If I Should Die_ A Novel of Suspense - Allison Brennan [13]
What if he’d died?
There were so many things she wanted to tell him, things she didn’t know how to say. The thought of Sean dying terrified her. She’d lost people in her life, people she cared about. Her cousin. Her ex-boyfriend. Her brother Patrick had been in a coma for nearly two years and though she prayed daily, she never thought he’d wake up. That he’d survived and was now back to his old self was a miracle.
With all her hard-fought strength, her ability to close off her emotions, she found her walls crumbling as she pictured Sean sprawled on the floor of the mine shaft, dead.
To Sean’s credit, he didn’t try to get her to talk about it. Maybe he understood her better than she did—he seemed to get her even when she was confused.
“Are you ready?” she asked.
He looked down into her face. Her breath caught at the emotion twisting his face. “I love you, Lucy.”
Say “I love you.” Tell him.
She wanted to, but not here. Not now. Her feelings were all jumbled, fear and relief and an aching rawness.
She kissed him instead. “How’s your shoulder?”
“Sore, but functioning. I’m more than ready to get out of here.”
Lucy helped Sean put on the harness while he remained sitting, since he couldn’t put much weight on his bandaged leg. Then she helped him stand. He leaned heavily on her, showing Lucy that he was in more pain than he wanted to admit. “You’re going to have a lot of bruises,” she said.
“I’ll expect you to kiss every one of them. You might have to bathe me, too.”
“The sacrifices I’m going to have to make.” She wondered if she could get a doctor to come out to the lodge.
The scent of decay hit her again. This time, Sean hesitated, too, and looked down the tunnel.
“I smelled it when I first came down,” Lucy said.
“No,” he said, knowing what she was thinking.
“I won’t go far. I promise. Just check it out. If I don’t see anything within a few feet, I’ll turn around.” She clipped on the hook to the harness belt. “I’m not reckless, Sean. It’s most likely an animal. But just in case—” She didn’t say it.
“And if you don’t check it out now, you’ll be back here tomorrow.”
“How do you know me so well?”
Sean kissed her lightly. “I know you better than you know yourself.”
A sudden unease crept up the back of her neck at the truth of Sean’s statement. She called up to Tim. “He’s ready!”
Tim said, “Okay, Sean—I’m starting the winch.”
After an initial jolt off the ground, Sean was lifted slowly to the surface. He used his good leg to keep himself from hitting the wall, his hands holding the rope.
Once he was out of the shaft, Lucy breathed easier. She called up to Tim, “Make sure Sean gets water and blankets. I’ll be ready in a few minutes.”
Lucy picked up a stick to mark her way—she wasn’t taking any chances of getting lost. She aimed her flashlight toward the tunnel that led from the ventilation shaft.
She knew very little about mines, but was aware that they could be unstable and extremely dangerous. Because there was no active mining, she suspected her greatest danger would be from unmarked openings or debris left over from the mining days.
Using the stick to scar the wall, which was mostly rock with some wood supports at the base, Lucy left a trail to follow back to the pit.
As soon as she stepped into the tunnel, the unique, putrid scent of decaying flesh increased. She proceeded slowly as the tunnel veered slightly to the right, shining her light on the ground to make sure it was solid before continuing forward. Glancing back once, she could barely see the light at the beginning of the tunnel and noted that she was on a gradual downslope as well as the curve. The roof seemed to be shrinking. Claustrophobia gripped her for a minute. Breathing deeply, she calmed herself.
But the silence continued to claw at her, more terrifying than the dark. A complete void of sound. No water, no creaking, not even the sound of scurrying rodents. Shouldn’t there be mice or something here? She didn’t know, but it was logical—not