“You think he’s taken her into one of the tunnels?”
“His note said if I wanted to find her, I’d have to figure out where he took her. He wants me to find him. He wants to settle this personally, so it has to be someplace I know.”
“Where would he take her?” Nick asked.
“When we were prospecting, we worked a lot of old mining claims. Some of them are in this area. I don’t think he’s gone too far. He’s cast the lure—now he’s trying to reel me in.”
Cain studied the map. “We worked a claim right next to the Josephine Tunnel. That’s right here, not far from Jerome.”
He set his finger near a spot on the map. “There’s an old dirt road heading north off 89A before you get to Clarksdale,” Cain said, tracing the faint line on the map. “We were looking for gold at the time. We found a trace, not enough to keep us working up there. The old mine tunnel we worked goes into the side of the mountain, but it’s not that deep.”
“Just deep enough to hide a kidnap victim.”
“Yeah.” Cain looked up. “And it’s not far away. Bart was never a patient man. He wants this confrontation. He’s got to be tired of waiting.”
“You’re making a good argument.”
Cain scrubbed a hand over the rough shadow of his afternoon beard. “Bart and I worked a lot of claims before I bought him out. It could be any one of them. I could be wrong about this. If I am, Jenny’s the one who’s going to suffer.”
“I can’t tell you what to do, Cain. All I can say is I do my best work when I follow my instincts.”
Cain’s gaze held Nick’s for a long, silent moment. “So do I,” he said. “Let’s go.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
JENNY TENSED AS THE MEN’S HEAVY FOOTFALLS CAME TOWARD HER,echoing down the tunnel. Lying on the cold dirt floor, she pressed herself against the rough rock wall and closed her eyes.
The lantern light ran over her. “She’s still drugged up,” one of them said, the voice of the tall, mud-faced man who had abducted her. She had only caught a glimpse, but she remembered his thick, black eyebrows and the scar that ran from the base of his nose to his upper lip. It made him even homelier than he was already.
“Get out of the way, Clyde. Let me have a look at her.” The second man nudged her body with the toe of his heavy leather boot. His voice was deep, with the hint of a drawl. Jenny kept her eyes firmly closed. Clyde moved close enough to examine her.
“She’s faking it, Bart,” he said. “I tied her hands behind her, not in front.”
Bart Harwell. Cain’s old partner.The man who had shot Will and probably Cain when he was out at the ranch.
Her eyes flew open as he gripped her arm and jerked her roughly to her feet. “Well, ain’t you the clever one.”
In the lantern light, he had thinning, dark brown hair and dark eyes a little too close together. He was shorter than Clyde, but well over six feet, bulkier, heavily muscled through the chest and shoulders. Like Cain, he had worked the mines. Her stomach knotted to think how strong he must be.
“He’ll come for you,” Bart said. “You know that, right? And when he does, I’ll be waiting.”
“Cain’s no fool. You tried to kill him once already. He won’t just walk into your trap.”
She could see the hard grin spread over his face. “Maybe he’ll take his time, give me a chance to enjoy his woman. How would you like that, darlin’? Have a little fun before he gets here?”
A shudder ran through her. “You touch me and Cain will kill you.”
“He shot me out at the ranch, but his bullet only grazed me. I plan to see he’s dead before he gets another chance.”
Too bad Cain’s bullet hadn’t done more damage. “You hate him that much?”
“He cheated me! He’s rich as Croesus, and I got nothing!”
“He bought out your half of the partnership at a more than fair price and kept working the claims until one of them paid off. You didn’t stick, and he did.”
“I was drinking too much at the time, doing a little dope. Cain took advantage.”
“If you had kept working as hard as he did, you would be rich, too. Instead you were a worthless drunk who wasn’t willing to do your share!”
