“There are plenty of caves hereabouts. The mines often hooked into them, for convenience’s sake. Easier to use what was already there to join tunnels instead of using dynamite to blast through rock.”
Her phone light reflected in his eyes when she glanced back at him. He knelt on his knees, his head about two feet above hers. He stared at her face. Something about his gaze felt different, almost like he was seeing straight through her. It was a little like waking up and finding yourself in a dark cave with a large, wild animal peering down at you.
It also struck her that he was good-looking, if you preferred the raw, rough, masculine type. Jennifer did—firemen, cops, forest rangers; uncomplicated, sweet, masculine to the core, demanding in bed, but singularly undemanding in other ways. She liked to take her men to her small vacation house in the San Gabriel Mountains and appreciate their physical attributes to the fullest in absolute privacy.
The problem was, real men were in somewhat short supply in Los Angeles these days. After her two-year relationship with actor Everett Hughes ended, Jennifer had been largely abstinent. Everett and she were both cautious about who they saw because of their celebrity backgrounds. Locating the rare man who also wouldn’t sell her out to the press was becoming increasingly difficult.
“Well? Do you have service on your phone?” he asked.
She started, momentarily forgetting the task at hand. She glanced at her phone and groaned. “No.”
He said nothing, nor did he seem particularly affected by the news. She winced as she tried to stand.
“I told you stay still for a moment.”
“Fine,” she said irritably. She plunked her butt back down on the ground. “You seem to be fit and feisty—you walk around the chamber and see if you can get service anywhere else.” She stuck her hand out, but he made no move to take her phone. He was obviously angry with her, and she couldn’t say she blamed him. Her carelessness had landed them both here. Literally.
“I told you I didn’t mean to fall down this hole. It’s not my fault you followed me.”
“You’re right. I only have my own idiocy to blame for that,” he said under his breath. He sat down on the ground, his long legs sprawled before him. He whipped off his coat and began to dig in his coat pockets.
“What are you doing?” she asked nervously. Surely he wasn’t searching for a knife or gun, was he?
“I’m checking my pockets.” He stated the obvious in a dry tone. “You might do the same. It’ll help to know what supplies we have. At least we have water,” he added, nodding toward the trickling waterfall.
“I already know what I have in my pockets. A protein bar, half a package of Certs, my thermos, keys, some ID, tissues—”
“Check anyway,” he interrupted. “Sometimes we forget about stuff we put in our pockets.”
She scooted closer to the beam of dusty sunshine and stuck her hands in her pockets. “Why don’t you come into the sunlight to do that?” she asked. She could make out his outline clearly now, could even see the bright white background of his plaid shirt.
“I don’t need sunlight,” he said, sounding distracted as he searched his pockets.
“Do you have a cell phone too?”
“No. I left it at the cabin.”
“Don’t you think it’d be best, then, to take my phone and try to find coverage somewhere in this hellhole?” she asked, her patience ebbing.
He continued to search in the many pockets of his coat, calmly ignoring her question. He never drew anything out for her to see, just moved from one pocket to the other. She was reminded of the way he’d examined her body so thoroughly. A shiver of excitement coursed through her, but irritation prevailed.
To hell with this. She knew precisely what was going to happen if she stopped moving and reflected on the fact that she was trapped underground. Best to do anything to distract her overactive brain from working her into a frenzy of fear. She groaned as she stood slowly, all the while cursing the man for his aloofness.
“I told you to sit still for a while before you tried to stand, honey,” he said calmly. She was too busy fighting against aches and pains to snap at him for calling her “honey.” Besides, it didn’t sound anywhere near as patronizing as she would have thought it would. The term rolled easily off his tongue in a subtle country drawl, pleasant . . . warm.
“Did you check your pockets?”
“Yes, and you were right,” she admitted a few seconds later, gritting her teeth against discomfort. “I have another protein bar in a pocket I’d forgotten about. Can’t say how old it is, but it’s something. Plus, I have some hand sanitizer.”
She staggered toward the rock wall to her right, determined to ignore the aches that plagued her. The darkness crowded around her faster than she’d imagined it would. She used her cell phone like a flashlight the farther she got from the beam of sunshine. Thankfully, her pains faded somewhat as she walked.
She circled the periphery of the chamber. She noticed she still didn’t have cell phone coverage at the same moment she spied the white skeleton of a small animal on the ground.
“What?” he demanded a second later.
Jennifer glanced back, her cheeks heating. She’d let out an embarrassing shriek at the sight of the bones. “Nothing. It’s just an old animal skeleton.”
He stood so agilely she was taken aback. Clearly he wasn’t in as much discomfort as she was. He strode toward her, his shadow growing darker and more sinister-looking the closer he got. He knelt when he got near her and put out his hand. When he reached the bones, he touched them briefly.