Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Bella
My heart hammered against my ribs as I waited for Declan to move.
That's what the nod had meant, right? He had a new plan. He was telling me to be ready.
But be ready for what?
He'd wanted Pike and Rocco together under that rust bucket so he could kill them both, but now the bastards were split up.
Did he want to kill Pike first, then Rocco? Rocco was wounded, and it looked like he couldn't see out of his left eye. That had to work in our favor.
Right?
Time slowed to a crawl.
The second Declan stepped out from behind that column, they'd see him. Maybe not Rocco with his ruined eye, but Pike definitely would.
I had to be ready. I had to keep Pike distracted. Keep him under that hopper and then get the hell out of the way before that thing dropped.
Rocco stepped onto another platform above us, and the ancient timbers groaned under his weight, releasing a high-pitched shriek that made every nerve in my body pull tight. He turned slightly, angling the swollen and blistered side of his face toward where Declan was hiding.
Declan was in his blind spot.
My pulse roared in my ears.
Come on, Declan. Whatever you're doing, do it now.
“Rocco, we don't have all damn day!” Pike shouted up at him.
“You come and look for him then!” Rocco moved to the edge of the platform, peering down at us.
My breath caught in my throat.
If he looked just a fraction to his right, he'd see Declan. And if Declan moved to stay hidden from Rocco, Pike would spot him.
We were trapped. Both of us. I needed to distract them.
“You two are fucking clowns!” The words burst out of me.
Pike's head whipped toward me. “Shut up!”
He came at me fast, and the gun swung toward my face. I tried to duck, but the metal cracked across my temple.
White-hot pain exploded behind my eyes. Stars burst across my vision. A scream tore from my throat, but pure rage blazed through me. Moving fast, I kicked Pike's leg. My sneaker connected just above his knee. Right where the denim was dark and wet with blood from Declan's knife wound.
Pike's roar of pain was the most beautiful sound I'd ever heard.
He stumbled back, his leg buckling.
Yes. Now, Declan. Now!
I twisted, searching for him through the stars dancing across my eyes.
Declan burst out from behind the column, his body coiled as he adjusted his stance. His arm came back, and he threw the ax. The blade spun through the air.
Time froze.
The blade spun once. Twice. Then buried itself in the timber beam twenty feet overhead.
The rope severed with a crack like a gunshot.
I flinched, jerking at the sound, trying to work out what was happening.
A massive counterweight dropped with a metallic shriek that made my teeth ache.
The platform beneath Rocco's feet lurched violently. He let out a high-pitched scream as the boards crumbled away beneath him. His arms windmilled as he pitched forward over the railing, and his gun went flying, clattering against the beams as he tumbled down.
He hit the ground with a sickening crack that I felt in my bones.
But there was another sound, too. Deeper. Heavier. Mechanical.
The massive ore bin above us groaned.
My head snapped toward Pike just as he looked up. His eyes went wide. His mouth opened.
I scrambled backward on my hands and knees, my burned palms screaming, my body moving on pure survival instinct.
The bucket came down like a falling building, and Pike's scream cut off mid-breath.
The impact was catastrophic.
A deafening metallic boom shook the cavern walls and sent a shockwave rippling through the floor beneath me. The sound rolled outward like thunder, massive and unstoppable, and I felt it in my chest, in my bones, in every cell of my body.
The structure Rocco had been searching collapsed.
Timber snapped like matchsticks. Support beams tore loose from the walls with sounds like gunshots. The third platform came down in a roaring cascade of wood and metal.
Dust exploded everywhere, filling my lungs, my eyes, choking me.
The lights flickered wildly. Some bulbs burst in showers of sparks and glass. Others dimmed to a sickly, dying glow that barely cut through the swirling dust.
I staggered to my feet, coughing, trying to see through the cloud of debris.
Silence fell, thick and absolute except for my heartbeat thundering in my ears and the ringing that wouldn't stop.
I stood maybe three feet from the edge of the giant bucket, my chest heaving with ragged breaths. At the base of all that crumpled metal, Pike's hand jutted out from beneath the bin. His fingers were curled like he'd tried to crawl away at the last second.
The hand didn't move.
“Bella!” Declan's voice tore through the dust, raw, breaking, and desperate.
I turned just as he charged toward me through the settling cloud, his eyes wild, his face twisted with shock and terror.
We collided hard.
His arms locked around me, crushing me against his chest as if he was trying to absorb me into his body. Like he couldn't believe I was alive.
I buried my face against him and started crying, laughing, and shaking all at once. “You did it,” I gasped against his shirt. “You actually did it.”
He held me tighter, his entire body trembling. His breath shuddered against my hair. “We did,” he said, his voice hoarse and wrecked. “We did it together.”
“That throw—” I pulled back to look at him, my vision still blurry with tears. “That was amazing.”
“Pure luck.” He studied my face like he was cataloging every scratch and bruise, confirming I was whole.
“Bullshit,” I said. “That was the best thing I've ever seen.”
His jaw clenched as his thumb brushed across my cheekbone where Pike had slapped me. “That bastard hit you.”
“I'm okay.” My voice cracked. “I'm better than okay. You saved our lives, Declan. You—”
I couldn't finish. The adrenaline crashing through me made my hands shake. Everything felt too bright, too loud … too real.
He pulled me against his chest again, holding me as if I were the most important person in his life.
And maybe, in that moment, I was.
I turned my head so I couldn't see Pike's hand and searched the collapsed platform's wreckage for Rocco. I found him half-buried in broken timber, his body folded at an angle that made my stomach turn.
“Rocco’s dead, too,” Declan said.
A low groan rolled through the cavern. Deep and angry, like the mine itself was waking up.
I pulled back from Declan's chest. “What the—”
Rocks cracked away from the walls and tumbled down, bouncing off rusted equipment. Timber popped and splintered. On the far wall, a support beam gave way with a sharp, echoing snap.
“Shit.” Declan's eyes went wide. “Run!”
He grabbed my wrist and yanked me forward. We sprinted toward a row of old sorting tables as the remaining timber frames around the walls came apart like dominoes.
The platforms collapsed inward. Beams slammed down in thunderous crashes. Dust and debris rained from above, pelting my head and shoulders. The ground bucked beneath my feet, and I would've fallen if Declan hadn't been dragging me forward.
I screamed as he pulled me under a table, tucking me against him, shielding my body with his as the giant chasm shed its man-made skeleton.
A support beam crashed down inches from us, the impact so violent I felt it in my teeth. Declan's arms tightened around me, one hand pressing my head against his chest, the other wrapped around my back.
More timber fell. Metal shrieked. Rocks thundered down, and the table shuddered with each impact. I expected the old table to collapse on top of us, that we'd be crushed. That this was how we'd die, buried alive in the guts of a dead mine.
Declan's heart hammered against my ear, fast and hard. Or maybe that was mine. I couldn't tell.
The roar went on and on. A century of accumulated dust filled the air, thick and choking, burning my lungs with every shallow breath. I could barely see. Couldn't breathe. Could barely think through the deafening chaos.
Finally, the crashes grew further apart. Smaller. The lightbulbs that survived the collapse emerged through the dust cloud like weird yellow eyes.
A beam fell somewhere in the distance. Then another, weaker thud.
Then nothing.
Silence crashed down as suddenly as the mine had.
Dust coated everything. My throat. My lungs. My eyes.
I coughed and spat, trying to clear my airways, blinking grit from my lashes. Everything hurt. Everything burned.
Declan wiped his sleeve across his face, leaving a dark streak through the dust. Then he went still, staring past me, across the chasm.
I followed his gaze, and my heart sank.
A mountain of rubble blocked the tunnel we'd come through. Massive beams lay crisscrossed like pick-up sticks. Chunks of ceiling. Shattered support columns. Tons of rock and timber, all of it piled so high the tunnel was completely hidden.
Our only route back to the entrance was gone.
The realization hit me like a physical blow.
“We're trapped,” I whispered.
“Yeah.” Declan's voice was flat. Final. He didn't try to soften the blow or lie to make me feel better. His jaw flexed so hard a muscle jumped beneath his cheekbone. “We are.”
My stomach hollowed.
The air changed, like the mine was inhaling a massive breath, and the ground beneath us jolted down. The massive metal bucket that landed on top of Pike dropped through the ground.
My scream tore from my throat as Declan and I reached for each other. His fingers grazed mine before the ground between us split apart and swallowed us both.
We fell into a massive hole.
The rock face blurred past and a jagged rock ripped across my ribs. My hip cracked against an outcrop. I spun, weightless, arms flailing for anything solid.
My fingers closed on empty air and I screamed.
My body whipped to a stop so violently that my teeth clacked together. I hung there, suspended, gasping, my lungs refusing to work.
A table flew past me, then chunks of timber.
“Declan!” The word ripped out of me.
“Bella!” His voice boomed up from somewhere below.
What the hell? Where is he?
“Don't move! Just hold still!”
Hold still? I looked down. Big mistake.
There was nothing but black beneath my dangling feet, dropping away into nothing. No bottom. No end. Just a throat of darkness that went down and down and down.
Oh God. I'm in a mine shaft.
I glanced up. A jagged piece of timber jutted from the wall above me, and the skirt of my flimsy dress had caught on the splintered end. The fabric bunched tight around the wood, tangled, holding my full weight.
My chest heaved. Each breath made me sway. The beam groaned and the fabric shifted, slipping a fraction of an inch.
Rip.
The sound froze my blood.
The hem of my skirt was tearing away. One thread. Two.
“No, no, no—” My voice shook. My whole body shook.
Riiip.
Another inch opened up.
“Declan!” I screamed, raw terror flooding through every syllable. “My dress is ripping!”
I reached behind me, trying to grab the beam I was hooked on. My fingers found wood, but one touch made splinters dig into my blistered palms.
Riiiiip.
“Declan! Help!”