A Maverick's Heart (15 page)

He dashed off.

“I didn’t hear him say yay or nay,” Becky said, taking off her jacket to trade it for an apron.

“He’s consumed with that stupid batting machine Matt Barnes bought Kemper. Seth said they cost more than a horse,” Lila grumbled, whirling the order carousel to read the new slips her mother had clipped on.

“I’ll go relieve Doreen. Maybe things will slow down by one so you can take a break, Lila.”

“Dream on. More people come to the rodeo every year. But I can’t complain. They bring tourism dollars to us.”

The crowd thinned shortly before one. Doreen bustled into the kitchen. “Lila, I just took a phone call from Mrs. Landis. She said it’s starting to thunder, so her husband canceled ball practice.”

Lila looked up from scraping the grill. “The kids will be disappointed. Rory’s been at Kemper’s for over two hours. If you and Becky can handle things for a while, I’ll go get him. I don’t want him riding his bike in this weather.”

“That’s wise,” Doreen said, watching Lila strip off her apron.

Stuffing her hairnet in her jeans’ pocket, she paused at the door. “If Seth phones or comes in, give him Mrs. Landis’s message.”

“Don’t you suppose someone notified him?”

“He had an online quiz at ten thirty, and after that a Skype appointment with his college advisor. I’m not sure how long that’d take. I figure his phone’s on vibrate, but he might not hear it if he got too involved.”

“Okay. But you aren’t going to be gone very long.”

Lila left the café, seeing it had begun to spit rain. She saw lightning in the distance. As she drove the familiar route to the Barneses’ house, she mulled over what she had to do to get her mother to accept that Seth meant a lot to her.

Rain pelted harder. Lila hadn’t worn a jacket and her uniform got splotched with raindrops on her way to the Barneses’ front door.

Kemper opened it when she rang the bell. He gaped at her for a long moment. “Mrs. Jenkins. What are you doing here?”

“I came to get Rory. I guess you know they’ve canceled practice.”

“Yeah. But he left before Coach called.”

“Left?” Lila rubbed her upper arms. Hadn’t she driven the route he would’ve taken on his bike?

“Uh-huh. He went to go get the sapphires. From the mine,” Kemper said, acting as if Lila ought to know.

Her heart began to pound. “Mi-mine?” she stuttered. “Kemper, I don’t understand. He wouldn’t ride his bike all the way out to the mine, alone, and when it was about to storm.”

“I dunno. That’s what he said. He said he got a flashlight and ropes from Seth.”

Lila flew off the porch. She plunged down the slick sidewalk to her Jeep. Hands shaking, she took out her phone and called Seth.

The phone rang and rang on his end, but he didn’t pick up. Twice she almost dropped her cell because she was trembling so hard. Finally she threw it on the passenger seat. She could drive to the mine, but it was closer to go to the ranch. Was this some scheme Rory and Seth had cooked up? After all of his pretty promises and all she thought they’d come to mean to each other, why would Seth go back on his word?

After two attempts she started the Jeep.
What had Seth promised?
Digging back through muddled memories, she recalled him saying it took a permit to hunt sapphires. Conceivably he could be turned down to teach even after obtaining provisional certification. Even if he had elected to go after sapphires to sell, why, why, why would he involve Rory?

Lila knew she shouldn’t drive and use her phone, but she spared a moment to call the café. “Becky? It’s Lila. No, don’t get Mom. Give her a message. Tell her I hope you two can handle customers for a while. Rory left Kemper’s. He’s not at the café by chance, is he?” She prayed the answer was yes and her churning stomach was all for naught.

“No, he isn’t here. You sound upset, Lila. Is everything all right?”

“I’ll let you know. I’m going home to see if Seth picked him up at Kemper’s and he’s wrong about saying Rory rode off on his own. Listen, Becky. I can’t talk and drive. I’ll check back later.”

She took the corner off the highway to her lane on two wheels. The jolt reminded her of the time she’d put the Jeep in the ditch. The first time Seth had come to her rescue. The first time she’d started falling for his helpful ways.

Slowing, she strained to see through rain that suddenly hammered her windshield, hoping against hope to see Rory’s bike. She did see Seth’s new pickup. What did that mean? And there he was leading a horse into the barn.

Braking hard, she unbuckled and threw herself out. “Seth, Seth,” she yelled.

He turned, left Merlin in the door to the barn and met Lila at the fence. “What is it, babe? Why are you home at this hour? Did something happen to your mom?” He dug out his phone. “Dang, I missed several calls. I had it on mute instead of vibrate.”

“Seth, stop talking and listen to me.” Her voice rose and fell frantically. “Did you give Rory a flashlight and ropes so he could go to the mine to look for sapphires? Of course you didn’t,” she muttered, registering his shocked expression. “I’m a nervous wreck. Kemper said Rory left his house early to ride his bike to the mine. He said Rory got a flashlight and ropes from you.”

“He didn’t. This makes no sense. But if he went to the mine, we need to go there fast. Wait, I stored some equipment in the barn. Come to think of it, Rory was there this morning with his ball bag.”

“Get what you need. I know a shortcut. I’ll drive.”

* * *

S
ETH
DIDN
’
T
ADMIT
to having ridden out there once himself. If it upset Lila more, she might not be able to drive.

He dashed into the barn, put Merlin in his stall and threw the tool chest open. He removed a headlamp, oxygen tank and face mask. A big flashlight and ropes were gone. Wishing he was wearing sneakers instead of his new, slick-soled cowboy boots, he grabbed a horse lunge line from a wall peg and went out to toss everything in the backseat of the Cherokee. “Are you sure you’re okay to drive, babe? Your hands aren’t real steady.”

“I have to be fine. What is all that gear you put in the back? Was that an oxygen tank?”

“Sometimes air in abandoned mines gets stale.” He didn’t say sometimes a mine produced toxic fumes.

“What possessed him?”

Seth huffed out a breath. “Yesterday Myra came to the game and brought my mail. I set them up as a forwarding address before I got here. One letter was a permit to explore the mine. She asked questions. I told her I had no intention of using it. Maybe Rory overheard us. I can’t remember if he sat in front of us. Honestly his getting it into his head to go there is nothing I’d have imagined.”

“I’m furious at you. Oh, I may throw up. My dad died in a mine. Kevin died in this mine. Seth...” Her fingers tightened and turned white around the steering wheel.

“Pull over. I’ll drive.”

She shook her head. “It’s better that I have a task.” She turned off the highway onto muddy tracks. “This is a fire road. It cuts driving time in half.”

Seth cracked his window open. The rain—or Lila’s anger—had steamed up the interior. He recognized the mine entrance the minute she slammed on the brakes. “Look,” she said, her voice cracking. “There’s his bike. I prayed we’d beat him here.”

She started to open her door, but Seth caught her arm. “I want you to stay in the Jeep.” Reaching back, he nabbed the equipment and quickly donned the hard hat with the headlamp. In seconds he’d strapped on the oxygen tank, but left the face mask hanging free.

“Waiting will drive me crazy,” she said. “You need oxygen? Is the mine air bad? I should go with you.”

“No. The air may be fine, Lila.” Seth bracketed her chin in one hand. “Stay. Don’t make me worry about you and Rory.” He ran a finger over her lips. The bulky headlamp kept him from kissing her.

Coiling the long rope, he slung it over a shoulder and lurched out into the rain.

Inside the dark opening Seth took a minute to slow his heart rate and get his bearings. Speed mattered, but so did taking care. His headlamp illuminated the cavern. If he called Rory now he’d only get echoes. That day at the library he had studied a drawing the last gem hunter in here had sketched. But that library trip was weeks ago and fear rendered his memory fuzzy.

Venturing farther in, he recalled how the mine split. Snapping the headlamp on high beam, he saw both tunnels had rusty trolley tracks. Ore cars would have brought metal to this junction, where the tracks converged and ore went out to be dumped into trucks.

The right-hand tunnel had been the site of the cave-in. It had partially closed the left one, too, but much deeper down.

Reaching the juncture, Seth hollered for Rory. The boy’s name rebounded, mocking him until the sound petered out. For the first time in all of his underground excursions, his belly cramped as he pictured Lila’s anguish if he failed to find her son. Or worse, if he found him broken at the bottom of a shaft. Or...no, Seth erased the worst thought.

He chose the center shaft. A kid who was right-handed might automatically turn right. But if he held a flashlight in front of him, its arc wouldn’t penetrate that far. Choice made, Seth descended rapidly, sticking to the rails, watching for rickety supports or broken beams. Every few feet he called out to Rory.

Although he worried the kid may have succumbed to the kind of bad air typically found deeper in a mine, Seth held off donning his oxygen mask so he could yell. His headlamp didn’t reach far into the pitch blackness. Thinking he should see Rory’s light, he considered turning back to check the other tunnel. As he hesitated, he imagined he heard a faint call. He rushed forward, but all at once the rails bent sharply around a corner. Seth slipped on a round rock and almost fell into a side shaft of the type often used to follow a productive vein. He caught himself and even as he teetered on the edge of a hole, he heard soft cries from below.

He tore off the cumbersome oxygen tank and lay flat, calling again.

“Daddy? Daddy!” The plaintive response drifted aloft, sending chills up Seth’s spine. And making him fervently wish he was Rory’s dad.

“It’s Seth, Rory. Are you hurt?”

“Yes.” Sniffles and then a thin “My left arm hurts bad. Help me. I can’t get out.”

Further frustrated because his headlamp outlined two adjacent shafts that hadn’t been identified in the mine schematics, Seth cupped hands around his mouth and yelled down one. A distinct “Seth, help me!” rose from the other. That crudely dug shaft was likely the work of gem hunters. Maybe it wouldn’t go down as far.

“Hold on, slugger. I’m coming to get you. It may take me a minute.”

“Seth? Seth, where are you? Have you found Rory?” Lila’s voice sounded high-pitched and distraught, drifting toward him from the main cavern.

Seth spun. His stomach balled tighter as his light bounced off rock walls shored up with wood. “Lila? I found him,” he yelled. “Please, sweetheart, don’t come any farther. I’ll get him and come back out to you. Stay in the main grotto.”

“I ca-can’t leave. My cell phone light gave out. Seth, I’m afraid. It’s dark. Is Rory okay?”

Her voice sounded hollow as it echoed inside the chamber.

“He’s talking,” Seth shouted. “I’m going silent while I climb down to him. Stay where you are.”

As quickly as unsteady hands allowed, he fashioned knots in the lunge line, thanking his lucky stars that it was long and tightly woven. He chose the most solid-looking beam and double looped the line around it, letting it dangle into the shaft. All the while Rory’s cries unnerved him.

He tested the line and it held his weight. Hoping his nightly runs had kept him from going soft, Seth began a hand-over-hand descent. The slick leather of his boots hampered him. He should have removed them.

His headlamp revealed the shaft widening, not growing smaller. The hole went deeper than his light would penetrate. When with a bump he reached Rory he began to sweat. The boy perched on a broken four-by-four scaffold. His eyes were big, his face dirty. The large flashlight hanging from a cord around his neck put out feeble light. He clutched something in his right hand. Seth couldn’t see what. His left arm looked swollen and oddly angled. Seth judged it broken, but he had nothing with which to bind it, supposing he managed to balance on the narrower crossbeam to effect this rescue at all.

His first try, his foot slipped, knocking a rock off. It fell a long time before he heard it hit bottom. The boots had to go. It took contortions, but he scraped them off and sent them into the abyss all while talking a stream of nonsense to the scared kid.

“Did you climb down here?”

“I fell. I saw this sparkly white rock. Maybe it’s diamonds.” Rory sniffled loudly.

“Maybe. Listen, Rory, it won’t be easy for me to get us to the top. We each have on a belt. I’m going to get rid of your flashlight and buckle us together. Can you do exactly as I say even if it hurts?”

“Y-ye-yes,” he stuttered. “I cried when I fell. My da-daddy said to not move until someone came, no matter if I got cold.” He snuffled louder.

“That’s good,” Seth said, dropping the heavy flashlight. “Wait...your daddy?”

“Uh-huh, I remember...he was the only one who called me his little buddy. I heard him say, ‘Little buddy, don’t move. Someone will come.’ And you did.”

That sent shivers up Seth’s spine. He was barely able to buckle them together and hug Rory awkwardly to his chest, knowing the sharp sob meant he’d caused him pain. Exerting every ounce of strength, relying on faith and all he’d learned roping up and down Afghanistan’s cliffs in search of lapis, Seth began inching upward knot by knot.

Time seemed endless. Once both his stockinged feet slipped off a knot. Rory screamed and Seth’s heart slammed erratically. He dared not pause long. Hauling in a deep breath, he kept climbing and at long last he felt the cooler air in the upper mine sweep sweat off his brow. But he couldn’t let down his hand-over-hand ascent until he felt Rory’s backside and his own knees crest the rim of the hole.

He let go of the line and, although his hands burned, he unbuckled their belts. Even if he’d like nothing more than to curl into a fetal position the way Rory had, Seth remained aware of Lila somewhere out there in a black cave. Lila, who had reason to fear and hate mines in the worst way.