From the Shadows (Buckhorn, Montana #2) - B.J. Daniels Page 0,106
coolest of ways.
“You don’t think she’s inside?” Hepner said.
“I hope not.” Either way, there was nothing they could do now. He just hoped Finn hadn’t gone back in for her and that the two were inside there. He pulled out his phone to call the bomb squad, but as he heard the sound of a helicopter approaching, he pocketed it again.
He could see people in town rushing in their direction. In the silence that followed the last explosion, the cloud began to settle over the smoldering remains of the Crenshaw Hotel. “Let’s keep those people back,” Leroy ordered, and Hepner jumped to it.
As he stood, still transfixed, he realized that he’d gone from two murders to maybe a dozen. But never in his life had he expected to find dozens of bombs that could have gone off with all of them inside.
Leroy glanced toward the woods and the last place he’d seen Finnegan James. He hoped to see him coming out of the trees with Casey Crenshaw at his side. Unfortunately, there was nothing but the breeze swaying the pine boughs and the smell of destruction in the air.
At least the others were safe.
Then he looked back at the hotel. One corner hadn’t come all the way down. He felt a start and knew why. One or more of the bombs hadn’t detonated.
* * *
FINN FELT THE ground shift beneath his feet. One of the boards holding up the ceiling dropped down, grazing his shoulder painfully. He shoved it aside and pushed through the din, even more frantic to get to Casey. He’d been right. The booby trap had been a bomb. Or a series of bombs, he thought as the ground continued to shake.
He didn’t realize that he was calling her name until he heard it echoing around him. “Casey!” He had to get to her. He couldn’t lose her. Not after he’d just found her. All these months reading about her and her grandmother. He’d been half in love with her even before she’d appeared like a ghost outside his shower.
It couldn’t end like this, and yet he felt as if everything was coming to a point of no return. All these months of looking for a killer, and now he feared the killer had Casey, and if he didn’t reach her...
The earth seemed to shudder even harder. He feared the tunnel would cave in on him. On Casey. More dirt fell from overhead. He could barely see a step in front of him, but he kept pushing forward, determined to get to her. “Casey!”
The tunnel seemed to never end. Yet he feared at some point he would reach a wall of dirt where there’d been a cave-in. He told himself he’d dig through it with his bare hands if he had to. His heart pounded as he fought not to breathe in the dust still sifting down from overhead.
But he thought he could see the light growing brighter ahead.
Behind him, he heard the tunnel begin to cave in.
* * *
CASEY SCREAMED AND tried to push herself up from the chair. Her legs felt weak, from the drug, from sitting for so long in the same position. But she wasn’t able to stand anyway. The ground beneath her feet shook, knocking her back. Dirt fell like dark rain from the cracks between the boards over their heads.
There was a ringing in her ears. Over it, she thought she heard Finn calling her name. Her eyes burned from the dust in the air. Finn?
“Casey!” His voice was faint, but there was no doubt. It was Finn.
As the earth continued to shake, she thought for sure the tunnel would cave in, killing them both—and Finn. Because she’d heard him calling her name. She’d known he’d come, and now it was going to cost him his life.
The air had darkened. She could barely make out Emery’s hulking shape. He had fallen, apparently after one of the overhead boards had come down and hit him.
Casey tasted grit in her mouth and tried not to breathe too deeply as she pulled her shirt up to cover her mouth and pushed to her feet.
For a moment, she thought Emery had been knocked out and all she had to do was run—in the direction of Finn’s voice calling her name. Just run.
But as she started to take a step, the ground shaking again, Emery groaned and sat up, shielding his head from the debris plummeting down on him.