From the Shadows (Buckhorn, Montana #2) - B.J. Daniels Page 0,105

entry more like a chute, the end of which lay in total darkness. In any other situation, there was no way he would have dropped to the edge of the trapdoor, held his breath and shoved off with no idea what was at the bottom.

But he knew in his heart that Casey was down there. He had the two Scrabble board pieces in his pocket. He grabbed the closest thing to a weapon he could see, a steel stake, slid on the hardpacked earth over the few narrow steps and dropped at a rate of speed that should have terrified him. At first he’d tried digging his heels in to keep from falling too quickly, but it hadn’t worked. The slope was steep, and it only took a moment to realize that he was out of control. Behind him, he heard the trapdoor slam shut as if he’d triggered the closing.

He barely had time to swear before he hit bottom and came to an abrupt stop. He felt a little dazed as he pushed to his feet in a space that was no more than four feet wide and about six feet high. At six-three, he had to lean over to move.

Glancing back up the chute, all he could see was black. He looked in the only other direction and saw cave-like darkness around him. But in the distance he could make out a light. With the metal stake he’d picked up, he moved toward the light. He hadn’t gone far when he heard a male voice.

He slowed as he approached. Then his heart lifted as he heard Casey’s voice. But it quickly fell again. Someone had her down here. She was still alive, but for how long?

* * *

CASEY THOUGHT OF Finn and everyone else still in the hotel. “Emery, don’t do this, please,” she said as he replaced the notebook and picked up the device again. He looked like a broken man standing there hunched over in this secret room of his as he pulled out a battery.

She tried to imagine where they were. Under the hotel? And if she did have a chance to run, which way would she go? Maybe if she could warn everyone in time... All she could see was darkness on each side of this slightly larger space.

“Where are we?” she asked him.

“Somewhere safe.”

Down here, there was no way of knowing which way to run toward the hotel. “Emery, you need to let me go.”

He shook his head. “I can’t.” He sounded miserable as he looked down at the device. “Once I connect this to the battery... It’s too late.” His gaze rose to hers. “I don’t have a choice now.”

Casey shifted on the chair. She felt the tape give. But what now? Unless she could locate something she could use for a weapon and get her hands on it fast enough... But even if she got away, she still didn’t know which way to run. What if she managed to get away, only to run into a dead end?

She heard the sound of a boot heel scuff the hardpacked ground the same time Emery did. Someone was coming. She saw it in Emery’s body language; she felt it heart-deep. Finn.

Emery wrapped the loose wires around the battery and pushed the first button.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

LEROY HEARD THE first explosion and turned to look back at the hotel. He’d gotten as far as the middle of the parking lot. Now he stared in awe and horror as small explosions seemed to move along the lower outside of the hotel like dominoes that had been knocked over. He prayed that Casey Crenshaw wasn’t inside.

One after another, the explosions began to go off around the building all within a second. Puffs of smoke rose as the building collapsed in on itself as if melting. Smoke and debris rose in the air as the ground shook beneath his feet.

He couldn’t move. He watched as the hotel disappeared. Smoke and flying debris rose in the air over it, obliterating the town in the distance.

He realized he’d been holding his breath and now let it out in a gasp.

“Did you see that?” Hepner said, suddenly next to him. There was shock in his voice. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Leroy had, from videos his uncle had given him. But he’d never seen it standing only yards away. He had a new respect for his uncle. His father was wrong about his brother. Pete just loved to destroy things in the