Deadly Promises (Tracers #2.5)(85)

“Not a hole. A tunnel.”

She blinked into the darkness and turned around. There seemed to be more light behind her, a very faint glow.

“A tunnel,” she repeated. “You mean like a mine shaft? I saw an opening. It’s probably a mercury mine.”

“It’s not. Maybe it was at one time but that’s not what it is now. It’s a border tunnel.” The light flashed on again, and he directed it over the walls around them.

“Oh, my gosh,” she murmured.

The passageway was wide and tall. They both could have stretched their arms out and not touched the sides. And unlike the mine shaft near the dig site, these walls were made of cinder blocks.

“They have these between San Diego and Tijuana,” Gage said. “But I’ve never heard of any in the middle of nowhere like this. And I’ve never heard of any this big.”

He switched off the light and began guiding her toward the dimly lit end, which must be the way out. She’d thought it was dark outside, but this was an entirely different level of blackness.

“This is huge,” she said. “Big enough to drive a truck through.”

“From the smell of it someone has.”

She sniffed the air and realized how else this place was different from the mine shaft. Instead of guano, she smelled gasoline fumes.

Gage halted.

“What?”

“Someone’s coming.”

She heard it then, the faint rumble of a truck. It was coming from the direction of the glow. From outside.

“Where do we go?” she yelped.

“Don’t panic.” And then he was towing her into the blackness, deeper into the tunnel.

She resisted. “But we don’t know what’s in there.”

He pulled her against the wall and moved faster. “I’m feeling for a door. A turn. Anything where we can duck out of sight.”

The rumble grew louder until it was nearly a roar. They were running now, and her foot caught on something as she struggled to keep up.

“Come on.”

“I’m coming.” Her heart galloped. Her legs burned. She moved as fast as she could but the noise was closing in. He hooked an arm around her waist and practically lifted her off her feet as they surged forward. The noise was like a freight train bearing down on them.

“Gage!”

Lights illuminated the far side of the tunnel as the truck rounded a bend. In an instant, they’d be lit up by headlights and mowed down. Suddenly her arm jerked sideways and she was smashed against a wall, Gage’s body pressed against her.

“Don’t move,” he yelled into her ear.

He’d found some kind of nook, and she was flattened against the back of it as the engine noise reverberated all around, making even the walls shake. Kelsey held her breath as the tunnel brightened and the noise became deafening.

And then it receded. Just like that, it was fading away, along with the light.

Gage eased back a fraction and Kelsey let out a breath. She was still clinging to him, gripping his T-shirt in her fists. Something hard dug into her neck and her back.

“You okay?”

“Uh-huh.” She managed to let go of him.

“That was close,” he said, and the utter calm in his voice sounded unnatural. Her feet were frozen in place. Her heart hammered.

“Come on,” He took her hand and tugged. “Let’s get out of here before it happens again.”

Numbly, she took a step forward and pushed off the wall. She paused for a second and turned around but it was too dark to see what she’d felt.

“There could be more, Kels. We need to move it.”

“Wait.” She curled her fingers around something straight and wooden. She pulled her other hand free and groped around. “I think I found a ladder.”



GAGE PUSHED UP the grate and moved it aside, then swiped away the camo netting. He climbed out of the hole and reached a hand down for Kelsey.

“Careful. That last rung is a bigger stretch.”

She hoisted herself up onto the ground and brushed the hair from her eyes.

Gage glanced around, on alert for even the slightest noise. Whatever traffic was moving through here, he didn’t want Kelsey anywhere near it.

He stood up and pulled her to her feet. It was dark out but not as dark as in the tunnel, and he was able to get his bearings from the shadow of the ridge to the west of them. They were southeast of the big boulder. He still hadn’t laid eyes on the supposed “mine” entrance, but he guessed it was tucked into the nearby canyon wall.

“What is this, some sort of ventilation hole?”

Gage replaced the grate and the netting. “Air. People. Guess anything can move through it.”

He took her arm and led her toward the spot where he’d parked the pickup. He chose his steps carefully, wanting to avoid another uncovered hole. Beside him, she was limping slightly, and he knew her fall had been worse than she’d admitted.

“You think Dylan found this place?”

He heard the dread in her voice. But as much as he wanted to, he couldn’t candy coat it for her. “Yes.”

The word hung over them as they trekked back to the boulder. “I found something interesting, too, while I was looking for you. There was a big delivery truck parked near the entrance to the tunnel.”