Chapter 125
Madison just kept looking up. As something, someone moved in front of the light. Never had a woman looked more beautiful in her life. But…why was K.J. coming without a helmet? Search and rescue didn’t do that. She just watched for a moment, almost disconnected. Weird.
She’d have to ask Shelby someday. Her friend had done search and rescue before.
Madison tried to pull in a deep breath, but she couldn’t. Then…reminded herself—short, shallow. Unless she had to. Her ribs really hurt.
Then…K.J. was there. It didn’t take her very long at all.
Madison was almost convinced the other woman was like Spiderwoman or something.
She just sort of appeared and perched on the ledge there.
She almost knelt next to Madison’s head.
Madison’s arm was a bit in the way. But not like Madison could do anything about it at the moment, though.
Considering. “You are…very…good at this climbing down thing.”
“The boys above tied a rope around me. They braced it around a nice sturdy slab of limestone bigger than Rodriguez. So…huge. I have the other end here. Can you…move your left arm at all?”
K.J.’s hand poked around Madison’s armpit. She checked Madison’s neck gently. Madison was definitely sore, but her neck hadn’t been injured. Thankfully.
“Well, this one I can. But…the other…kind of stuck. I think I am just mostly…stuck, Kay. Maybe my right arm is even broken or sprained. It definitely hurts.” Madison was not going to panic here. She just wasn’t. “Is Dom okay up there? He can be very sensitive, you know.”
“He’s good. Getting agitated. I don’t think those boys like being told they are too big for anything. It wounds their egos.”
“And that little pissant Newcomb? Please tell me he is cockroach food.” Well, she wanted him alive. She wanted him to have sit in front of a jury and hear what would happen to him. She then wanted him to fry. He didn’t deserve to go out of this world the easy way.
Not that…falling in a mine shaft was the easy way or anything.
Cue Madison’s panic again. Considering.
“Don’t know. Doesn’t seem to be moving right now, Mads. He’s in a crack like this—but he’s completely upside down. I want you to save your breath, okay? You’re in a bit too tight of a squeeze for my liking.” K.J. was still kneeling above her a little. Doing something…with the rope…she had.
“I think you’ll fit in with the Major Crimes boys, Kay. You and Heather and…Lila. Is she okay? Is Miriam?” She needed to know that they’d made it. It would really give her hope here.
K.J. hesitated. “We just don’t know yet. I took off after you when I saw Newcomb had you. Trace carried Lila out. I am not sure about Miriam. I never had visual. But…let’s get you out of here and to the hospital, then we’ll find out. Can you move your foot?”
“Yes, Spiderwoman. I just can’t get the right angle with my knee wedged in like this to pull it out.
Nowhere for my knee to go if I move it. I am feeling a bit like a Mads-burrito.
I need lifted. I should be able to slide out after that.
I just can’t get the right leverage like this.
” Madison knew how movement and physics worked.
She was just…in too narrow of a shaft right now.
And at the incline, it wasn’t going to be easy to pull herself up with nothing to brace her feet against. Rather a catch-22 and everything.
And if her foot was broken…it would get even harder.
She couldn’t actually feel her foot right now.
But if someone were to lift or pull her up, she could straighten out a little, maybe. She’d slid right in—something she would not ever forget—hopefully, she’d slide right out, too.
“Okay, I have the rope. I want you to lean back as far as you can. I am going to reach in and try to…get the rope to your belt. Is your belt tight? Secure?”
“Good thing I wore it today, right?” Madison checked with her jammed hand. Hopefully it would be strong enough…Madison understood what they were trying to do. “It’s as good as it is going to get, I think.”
“I also have some paracord, courtesy of Miguel’s supply. That man…perfect. He is the perfect man. So beautiful to look at too, and the way he is prepared. Beautiful. He had a thermal monocular scope in his truck, Mads. It really came in handy. I am so…I’m in love, I swear.”
“He belongs to Hope…now, so sorry. He’s hers. He’s her Major Crimes major pain. We should get together, pick one out for you, too…”
“Later. We shall discuss it.” K.J. was half-upside down now, bracing her legs on the slime-covered rock edge. Madison really didn’t want to think about it as her future tomb, considering. And how in the world had K.J. bent like that. It was almost inhuman how flexible she seemed to be.
Dom was up there. He wasn’t going to let her die down here.
He just wouldn’t. He just…had had to send K.J.
to her instead. She understood why. The last thing she would want was for him to try to get her himself and get stuck.
But just knowing he was up there waiting on her…
yes. It kept her from panicking here. “Dom came for me. He promised that he always would.”
“He did. And you are a very lucky woman. I mean…except for right now. But…now you have me. So you are beyond blessed. Good thing I am with the boys today, right? It so takes a woman to get things done around the TSP.” Yes, K.J. would fit in with Major Crimes just fine.
Madison felt K.J. poking around by her injured arm. The rope slipped beneath her belt. K.J. grabbed it and pulled. Until she could loop it off and knot it. Tight. Under the belt, in front of Madison’s stomach. About four or five feet coiled between her legs.
“My brother lived on a houseboat in Corpus Christi before he died. I stayed with him for a year. He taught me how to tie really good knots. I have knotted this around your belt. And I need to find a way to get it around your waist and away from your ribs, and through your legs. We’re going to make a harness of sorts.
Just in case. I am going to stay with you while they pull us both up a little.
But then…they will have to pull me up separately, so we aren’t putting both of our weight together on the ledge.
It’s a little crumbly up there, so you need to not move too much when we get topside.
Just let Miguel and Lake and your man be all heroic, okay?
We’re going to distribute your weight as evenly as we can with the rope and this paracord the miraculously handy Miguel had in his truck, so that we don’t put too much strain on your ribs.
Just…hold on, Mads. We aren’t leaving you behind. No matter what.”
“Never…leave a sister behind. Sister by blood, sister…by choice…”
“What?”
“What Hope said that night…out there, with Wilson…Coleson family motto: Never leave your sister behind. No matter what, basically.”
“I can understand that. I am not leaving you, Mads. I promise. I am not going very far until we get to the top, then a minute or two max. After that, your man will be there. We are going to do this.”
K.J. kept working. Until the rope was around Madison as best as they could get it. “I’m ready…I really…want that man up there. Get me there.”
“It’s a deal.”
“Okay, let’s do this.” K.J. patted her on the shoulder gently. Then yelled. For the boys to lift. “Gently! Six inches!”
Six inches weren’t enough. Mads fought frustration. And it hurt. Her foot was jammed tight. Her arms…she was being scraped every inch. She tucked her chin into her chest as best she could. K.J. yelled again. Another four inches.
K.J. had slipped her hands beneath Madison enough to grab Madison’s belt tight.
She pulled.
Another two.
Then…
Madison was able to straighten her knee and straighten her ankle. She kicked with her other foot. Then her leg was free. She yelled out, as best she could with her ribs compressed. “Keep going, Kay. Keep going. I’m getting loose!”
Then…she was up, out of the water. And she could put her good foot against the wall to help guide herself. The slime helped her slide right out.
Then…she just…dangled there.
While the boys of Major Crimes pulled their new bestie K.J. free of the hole. And out of Madison’s way.
Madison could pull in a breath, but…wow. Her ribs hurt.
Then…then Madison followed.
She closed her eyes and just did her best to get the measly ten feet out of the hole.
Ten feet were keeping her from the man she loved.
Well, hell no. That just wasn’t going to happen.
Her arms…she was able to get her arm free once the shaft widened again.
And that helped. Her arm that had been jammed above her head for a while there, was on fire.
It was scraped raw all the way up to her arm pit.
And…maybe her other arm was broken. It sure felt like it. But…she could move her arm now.
Her right arm was free. She put her back against the shaft and just sort of limp-climbed as the boys pulled her up. Strong, steady, and sure—the boys of Major Crimes were there. Right when they were needed.
She adored those major pains and always would.
Those boys had come in handy tonight. She was crying. Not panicking.
Madison was not going to panic.
She just wasn’t.
Good thing her Major Crimes boys were super-human strong. Otherwise, this could have taken all night.
Then she was lying flat on a nasty mine floor. She really hoped it wasn’t as bug-infested as that Slater Davis movie. That would be really bad. Then again…movies used a lot of creative license. It probably wasn’t.
She was just going to tell herself that.
Someone with strong hands was sliding her across the slime. She looked up.
Into the most beautiful male face in the world.
And…it really was possible he was the most beautiful man in the world.
But while he was beautiful, he was not the man she wanted to see. Miguel was perfect for Hope in every way. But…Madison turned her head. “Where’s Dom?”
And then he was right there.
“Dom!”
He was lifting her into his arms. And she knew…she was safe now. She just looked at him, ignoring the mud, the blood, the slime—she wasn’t waiting another minute for this. “I love you, Dominic Vincent. And don’t you ever forget it. You aren’t getting away from me now.”