That’ll give away our location,” he said. “Their aim’s all over the place. I don’t think they know where we are.”

Another
rat-tat-tat-tat
.

Gage cursed. He needed to get her out of here before these assholes got them pinned down. If it were just him or him with his teammates, they’d wait these guys out and pick them off, one by one. But he wasn’t willing to put Kelsey in the middle of a firefight.

“Get your—”

“I got it.”

He glanced down and saw that she was, indeed, clutching her weapon. Good girl. He took her arm with his left hand. “There’s a ravine just west of us. On three, we’re going to sprint for it. Try not to make a lot of noise, okay?”

She made a little squeak of agreement.

“One… two…”

Ping!
A shot ricocheted off the rock near his head.

“Three!”
he said and they made a dash.