Chapter 6
Hayes had stopped counting how many times he’d physically threatened those who encouraged him to remove himself from the situation, but it was at least a dozen by now.
As soon as Beckett had clambered into the tunnel after the two thieves, Hayes knew shit was going to go sideways.
It was always that way with Beckett. The plan usually started out simple—linear—and somehow always fucking ended in a blaze of fiery chaos, which somehow Beckett was never actually directly responsible for, but always managed to land right smack dab in the middle of, regardless of the exact circumstances.
He'd wanted to go after him, of course, but with three captives in his custody, he’d been forced to stay behind and trust that his partner could handle this deal without him.
He'd studiously ignored the gunshots, reminding himself repeatedly that his partner was more than capable of handling two idiots, and concentrated on getting his prisoners handed over to the proper authorities.
It had only taken a few minutes before several armed members of the task force—an interesting mishmash of agency letters displayed on their jackets—had arrived to take custody of them.
Then he endured a debriefing covering everything that happened leading up to the moment when his goddamned partner jumped into the tunnels.
No one was cleared to go after Beckett. Not when they didn’t have any solid facts regarding the current situation and they didn’t have eyes on anything or anyone in the tunnels.
Members of law enforcement had been instructed to stay close but remain outside and, therefore, could offer no real backup.
Hayes had nearly lost his mind.
Officer Lavigne, a young, buff deputy working for the provincial police department, had taken Hayes’ official statement. He’d been incredibly patient, especially considering how frequently Hayes had stopped the process to pester him about getting updates on Beckett.
“I know you don’t want to be doing this right now, Agent Monroe, but the faster we get this done, the sooner you’re back on the case.”
Hayes supposed that was true enough, so he’d given up and given in.
After repeating the same information for what was surely the 100th time, Hayes finally finished his statement and Officer Lavigne took him to speak with the people in charge so he could help to get Beckett and the thieves out of that damned tunnel.
That had angered a lot of law enforcement officials.
He’d met a great deal of resistance: “Who the hell are you to—” and “This is a federal task force and you’re—” His arguments and icy glares weren’t working this time.
He was getting nowhere fast with these agents when Agent Cho finally walked into the crypt, her usual stoic expression firmly in place.
“What seems to be—” she’d begun, just as the first seismic vibration hit.
Everyone froze, expecting the ceiling to collapse on them, but the crypt had remained undamaged.
Apart from the tunnel entrance that was completely blocked, the crypt itself was fine.
The agents positioned around the school had radioed their positions, informing them of the collapse of the original tunnel entrance the thieves had dug originating from a nearby storefront.
Hayes became enraged when one of the perps had confessed to digging a goddamned hole in a century-old tunnel.
Officer Lavigne quickly intervened, holding him back, while he struggled to rein in his temper.
But it was a close call. Shaking off the need to shoot the perp, he turned his attention to the most immediate problem.
Beckett was stuck inside a highly unstable tunnel—of course he was—and the task force couldn’t take the risk of blowing up even part of a wall to get to him, because that could trigger the collapse of the entire structure.
Hayes understood that the structure was weak.
He really did, but it didn’t make it any easier for him in dealing with the infuriatingly slow structural engineers working the scene.
The first-class nerds took their sweet-assed time in coming up with a solution, saying repeatedly that it would be best not to dig at all, and that it would be difficult to predict anything with the apparently inaccurate building plans they’d been given.
After all, they could only guess where the tunnel was, using city plans, and the two entrances they knew about, but it was entirely possible that the tunnel was actually more extensive than they’d first thought, making the risk of collapse even greater.
Still, Hayes had done his best to remain calm. Really fucking calm.
And then the second quake hit the crypt, and the string attached to Hayes’ thinning patience had finally snapped.
Hayes grabbed one of the digging tools that someone left lying near the crypt entrance, hell bent on digging the goddamned hole himself. There was no way in hell that he was going to stand idly by while Beckett was stuck in that God-forsaken tunnel.
“Whoa there, big guy!” Officer Lavigne stepped between Hayes and the tunnel entrance. “Pretty sure that’s—eh—not a good idea,” the officer said in a thick French accent. He refused to back down, even under the full force of Hayes’ glare.
After one quick glance over his shoulder at Agent Cho, Officer Lavigne advised Hayes calmly, “You want to stay, you should—probably put that down, ouais?”
He was a handsome fellow, maybe in his early 20s.
He had a similar build to that of Beckett, although he was several inches shorter, and his French-Canadian accent reminded Hayes of Cynthia Therault.
If he decided to take on Officer Lavigne, then it would be like trying to move a mountain.
Hayes weighed his options while the young police officer waited him out, but after a few seconds, Hayes relented.
After all, it would be idiotic to disturb the structure that was already precarious. He knew that, he just—
With an angry growl, Hayes put the tool back.
“Bon,” the officer said with a pleased smile. “How about we go—” He broke off when Hayes’ radio suddenly issued a burst of static.
“Daisy?” Beckett called out, but the static was making it difficult to make out the words.
“Beckett! Are you okay?” Hayes gripped the radio anxiously, feeling shaky with relief.
Agent Cho headed his way, her own radio in hand, but he waved her off and turned his back on her.
“I’m—” there was a long pause, “knee deep in skeletons.”
Hayes’ blood turned to ice. Beckett’s voice had an undertone of panic, just like the time they’d been on an FBI training assignment.
Beckett’s PTSD episode that day resulted in a three-story tumble to the parking lot below the training facility after he’d tussled with several new recruits.
Then, as now, he’d clearly begun to lose touch with reality.
Hayes had to act quickly to pull Beckett back from the abyss.
“You’re in Canada. You jumped into a tunnel like a total dumbass. You’ve been out of the service for ten years. You own a goddamned cat.” Hayes calmly listed a few general facts about his life, hoping that would help Beckett work his way back to the here and now.
“The line should be kept clear for emergencies and—” Agent Cho snapped, disrupting his efforts to help Beckett.
“With all due respect, he’s a veteran with PTSD trapped in a collapsed tunnel, armed with a Glock and a Ka-Bar, guarding two suspects who we need to keep alive, so—I’d call this an emergency.
” Hayes kept his back to her as he addressed her with cold disdain.
If he faced her, he’d have to shoot her.
But right now Beckett was his number one priority and he didn’t have the time to spare.
“Do me a favor,” Beckett requested, sounding a lot less stressed than he had a minute ago.
Hayes was insanely relieved that his plan was working.
“Anything.”
“Keep talking, Nancy,” Beckett pleaded softly.
“Nancy?” Officer Lavigne asked, looking perplexed.
Hayes ignored his question as he launched into a monologue about the Thérault family and everyday life.
“Your mother expects us to show up for Easter. Your older brother opened a new jewelry store. Your niece loves the doll you got her. Pantouffle is going to be really mad at us when we get home because we forgot to leave her treats again. When we get back, we’ll have a mountain of laundry to do, and you’ll probably set fire to the condo doing it.
I’m pretty sure the pot roast I bought is beyond its expiration date, and I forgot to toss it in the freezer before we left.
Chase and Madeline are getting engaged soon, that’s for sure.
Gill is probably going to have kittens when he gets our report. ”
Hayes wasn’t much of a talker and Beckett, as well as anyone, had always known that.
But Hayes would gladly chatter for days if it kept Beckett calm and under control.
Turning around, he immediately noticed Agent Cho’s icy glare, her face tight with anger.
Hayes still wanted to shoot her, but settled for gesturing wordlessly towards the engineers, clearly asking, “Are the nerds done yet?”
Agent Cho frowned and began to speak. But Hayes swiftly put his back to her again, as he resumed relaying information to Beckett, starting with local weather reports and then moving on to their plans for New Year’s.
A loud crash, followed by a big bang, startled everyone. Officer Lavigne was the first to realize what was going on. An old inscription plate that had covered a coffin space had fallen from the wall and landed right next to his boots.