Scream for Me (10 page)

Then he was pushing up, moving away from her in the darkness, and she heard the clatter of stones as they fell off his body.

Her heart was drumming too fast in her chest. The air was thick with dust, and when she inhaled, the air seemed strangely stale.

Cadence fumbled, trying to find her headlamp, but it was gone.

Lost in the rubble?

“Don’t move,” Kyle told her. “I’ll find a light.”

That had to mean his headlamp was gone, too. Every caver knew…
always carry three lights
. It was the rule for facing the darkness. They’d all come in with three lights each. But those backup lights were in their bags.

Bags she hoped hadn’t been buried.

At least the sound of falling rocks had stopped.

“Jason?” she called quietly.

There was no answer.

He could be unconscious. He could have been separated from them by the cave-in.

Or he could be dead.

“I got my pack,” Kyle said. Then in the next instant, a glow of white light spilled from his flashlight. He swung the light around, and it hit her.

“Fuck, you’re bleeding.”

She scrambled to sit up.

His fingers reached out and brushed against her temple. She winced. Yes, that was where the throbbing was the worst. She grabbed his hand, stopping him. “Don’t, I’m okay.”

“No, baby, we’re far from okay.”

He’d just called her
baby
. Since when?

The light swung away from her. Made a slow circle around the space.

The corridor they’d entered was covered with rocks. Big, thick chunks went from the ground up.

They were sealed inside.

“Jason isn’t here,” Kyle said.

No, he wasn’t. It didn’t mean he’d survived the cave-in. He’d been running toward the exit, desperate to get out. Had that been his mistake? Had he been crushed beneath those rocks?

“The SOB rigged the place. When anyone touched the bones—” Kyle said.

“The cavern would close,” Cadence finished. An explosion. One perfectly placed to seal prey inside.

Fumbling, Cadence pulled out her phone. Jason hadn’t gotten a signal down there, but maybe she would.

No
. It figured their bad luck would hold.

Fighting to keep her voice calm, she asked him, “Do you have a signal on your phone?”

Silence. Hell. She knew the answer.

Her fingers slid across the surface of her phone. Light flashed. “At least my flashlight app works.” But then she turned the light off almost immediately. They’d need to conserve the light until they were rescued.

They
would
be rescued.

“Someone will come looking for us,” she said, keeping her eyes on Kyle and his light. He was just a few feet away now, slowly going around the length of their prison. The light swept up high, then down low. She knew he was looking for any other way out of this place.

I hope you find it
.

“When we don’t check in,” Cadence continued, “Anniston will send out a team to find us.”

The team would have to dig through the rubble to get to them. How long would it take?

More rocks tumbled down, and Cadence scrambled toward Kyle.

He grabbed her, pulling her close. “It’s not stable enough in here.”

She choked on the rising dust.

“The ceiling and the walls are gonna keep falling on us.”

They
were
falling, rolling down, and she and Kyle had to jump back.

“There’s a hole over here,” he told her, shining his light down and to the left.

The chamber seemed to be shaking. So much for a moment of safety.

“I don’t see it,” she whispered. Her hands had a death grip on his arm.
We’re being buried alive
.

That was what was happening to them. The rocks and dirt just kept coming.

She could barely breathe.

“There.” His light hit the narrow opening.
A hole. Yes, it’s just a hole
. Small and dark, and it was on the opposite side, away from the tunnel they’d used before.

They dodged rocks, rushing to the narrow opening. Cadence held out her hand, and felt the faintest stir of air from that darkness.
A way out
. Maybe.

She stared at the hole, measuring it.

For her, it could be a way out.

But what about Kyle?

“Your shoulders are too wide,” she whispered as her heart seemed to freeze in her chest.

“I can make it.” His voice was grim. “Just go through first.”

The shaking in the chamber was worse. There was a terrible, echoing groan from up above them.

“Go, now!” Kyle barked.

Not without him. “I’m not going to leave you to die!” If he didn’t get out of the chamber, he’d be crushed.

“I’m not dying,” he promised. “Neither are you.”

Then he grabbed her and shoved her through the hole.

She shot straight through, sliding fast, tumbling to the hard ground on the other side. Cadence jumped right back to her feet. The glow of the flashlight was shining. Kyle was coming. He was—

“I’m too big.”

The bastard had known that all along. A sob choked in her throat.

“The rocks are coming too fast.” He groaned, and she knew he’d been hit. “That chamber might not be stable either. Go.”

“Not without you.” She hurried back to the hole. “Dammit, come on!”

“Get out. Bring back help!”

She wasn’t going into the darkness without him. She pressed her hands to the rocks near the hole and found that some were loose. If she shoved hard enough, the hole might open more.

Or it just might send all of the rocks tumbling down, completely sealing Kyle inside the other chamber.

Burying him.

“Come in backward,” she ordered him.

“What?”

“Put your legs through first.” His shoulders were the widest part of his body. “Put them through, and come in as far as you can.”
I’ll pull you through the rest of the way
.

“Cadence…”

“
Do it! Dammit, just do it!
”

He tossed his flashlight to her. Then he was pushing his legs through. Sliding through, inch by inch. It was tight, so very tight, near his hips, but he slid through, bringing more of his body into the space with her. More,
more
…

His shoulders were wedged in the opening.

It sounded like hell was falling in the other chamber.

She licked her lips and spoke quickly. “On three, I’m going to pull you. When I do, you shove back as hard as you can with me. Got it?” She was very much afraid the opening would fall when those loose rocks gave way. They would only have an instant of time to make this work.

“Got you, baby.”

She could barely hear him over the rumble in the outer room.

She prayed he could hear her as she said, “One. Two.
Three!
”

Cadence grabbed him and yanked back with every bit of strength she had as the caves shuddered all around them.

“They’re looking for you, Lily.”

She was shaking.

No, the bed was shaking.

Everything
was shaking. The world had started to shake for her a few moments ago, but then the trembles had stopped.

They’d started again now, terrifying her.
What’s happening?

“You shouldn’t have made that call when your car stopped. Curtis wasn’t going to help you, anyway. He was too far gone.”

The blindfold was still on her. No gag.

“Because of that call, they found out too much. They’re too close now.”

If
someone was close, then she should scream.

But he told me what happens to girls who scream
.

She kept her lips pressed tightly closed.

“I was there to help you, Lily. I was all you needed that night.”

He was touching her, lightly rubbing his fingers over her cheek, and she tried so hard not to flinch.

But she couldn’t help it.

He laughed.

“We should’ve had time to play.” He pressed a kiss to her lips.

She choked back bile.

“We would’ve had so much fun.” His fingers were over her breasts. Lightly stroking. “I would have
made
you enjoy yourself.”

Then his fingers were gone, and the knife was back at her throat. “They aren’t going to find you.”

Carrie…

“You aren’t going to make a sound, do you understand? You’re going to stay in here, you won’t speak. You won’t move.” He shoved the gag back in her mouth. “Just in case.”

The gag was wet. It tasted funny. Like it had been soaked in something.

Her head began to ache.

“Lie still like a good girl, and it will be over soon.” Another kiss, this one to her temple.

Then he took off her blindfold.

Light spilled on her. She squinted against the light. It was so bright.

The light came from on top of his head. A light like hikers wore when they were in the woods. It was so bright, making her eyes hurt. She squinted, trying to see his face, but all she could see was that bright light in the darkness. It had been dark for so long. She needed that light.

“When I leave, I’ll take the light.”

Her heartbeat seemed to be slowing down.
No, don’t take the light
.

“You’ll stay in the dark. It will be all you have.”

It had already been all she knew. For so many hours. Days?

“You don’t make a sound, Lily. Remember that. You know what will happen if you scream.”

She knew.

“I’ll know if you scream, and I’ll make you hurt, Lily. I’ll make it hurt so much when I was going to let you have an easy end. Just the darkness.”

I won’t scream
.

“Be good for me, Lily.”

The knife was gone. The light slowly backed away from her. He backed away.

Then the light was gone.

Her heartbeat, slower now, was the only sound she heard.

He’d gotten out of there. Sonofabitch, he’d gotten
out
.

Kyle jumped to his feet. Grabbed Cadence, and held her as tightly as he could.

He crushed her body against his. That had been a damn near thing. The hole had closed, showered by rocks, the instant his head slipped free. He was covered with cuts and scratches and bruises, but he didn’t care.

“Kyle, I—”

He kissed her. He’d wanted to kiss her from the first moment he saw her, and with death hanging so close, inches away, he wasn’t going to let this moment pass.

His tongue thrust into her mouth. She gasped in surprise, and he took the sweet breath away from her. She’d stiffened in his arms.

No, Cadence. No. Want me, need me, as much as I do you
.

Her hands locked around his shoulders. Her nails bit into his skin.

She kissed him back with a wild desperation of desire and passion that matched his.

He’d thought about this first kiss a lot. Considered being suave, charming, starting gently as he learned her mouth.

There was no room for gentleness. Only desperation. They were surrounded by the dark, cut off from the outside world. She was all he knew.

All he wanted.

His kiss became even harder. His hold tightened on her. Her hold on him was just as tight and hard. Her kiss was as wild and frantic as his own. Danger had been too close. Now passion and a need denied too long—both raged out of control.

If this was the way he died, then it would be one hell of a fine way to go.

He never would have thought their first time would be in a cave.

First time, last time
.

No. Not the last time. Not for her. He tasted her, savored her, then slowly lifted his head.
Her taste was so good that even in hell, it was paradise
. “When we get out of here, you’re mine.”

Just so they were clear.

Then he eased away from her because if he didn’t, he’d fucking try to take her there in the cave.

The glow from the flashlight hit him in the face. He hadn’t even realized she still held it. “When we get out of here,” Cadence said, her voice husky, “you’ll be mine.”

Damn.

But first—
I have to get her to safety
.

Cadence shone the light around them. He was afraid they’d just traded one chamber for another, but no. There was a corridor there. Curved, heading back to the left.