Her heart pounded more rapidly, and her mouth went dry. It had been yearssince anyone sexually touched her, andnoone had ever made her body come alive like Jack had with a simple kiss.
Bad idea, Charlie. Keep it together and keep your pants on.
That was easier said than done as she could feel the heat emanating from him as she edged further away and dipped into her shoulder bag to pull out the small flashlight she kept there. She turned it on and directed it at Jack; she hoped illuminating him would take away some of his enticement. It didn’t work.
The light emphasized the amber and green of his hazel eyes. He was rather handsome…
Charlie started to step away, but his fingers enclosed on her wrist and he pulled her closer. She restrained herself from leaning closer to nuzzle his neck and kiss him. What was it about this guy?
Yeah, he was good looking, but she’d seen better looking men over the years. Mal was handsome too, but she’d never felt any attraction to the vampire who saved her life. She tried to step away from Jack, but he pulled her back toward him.
“There are shelves behind you,” he said when her lips clamped together and displeasure exuded from her.
“Oh… ah, yeah,” she muttered, kicking herself in the ass for forgetting about the shelves lining the side wall.
Though she’d been annoyed with him, Jack couldn’t stop his fingers from running over her wrist. Her lavender scent intensified on the air, and he knew it meant she was becoming aroused again. His gaze fell to her breasts covered by the baggy, black shirt she wore, a shirt he now recognized as having belonged to a security guard, as well as her black boots.
When she tugged on her wrist, he released it.
Charlie turned away from him and walked across the room to the rickety, wooden shelf set against the back wall. She rested her hand over a rock to the right of it; it looked no different than any of the numerous others lining the walls. Except with this rock, when she pressed down, a click sounded and the shelf creaked open an inch. Charlie pulled it further open to reveal the tunnel beyond.
Jack walked over to examine the opening, which was only about three feet wide and five and a half feet high. “Mal created this?”
“Yes,” Charlie said. “He found the root cellar during his hunt and hid in here while he worked to dig his way to freedom. Of course, the shelf and hidden hinge came later, and he hadn’t known he was on an island at the time. He believed, if he stayed underground long enough, he would avoid them and get away.”
“Of course,” Jack murmured. “How long has he been on this island?”
“Fifteen years.”
“Shit,” Jack hissed through his teeth. Running a hand through his hair, he tugged at the ends of it while he processed her words. No way would he remain trapped here for fifteen years; he’d set fire to this island before he ever allowedthatto happen.
“Yeah,” Charlie muttered as she stared at the tunnel leading into the earth. Living underground had kept her alive these past three years, but she hated it. “Come on.”
She stepped into the tunnel and waited for Jack to join her before pulling the shelf closed. She walked fifteen feet into the tunnel and stopped when she encountered the string running across the ground. There were a series of ten of them over the next one hundred feet in case someone missed the first ones.
Unless someone knew they were there, they would never see them, even if they were shining a light directly at them. Mal was a genius when it came to this stuff. He’d have been dead years ago if he wasn’t.
“In the unlikely event someone finds the root cellar and discovers how to open the secret entrance, Mal set up an alarm system,” she said as she grasped the string and gave it one sharp tug, paused a second, gave it three more tugs, paused two seconds, and gave it one final tug. Now they would know she was coming, what tunnel she was in as each tunnel had its own distinctive bell, and they wouldn’t fear she was the enemy. “All the tunnels have similar setups.”
“Pretty elaborate,” Jack commented.
“It has to be,” Charlie replied. “There are too many trying to kill us, and we haven’t survived by being careless. If you walk where I do, you’ll avoid the traps and should be fine.”
“Shouldbe?”
Charlie grinned at him. “Yes. Just don’t get careless.”
She didn’t have to tell him twice. Anyone who could build a small town below the earth was not someone he was going to underestimate.
Jack’s shoulders nearly brushed the sides of the tunnel as they walked through it. Mal had spent fifteen years below the earth;fifteenyears of digging tunnels and setting traps and alarms. Jack could only imagine what a vampire could accomplish in that time, especially as he took in more survivors, but the idea of being the vampire who did it, made him shudder.
How was Mal still sane?Washe still sane? Charlie had spent more time beneath ground than Jack could have tolerated, but how had Mal not flown over the cuckoo’s nest by now?
Gazing at the walls around him, Jack had his answer. This project, and saving others, had kept Mal from going crazy. Or at least Jack assumed Mal wasn’t Ted Bundy level insane yet.
Jack would have lost his freaking mind down here. Would he be spending the next fifteen years of his life down here too?
No, he’d rather die trying to fight his way off this island than live down here for more than a month. He would find Mike and Doug, and they would come up with a plan to destroy every motherfucker involved in their capture before fleeing this place. Just because the vampires and humans down here hadn’t come up with an escape plan yet, didn’t mean there wasn’t one.
