Chapter 14 #2
Don't do this. Don't fall for her. She was extraordinary, brave, and beautiful, and somehow still standing after all the bullshit we'd been through, while I was just a failed mine owner and an accountant who couldn't even keep his family business afloat.
She deserved a man who had his shit together, not someone whose father had been right about him being a screw-up.
The tunnel narrowed ahead, and the walls pressed in closer.
Around a bend, we hit a collapsed section that completely blocked the passage.
My stomach dropped. A massive pile of broken rock and timber support beams filled the tunnel from floor to ceiling.
Chunks of sandstone the size of fridges lay mixed with splintered wood and twisted metal rails.
“Shit. It’s a dead end.” Bella's voice pitched higher.
I moved closer, running my hand over rocks layered with dust and sediment. This wasn't recent. Much older. Possibly decades.
A dark gap near the bottom caught my eye, barely visible in the weak light. I crouched down. Water stains streaked the rocks where fresh erosion had carved channels through the sediment.
She knelt beside me, peering into the gap. “What do you see?”
“This.” I pointed at the erosion. “We had a water breach six years ago. Must have come through and created an opening.”
“You think we can fit?”
I assessed the gap. Tight. Maybe two feet high, three feet wide. “We'll have to crawl, but yeah.”
“What's on the other side?”
I didn't want to say it, but she deserved the truth. “If I'm right, this was the collapse that sealed off those miners in 1963.”
She gasped and covered her mouth. “This is where they died?”
“I think so.”
She stared at the gap, quiet for a moment. “Is it safe?”
Safe? Nothing about this was safe. The rocks could shift. The whole thing could come down on us. But we had no other option. Going back to the vertical shaft wouldn't help either.
“Honestly? I don't know. But it's our only way forward.”
She frowned, like she wanted to say more but didn't know how.
“What?”
She blinked at me, then shrugged. “I was just thinking.... If those men were trapped behind this wall, then going in there makes no sense. There's obviously no way out.”
I studied the opening. “This hole didn’t exist back then, so maybe the water found a way through the other side, too.”
She gave a doubtful nod. “That would be good.”
“Or we might find rope or something we can use to climb out of that shaft we fell into.”
She took a breath and squared her shoulders. “Okay. Let's do this.”
God, she was brave.
She rose on her toes and pressed a quick kiss to my cheek.
“What was that for?” I couldn't stop the smile touching my lips.
“For saving me.”
“Well, technically, I haven't saved...”
She cupped my cheeks and pulled me down to her. Her lips found mine, softly at first, then deeper, urgent. Her fingers slid into my hair, and I forgot where we were. Forgot about the collapsed tunnel, the dead miners, and the impossible odds of getting out alive.
My hands found her waist, then her back, holding her like she might disappear if I let go. All I knew was her mouth on mine, the way she tasted, the small sound she made when I pulled her closer.
When she finally pulled away, I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think.
She'd wrecked me. Completely. I knew with absolute certainty that I was falling for this woman. Had already fallen—so deeply there was no climbing back out.
Even if we made it out of this mine, I was never getting out of this.
“Will you stop distracting me?”
She laughed, and the sound echoed off the tunnel walls.
Hot damn, she's gorgeous.
I dragged myself away from her, dropped to my stomach, and peered into the hole. Christ, this was going to be tight.
She lay beside me, close enough that I felt the warmth of her body. “What's the plan?”
“Don't die.”
She waggled her head. “Good plan. You go first.”
I burst out laughing. “Thanks.”
I shook my head, still smiling despite everything. “Listen, wait until I'm through, and then I'll call you. If I can't get through, I'll come back, and we'll figure out another plan.”
She grabbed my wrist before I could move forward. “Declan. If something happens...”
“It won't.”
“But if it does.”
I covered her hand with mine. “Then promise me you'll keep trying to find another way.”
“No.” Her grip tightened. “We both get out, or neither of us does. That's the deal.”
Stubborn woman. “Bella...”
“Take it or leave it.”
I stared at her, this infuriating, beautiful, brave woman who'd just kissed me like it might be our last kiss. I bloody hoped not.
“Fine,” I said. “But once I'm through, you do exactly what I say. No arguments.”
“I can do that.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Really? Because your track record suggests otherwise.”
She smiled sweetly. “Guess you'll have to trust me.”
I turned back to the hole. “I shouldn't have eaten all those cupcakes.”
“Hey.” She slapped my arm. “What's wrong with my cupcakes?”
“Absolutely nothing.”
“Good answer. When we get out of here, I'm going to make you the best cupcakes you've ever tasted.”
I nodded, picturing her in my kitchen, baking just for me. “I'll hold you to that.”
She kissed my cheek. “See you on the other side.”
I pulled out my lighter.
“Oh, I forgot you had that.”
“Yeah. Thank God.” I triggered the flame, and the small glow cast flickering shadows across the rock. “Hopefully, we have lights on the other side of this. Or at least some old lanterns that I can light for you.”
“Yeah, hopefully.”
I took a breath and squeezed into the opening, holding the lighter ahead of me. Rocks dug into my shoulders and back. I turned my head sideways, my cheek scraping against stone. The space crushed in around me.
I had to angle the lighter carefully to avoid burning my fingers as I clawed at the ground with my other hand, dragging myself forward inch by inch.
I shoved through a narrow gap, and my shoulders wedged tighter.
Bloody hell. I tried to shimmy backward, but the rocks locked me in place.
My heart hammered against my ribs as the lighter flame wavered with my ragged breaths. I clawed at the ground beneath me, searching for purchase. Sharp edges tore at my shirt. Dust filled my lungs. The walls pressed in closer.
My chest seized. I couldn't breathe.
“Are you okay?” Bella's voice cut through my panic.
I had to get through this, for her. I forced myself to take a slow breath. “I'm okay, but it's damn tight in here.”
“You can do it. I know you can.”
Her faith in me was everything.
I dropped my left shoulder and stretched my arm forward. The angle helped. I inched forward, the rocks grinding against my back so tightly I had to exhale completely to squeeze through. Water dripped somewhere ahead, echoing in the darkness.
The gap widened, and I shoved myself through and tumbled out onto the other side, gasping. The lighter went out.
I stood in complete darkness, brushing dust and rock fragments off my clothes, waiting for my pulse to settle. The air was different here. Staler. Untouched for decades.
“Bella, I'm through. Give me a sec.”
“I knew you could do it.”
I flicked the lighter again and scanned the area.
Hard hats lined the wall, their aluminum shells dull and dented, traces of faded yellow and white paint still clinging to the metal.
A rusted lunch pail sat propped against the rock, next to an old thermos and a pair of work boots with cracks through the brittle leather.
I grabbed the lunch pail and popped it open. Inside, wrapped in wax paper, were two thick emergency candles, yellowed but intact. Yes!
Back in the sixties, miners had kept emergency candles. If their lamp died, candles had been all that stood between them and darkness.
I pulled one out and lit it. The flame caught, casting warm, flickering light across the tunnel. I set it on a flat rock near the hole.
“Bella, I've got light for you.”
“Yes! I see the glow. My turn.”
“Be careful. Take it slow.”
“I will.”
I turned to scan the area while I waited. Ancient mining equipment littered the ground, confirming my theory about this place. Rusted pickaxes leaned against the wall beside a toppled ore cart, its frame warped with corrosion. Coils of frayed rope lay scattered across the floor.
I picked up one of the ropes to test its strength. But the moment I pulled, the rope disintegrated in my hands, crumbling into dust as ancient fibers fell through my fingers like sand.
My chest tightened. If there was no way out at the other end of this tunnel, we were screwed. No rope to climb. No equipment that still worked. We'd be trapped down here just like those miners sixty years ago, sitting in the dark, waiting for a rescue that would never come.
Nobody even knew we were down here.
The candle flickered, throwing shadows that seemed to crawl toward me across the tunnel walls.
Christ. This damn mine had nearly killed me once.
Now, it wanted to finish the job.
And take Bella, too.