She nodded.

“I have more help on the way. We can wait.”

“No, I just couldn’t get through the opening alone. It wasn’t big enough. How did you find me? Did my husband tell you where to look?” Just the thought of being rescued seemed to be giving her strength. I could feel adrenaline coursing through her veins, raising her heartbeat.

“I heard you,” I said, lying as I combed through her backpack. “You have one more bottle of water.” I took it and climbed back up to her.

“I was saving it.”

“For a special occasion?” I asked, popping the seal on the cap. “I could shake it up and spray it all over you, if that would be more festive.”

A thin smile spread across her face as she took a sip, then handed it back to me.

“Did your husband know you were here?”

She tried to shrug but gave up. “I explore this area all the time, but I didn’t tell him I was checking out the mine again. I come here pretty often, though.”

“So, he wasn’t here with you at any time?”

She squinted her eyes, trying to figure out what I was getting at, then shook her head. “No. I left early Saturday morning, before he got up.”

Then someone had to have done something to sabotage the mine before Teresa got here or while she was deep inside. But what? Those beams hadn’t been cut. It literally looked like they’d slipped and shifted somehow.

Hardy knelt beside me, a grim expression on his face as though he knew exactly what I was trying to figure out. “She did it,” he said, shaking his head.

Startled, I furrowed my brows in a question.

He nodded. “Loosened the beams herself.” His gaze drifted about the walls. “Been working on it awhile now.”

My heart fell. “Why?” I whispered.

With a shrug, he said, “Not quite sure, ma’am. But I don’t think she was planning on being here when it gave.”

I took a deep breath and forced the questions from my mind. “Are you ready, hon?” I asked Teresa.

“I think so.”

“We’ll take this slow.” With infinite care, I wrapped one of her arms around my neck and hiked her farther up the incline. The miner did the same for me, boosting me inch by inch. After about two minutes of work, we were only about a foot farther. “Okay, not that slow.”

She laughed softly, then grabbed her side.

“Are they broken?” I asked, gesturing toward her ribs with a nod.

“No, just bruised, I think.”

With a little more effort, we were able to get her to the opening and scoot her through it. But Teresa paid a heavy price. She groaned through gritted teeth as she slid to the other side. Well, not the other side. Jagged rocks scraped and skinned along the way.

“Your friend’s coming back,” Hardy said.

Without hesitation, I chanced another cave-in and yelled through the opening. “Cookie, stay back!”

“What? No. What about the supplies?”

“I’ve almost got Teresa through the opening, but the ceiling is crumbling as we speak.” As I looked out, I saw the beam of a flashlight bouncing off the ground. “Cookie, what the heck?”

“Don’t what the heck me,” she said, her voice winded. “I didn’t walk all that way for nothing.”

She put the flashlight on the incline and reached up to help Teresa. A steady stream of dirt fell a few feet from us and she looked back at me, her eyes wide. “Hurry.”

The minute I got Teresa through, I scrambled back for the helmet, climbed over the mountain of debris with Hardy’s help, then hustled down to assist Cookie. Together we eased Teresa toward us. She clutched on to me, moaning as pain pounded through her. So much so, I was worried she would pass out.

“Help is coming,” Cookie said as I put the helmet on Teresa and wrapped my arms around her.

Teresa cringed as another wave of pain carpet-bombed her entire body. She cried out as Cookie and I started forward.

“I’m so sorry, Teresa,” I said.

She shook her head, determined to make it. Adrenaline coursed through her as she hobbled and we dragged. Another avalanche of dirt plummeted onto our heads, almost knocking the helmet off Teresa’s head. I repositioned it, and we started forward again.

Then, with a really inappropriate gasp, it hit me. “Aldrich-Mees!” I shouted.

When the ceiling started crumbling down around us, I realized how wrong of me that was.

23

Seemed like a good idea at the time.

—T-SHIRT

“You had to shout it?” Cookie asked, literally bitching all the way out of the stupid mine. “At the top of your freaking lungs?”

We were covered from head to toe in dirt and some kind of root system. “Now is not the time, Cook,” I ground out as we struggled to get Teresa from the mine.

“This is where I get off,” Hardy said. I started to protest, but he tipped his helmet and with a soft, “Ma’am,” disappeared.

Then Uncle Bob rushed in, and a wave of relief washed over me. However, the look of shock on his face proved that either he had no faith in me whatsoever and was taken aback by my success in finding Teresa Yost, or I looked worse than I thought.

Agent Carson was there, too. Though I’d never seen her before, I recognized her instantly. Her looks matched her voice perfectly. Short dark bob, solid build, intelligent eyes. She hurried forward, and together with Uncle Bob took Teresa out of our arms. Before they’d gotten two feet, Luther Dean rushed in as well, ducking at the entrance and taking over for Agent Carson.