scrambled off the loader. Mike grabbed Ryan’s arm in a grip that Linc knew had to be painful. Gabe waited until all his men were ahead of him. Casey and Zach were to his left, not moving. Why weren’t they rushing to the exit?
Linc turned and his gaze met Gabe’s. Together, they saw that Casey’s left leg was trapped beneath the caterpillar track of the scoop. Damn.
Running the few feet, Linc joined Gabe and Robert on the side of the machine. The three of them pushed but the heavy piece of equipment barely budged. Again they pushed. Again it barely moved.
Luckily, as they worked to free Casey, no more shale fell around them. But that was no guarantee it wouldn’t bury them before they took their next dust-laden breath.
Linc didn’t hear the others approach, but he felt their presence beside him. Gabe set the pace with an even rhythm and counted it off. On three they all pushed. Ryan and Mike’s young muscle added to theirs was just enough to tip over the machine.
Casey grimaced, but he clenched his jaw as he fought crying out. His pain was palpable in the chamber with them. Looking lower, Linc realized Casey’s leg was badly mangled.
The roar returned. Gabe waved them on as he shoved his shoulder under Casey’s armpit.
Zach took the other side. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Together they half carried, half dragged the injured man up the incline. Suddenly, air whooshed over them. Turning and stumbling backward, Linc watched as the ebony shale buried the machine. Silence settled with the dust around them.
Then, another roar… Every inch of ground and air around them trembled. There was no time to think. Ryan and Mike backpedaled from where a new slide of shale closed off the opening ahead of them.
Then silence. Heavy silence, almost too quiet to be real, pressed on his ears. Nothing broke it for a long minute until the sound of their rasping breaths whispered through the air.
The only light came from the lamps on each hard hat. Beams of white light bounced back at them from the black dust in the air. Linc tried not to think how much of that crap was coating the inside of his lungs as he fought to breathe.
Linc moved first, his training kicking in. “I’ll take this side.” He checked the gas meter in his pack. No danger levels—yet. He kept the meter close.
Removing the lamp from his hard hat, he used it like a flashlight. Ryan and Mike did the same. Gabe and Zach settled Casey on a level patch of ground, while Robert tried to activate the emergency radio from Casey’s belt.
Each man quickly took a section of the cavern, ringing it with light, looking for any indication of a breach in the rock. Linc found nothing. When he rejoined the others, they all shook their heads.
Even Robert. “Radio’s crushed. I can’t fix it.” He tossed the broken pieces onto the ground and cursed.
They were well and truly trapped.
The one encouraging thing was that there had been no more rumbles. Obviously, they’d hit something with the blade, but what? With luck, only this chamber was affected. Little good that did them. Linc knew from the schematics of the mine that at least fifty feet of solid rock separated them from any hope of escape.
Gabe hunkered down next to Casey. They all watched his light illuminate Casey’s leg. The steel-toed boots he wore had protected his foot, but his calf and knee had been severely chewed up by the tread of the machine. Blood soaked both his leg and the ground around him.
Gabe loosened Casey’s belt and carefully slipped it off. “I can’t stop the bleeding with just pressure.” In minutes, he’d wrapped the man’s leg in one of the thick flannel shirts he’d worn and tightened the belt around his upper thigh. “I trained as an EMT years back. I hoped I’d never need it,” Gabe said, pain in his voice. “We’ll have to watch him close.”
At least Casey wasn’t going to bleed to death in front of them. Not yet anyway.
The miners settled back, regrouping, their thoughts probably as disjointed as Linc’s.
Trapped. They were trapped.
Linc fought the panic that clawed at his chest and knew it was probably a losing battle. He closed his eyes, picturing the house he had left only a few hours before. Home. He just wanted to go home.
He didn’t dare picture Julia’s face. That would be his undoing.
CHAPTER THREE
Thursday Afternoon, 4:00 p.m.
JULIA REACHED OVER and turned on the car’s radio. Usually, after a day with her students, she appreciated the solace of silence. Now she needed something to drown out her thoughts.
Tomorrow would be her and Linc’s seventh anniversary. Would he even remember? Or care? She shook her head. Linc might forget, but at one time he had cared. A lot. She blinked away the sting in her eyes. She refused to let him hurt her anymore.
Focusing on the road, Julia took in the sights of the small town she’d called home for just over a year. It seemed as though their problems had all started when they’d moved here, but she realized it wasn’t the town’s fault. It was actually a nice little place.
Parilton stood nestled between two hills the locals generously referred to as mountains. To Julia, who had spent her youth going skiing in the Rocky Mountains on vacations, they appeared small.
Still, they were familiar, and with spring in full bloom, the entire valley was green and colorful with blossoms.
The sight helped lift her mood as she hurried across town. She wanted to get to the house before Linc—her soon-to-be-ex-husband, she reminded herself—got home from work. She hoped to get all of her things out without facing him.
Why did that thought sit so uncomfortably in her chest? She wasn’t up to another fight. The last one still hurt, but not to see him?
She drove through the narrow streets of the town. Past the bank—the one and only bank—past the hardware store, past the Clever Curl Salon. One of the two stoplights in town turned red just as she reached it. The car stopped, but her thoughts kept going.
Did she and Linc even have anything left to save? Since they’d moved here, everything had changed. Without warning, the distant memory of Linc making love to her filled her mind. She closed her eyes, letting the image of his beautiful body soak into her internal vision. She could almost feel him, smell his clean scent, taste his warm breath…
“Oh, my.” Her eyes flew open and she cranked the air conditioning. It had been too long since they’d had make-up sex. But when they had…
Memories and pain made her step a bit too hastily on the accelerator when the light changed. She refused to think about that anymore. It hurt too much.
She passed the grocery store and slowed. Parilton wasn’t big enough for more than one, and it didn’t even merit a national chain. But the local grocer carried nearly everything anybody needed. The bare cupboards of her newly rented apartment came too easily to mind.
The empty parking spot in front was like an invitation. She pulled into it and sat staring through the grimy windshield. She’d
