They were trapped.
And she was going to have a full-blown panic attack if she didn’t distract herself ASAP.
“What are we going to do?” she asked. “Where was the breeze coming from? We didn’t pass any openings on our way here. Did we?” Her throat tightened. Her heart raced. Her palms slicked and she thought she might pass out from lack of air. “Gideon, I can’t breathe.” She tried sucking in more air, but there was none to be had.
Mentally, the doctor in her tried to reassure her panicked self that it was just an attack, she wasn’t going to die.
But it sure felt like it.
Gideon’s grip tightened. “Maya?”
“Let me sit a moment. It’s just a panic attack.” She tried another breath, only to have it stop somewhere above her lungs. Even knowing it wouldn’t kill her didn’t make her feel one bit better.
Gideon helped her to the floor of the tunnel and sat beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her snug up next to him.
And finally, a full breath expanded her lungs. Her heart slowed. Gideon was here. It was going to be all right. And she needed to pull it together so they could figure a way out. “Thank you,” she finally said. “It’s easing. I’m okay. Let’s keep going.”
“You’ve always hated tight places.”
“Dark places mostly, but small places aren’t exactly at the top of my ‘things to enjoy’ list.”
“I can relate.” He stepped away, leaving her wanting to grab him back and never let go.
She curled her fingers into fists and cleared her throat. “They want my ranch, Gideon. They have papers for me to sign the land over to them and then they plan to kill Grams. I can’t let that happen.” Tears pricked her eyes just thinking about them being successful.
“That’s what this is all about?”
“Yeah.” She cleared her throat and blinked the moisture away. “Vance’s grandfather lost it in that poker game.” She told him everything Ellie had spilled to her, while trying not to breathe the thick air.
A faint draft whispered past them, taunting them with the promise of freedom. “Did you feel that?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“Then there’s got to be another way out.”
He stepped next to the wall of stone and ran his hand over it. “Okay, here’s an idea. You get on the other side and do the same. Feel for the breeze.”
She turned toward the opposite wall. “Just don’t turn the light off.”
“I’m not. Yet. Battery is going down pretty fast, though.”
Her stomach clenched. She didn’t need to know that. The thought of being in the dark again...
Yeah, she couldn’t think about that. “Why didn’t we feel it on our first pass?”
“I don’t know. Maybe the wind stopped blowing as we walked past it. But it’s here, somewhere.”
They moved together through the narrow tunnel, the stone cold under her palm. She glanced at the light coming from his phone and thought it looked weaker. But dust swirled in the beam. She stopped and pointed. “Wait. Look at that.”
Gideon followed her gaze. “Dust?”
“Yeah, it’s being pulled toward the wall.”
“Something’s there.” He stepped closer and pressed. “I feel the draft.”
“Thank God. How big is the crack?”
“Not big, but I’m going to change that.”
