Orlando trembled, still growling.
“I already called it in. They know I’m here,” he said.
“We’ll just dump your body,” Sloan said, smiling now. “They won’t find you until spring.”
Jericho glanced at Mars, who kept eyeing Orlando.
“Listen—”
“Inside the mine,” Sloan said, jerking his gun toward the entrance.
“Heel.” Jericho stepped past Sloan, his hand still on the harness—
And it hit him.
They’d kill him, kill his dog, shut the door and...
They’d never be found.
He reached into the pack, even as he stalked into the mine. The old support timbers looked almost rotted. Light penetrated maybe twenty feet in before darkness swallowed everything.
He took off running.
Orlando stayed with him, barking, and a shot bit at the rock. But he’d already slammed himself against the wall, in the darkness, pulled the charge and lit it.
Then he threw it toward the entrance with everything he had. Three-plus pounds of explosive, which could generate enough flying gravel and debris to, well ... He grabbed his dog and pulled him close.
The bomb exploded.
Orlando flinched but didn’t move. Dust splattered into the mine, a cloud that obscured the opening.
But maybe—Jericho bounced to his feet, running hard for the entrance, Orlando ahead of him.
And then he heard the thunder.No!
He skidded to a stop. “Orlando, come!”
But the dog had disappeared into the cloud of silt.
The thunder turned to a roar and the debris bounced into the mouth of the mine. Jericho dove toward the wall, then turned and took off back down the tunnel, into the darkness.
Behind him, the mountain exploded. The mine shook the timbers overhead, and the shadows turned to soot.
He tripped, flew into the jagged yawn of rock, landed, tasted blood.
And lay there as the mountain collapsed and sealed him inside his tomb.
15
So much for sleep.Harley stared in her bathroom mirror. She looked like she’d been on a stakeout for a week. Instead, she’d spent the night staring at the dark window at the old Bowie house—Jericho’s former bedroom—replaying the terrible things she’d said to him. And he’d said to her.
“I can’t watch this. I can’t dothis.”
“You’re not supposed to protect me!”
The memory of his face when she’d flung those words at him made her stomach clench. The way the emotion had drained from his eyes, leaving them winter cold.
“You’reright. You don’t need me.”
