"Come on 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."

[image]

GAGE 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. 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 compa.s.s on his watch. He pulled out his penlight and beamed it around uselessly.

"Well, f.u.c.k 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 d.a.m.n thing. They'd f.u.c.king 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 G.o.d, Gage! 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 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 rat-tat-tat-tat.

Gage cursed. He needed to get her out of here before these a.s.sholes 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. A shot ricocheted off the rock near his head.

"Three!" he said and they made a dash. he said and they made a dash.

Eight.

Kelsey stumbled over the rocks, not knowing if her next breath would be her last. Her right hand hurt from gripping her pistol. Her left hand hurt from gripping Gage's belt. And her ankle was pretty much on fire.

"Where are we going?" she asked and heard the quiver in her voice. They'd hiked a long time without a word. It had seemed like hours, but maybe it had been only minutes. That last burst of machine-gun fire-so close it had made her ears ring-had wiped out even the slightest capacity to think.

Gage halted and gripped her arm.

"What?" she whispered.

"Listen," he said in a voice she could barely hear.

She listened. She heard nothing. Just like she saw nothing. She had no inkling of anything around her, with the exception of Gage. He was a giant, rock-hard presence beside her. And somehow, miraculously, he seemed to have an unerring sense of where they were going.

"What do you hear?" she whispered.

"Nothing. That's good." He pressed her hand against his waist, making sure her fingers were still hooked around his belt. "Let's keep going. I'm pretty sure we've lost them."

They moved forward again, and Kelsey tried to breathe. She willed her heart to slow down.

The ground beneath her feet grew steeper. The air felt lighter. A breeze stirred. She still couldn't see but she knew somehow that they were coming out of the ravine.

"Where are we going?"

"West, around the mesa."

"But isn't the camp northeast?"

"I don't want to go back the way we came. We'll skirt the mesa, then go straight north, then cut east as soon as I'm sure our tail's clear."

Kelsey's mind reeled. Walking around the mesa could take hours, and that was in daylight. The thought of hiking so far in the pitch dark, over this treacherous landscape, seemed impossible.

But Gage said they needed to do it, so they'd do it. He was the SEAL. She was the lab rat who'd gotten caught up in some horrible game of cat and mouse, and she was by no means confident she was going to make it out alive. At least not without help.

"How's the ankle?"

"Fine." How had he known about that? She hadn't uttered a word of complaint.

"You need me to carry you?"

Yeah, right. "It's fine," she said. "I don't think you could, anyway. I'm not exactly a featherweight."

"Doesn't matter. If it starts to hurt I'll carry you."

"It's fine fine," she said. They were running for their lives from armed thugs, and yet that tiny insult made her eyes sting with tears.

She was definitely losing it. She needed to get a grip on her emotions. With every painful step, she told herself to just keep moving, to just keep up with him. Forget about everything else and just get back to safety.

"Interesting place for a tunnel," Gage said. "Not a major urban area within a hundred miles."

"Maybe that's the point."

"Interesting tunnel, too."

"How do you mean?"

He glanced back at her over his shoulder. "It's clean."

She scoffed at him. It had smelled like car exhaust. And if her knees and palms were any indication, the place was filthy. "By what standard?"

"By illegal border tunnel standards. I've done some ridealongs with Border Protection in San Diego. The tunnels there are tagged up with graffiti, littered with trash, crowded with warring gang factions."

She waited for him to make his point.

"This one was different. Quiet, clean, hidden. Almost like it's privately controlled, probably even guarded. I don't think it's any accident those guys walked up on us."

"You think they heard us pull up?"

"That or they could have a surveillance system. Anyway, it explains some of the violence going on around here. This route is probably controlled by a cartel that doesn't want outsiders around."

Gage stopped and stood still for a few moments. She'd learned to get quiet when he did this. "I'm pretty sure we've lost them."

"Okay." She wanted to feel relieved, yet she sensed a "but" coming.

"But we can a.s.sume they have night-vision goggles," he added. "So it's possible they could spot us, even if we don't see them."