Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Declan
“Declan! Help!”
Bella's scream ripped through me like a bullet.
I looked up through the opening of the mine shaft, the glow from the yellow bulbs above revealing every terrifying detail. She dangled fifteen feet above me, snagged by her dress fabric, her arms flailing behind her as she tried to grab the beam.
When I'd fallen, I'd caught the edge of one of the old hand-cut side passages that fed into the main shaft and pulled myself inside.
The tunnel stretched into darkness, lit up by a couple of globes dotted along the walls.
The mouth of the tunnel opened directly onto the vertical shaft where Bella hung.
“Bella, stop. Keep still.” My voice cracked. “Bella, listen to me!”
She peered down, and her terrified eyes found mine.
“You're going to fall.”
“Oh, that's just great.” Her voice was shrill.
I wrapped my left arm around a thick support beam on one of the old timber posts driven into the rock to shore up the tunnel entrance.
The wood was solid beneath my grip, anchored deep.
With my right arm free, I leaned out over the edge of the shaft as far as I dared, positioning myself directly beneath her.
“When you fall, I'll catch you. Understand? I will catch you.” I couldn't believe how calm I sounded when my heart was trying to claw its way out of my chest.
“Declan, but what if—”
“Look at me!” I locked gazes with her, willing every ounce of confidence I didn't feel into my voice. “I promise I will catch you.”
Her chest heaved with a massive breath. Her chin quivered. She was barely holding it together.
“Just be ready. When you fall, throw your arms toward me.”
She jolted down another inch, and a terrified gasp left her throat. “Don't miss me, Declan.”
“I won't.”
A tiny sob left her lips.
“Hey, don't cry. We survived being shot at. This is nothing.”
Her skirt was pulled up around her waist, giving me a full view of her underwear. I felt like a creep peering up at her, but it was impossible to ignore.
“Declan, I’m going to fall.” Her legs swung.
Shit, I need to distract her. “Bella,” I called up. “I'm really sorry about this.”
“About what?”
“I can see up your dress.”
“Jesus, are you serious?” She released a high-pitched chuckle. “That’s what you’re worried about right now?”
“If it makes you feel better, I'm not looking at your underwear. I'm looking at you.”
“That doesn't make it better!”
“Would you prefer I close my eyes and just guess where you're going to land?”
“No.”
“Okay, well, like I said, I'm sorry.”
“Declan, I'm literally about to fall to my death, and you're worried about being polite?”
“Always. And I told you, you’re not going to fall.” I tightened my grip on the support beam and leaned out farther, my boots braced against the edge of the tunnel floor. Just like throwing that ax, I had one shot at this, or Bella would die.
“Well, thanks for being a gentleman while I flash my underwear at you.” A shallow laugh escaped her. “Please tell me I didn't wear white today.”
I chuckled, but it came out tight. “You did. With little—are those daisies?”
“Oh God.” She actually giggled through her terror. “Of course, I wore white today.”
“At least this is keeping you calm.”
She dropped another inch and made a strangled sound. “You're insane.”
And you're lovely, and brave, and incredible.
Another inch. Her breath hitched. “Oh God.”
“It's okay, I've got you. Just stay—”
She dropped.
I thrust my right arm out, fingers spread wide.
A scream tore from her throat as she fell, her dress billowing upward as she plummeted toward me.
I snatched at her, missed her hand, and grabbed fabric instead. The skirt bunched in my fist as her full weight slammed down. The force yanked me forward, my shoulder wrenching toward the edge, but I locked my left arm tighter around the support beam and drove my heels into the tunnel floor.
Hold. Hold. HOLD.
Her body swung hard into the shaft wall below me with a sickening thud.
But I had her.
My chest heaved as I looked down. She dangled there, suspended by my grip on her dress, the fabric pulled up around her armpits and bunched under her arms, locking her in position like a brace.
Her red hair hung wild around her shoulders.
Her eyes stared up at me, wide with shock, disbelief, and relief.
Tears spilled down her cheeks. “Oh God!” The words burst out of her, half-sob, half-laugh. “You saved me!”
“Told you I'd catch you.” My voice came out rough as my arm shook from holding her with one hand.
Her lip trembled. Fresh tears tracked through the dust on her face. “Don't let go.”
“I won’t. I promise.” I tightened my grip on the fabric, feeling the dress strain against the seams. “Now hold still while I pull you up.”
“Okay.” Her voice shook. “What do I do?”
“Walk your feet up the wall as I lift. Small steps.”
She pressed her palms against the rough rock. “Ready.”
I hauled upward with everything I had.
She rose a foot, her sneakers scrabbling against the shaft wall. I pulled again, my shoulder screaming in protest.
“Almost there.”
One more heave, and she was high enough to grab the tunnel edge. Her blistered hands shot out, gripping the rock.
“Swing your leg up.”
She kicked her knee over the edge and scrambled forward on her elbows. I grabbed her waist and hauled her the rest of the way in.
“Yes.” I gasped. “I've got you.”
We collapsed backward onto the rough tunnel floor, her landing on top of me.
I wrapped my arms around her, crushing her against my chest. “You're okay. You're safe now.”
A broken sob burst from her throat. Her entire body shook as she clung to me. Her fingers twisted in my shirt, and she buried her face in my neck.
I tightened my grip, one hand cradling her head. “You're safe.” I kept saying it, over and over, my lips against her hair.
Her tears spilled hot and wet against my skin.
My heart hammered so hard I thought it might crack a rib. I'd caught her. Actually fucking caught her.
I pressed my face into her hair and just breathed. A miracle. That's what it was.
Finally, she pulled back just enough to look at me. Her face was streaked with tears and dust, her eyes red-rimmed. “Thank you.” Her voice broke. “I'm so glad you caught me.”
“Me, too.” The understatement of the century.
Her expression shifted to relief, and a deeper emotion I couldn't pinpoint.
She rolled off me and sat up, tugging her dress down over her knees. “What do we do now?”
I sat beside her and looked up through the shaft we’d fallen into.
Sheer rock walls stretched into the main chasm a long way above us.
Impossible to climb. The side tunnel we'd landed in was old, with rough, hand-carved walls that had to be decades old, maybe a century.
Some of the lights still worked, casting weak light from bulbs strung randomly along the walls.
But there was no guarantee this tunnel led anywhere. Most of them didn't.
“We're trapped again, aren't we?” Bella's voice was flat.
“Yep.” No point lying. “But at least we're trapped together.”
She bumped her shoulder against mine. “You know all the right things to say.”
I stood and offered my hand. “Come on. Let's see where this leads.”
She reached for my hand, but I grabbed her wrist and hauled her to her feet. She gently dusted her hands on her skirt. “Lucky I wore a dress today.”
I grinned. “I'll say. Anything else, and that might've ended differently.”
She scrunched her nose in that cute way that always grabbed my attention. “Sorry about flashing my knickers at you.”
My grin widened. “Don't be. I liked it.”
She laughed, a real, genuine laugh that reached her eyes. It was the first time I'd seen that from her. Maybe all the demons she'd been running from were finally behind her.
As we moved deeper into the tunnel, the lights flickered and buzzed weakly, casting uneven shadows on the rough walls. Dust drifted in slow spirals, making the air taste metallic and stale.
“Any idea where this leads?” Bella asked.
“No. I've been in most of the tunnels in this mine, but not this one.”
“Don't all the tunnels look the same?” She frowned, and as she tucked her hair away, I saw a delicate phoenix tattoo with red wings spread in flight just behind her ear.
I dragged my eyes away from the tattoo. “There's always something different. This one's old. See the marks on the walls? The tunnel was hand-carved with picks and axes, probably a century ago.”
“So, it won't be very long then?”
“Not necessarily. Some of these old tunnels run for miles.”
“Wow.” She studied the rough wall. “Hard to believe they did this by hand. And that it's still standing.”
Still standing. Yeah, for now.
“They don't make them like they used to,” I said, forcing lightness into my voice.
I didn't mention the three cave-ins or the flooding that had happened during the time I'd tried to run this place.
“Well, if I have to be trapped in an abandoned mine with anyone, I'm glad it's you.” She looked at me, her expression a mix of stubbornness and reckless determination. “You'll get us out of here. I'm sure of it.”
I grunted. “Wow. No pressure.”
She playfully slapped my arm. “Stop it. You're the bravest man I know.”
My chest swelled. Of all the things I'd been called in my life, brave wasn't one of them. I wished my brothers and sister could hear that. And my father. That bastard had always loved pointing out that I was the weakest link in the family.
“Hey.” Bella reached for my hand and laced our fingers together like we'd been holding hands for years. “I trust you. Remember?”
“Then I'd better not screw this up.”
She grinned up at me, and it took my breath away.