Chapter
20

“Where do you suppose Seth’s horse went?” Julia thought of it as Rafe led the way toward the cavern, from the caldera entrance. “If someone, some ‘friend,’ took his horse, then that same ‘friend’ might take ours.”

Rafe turned to her, his brows drawn down into a straight line, a scowl on his face. “Is this really a good time for you to remind me that someone might still be hiding in there?”

Julia clamped her mouth shut before she lost her chance to explore. Instead she focused on the madman who would soon be her brother. “So, do you know how long you’ve been living in the cave, Seth?”

Shaking his head, Seth looked from the cave to her. “The war’s been over for a year?”

Nodding, Julia said, “They signed the peace treaty in April of 1865. It’s now June of 1866. It’s been more than a year. I heard about Andersonville. People called the men released from there walking skeletons.”

Seth seemed to look through the cave entrance and into the past. “I wasn’t there that long. I . . . I was taken prisoner. I was with Sherman.”

Rafe came up beside Seth, frowning. “Sherman burned Atlanta, didn’t he?”

“I was . . . I was a captain by the end. I was in Atlanta with Sherman. I helped with the burning. The fire everywhere. Fire.” Seth shook his head as if to jar his thoughts free of fire. “After Atlanta I was . . . I always did a lot of scouting. I liked it. It reminded me of running around the ranch when we were kids, hunting, playing hide and seek. I always had a knack for sneaking.”

Clapping Seth on the back, Rafe said, “That’s the pure truth, little brother.”

“But when I got to be an officer, they wouldn’t let me do that anymore. But our scout died and Sherman needed me, so he let me go back to it. I’d go behind enemy lines. Find their camps. Count troops.” Seth shrugged. “I got caught. Shot, maybe. They threw me into Andersonville.”

Rafe’s hand tightened on Seth as if to help bear the weight of ugly memories.

“When I got out, I was sick awhile. I thought I headed home as soon as I got out of the hospital. So why’d it take me a year?” Seth frowned. “I met my friend along the way.”

Rafe had been watching Seth intently. When he mentioned his friend, Rafe’s eyes shifted to Julia. She lifted one shoulder. Then Rafe turned to the cave.

“Is your friend in there?”

“I don’t know. We both had horses. Mine must’ve run off. Maybe he went after it. Maybe . . . maybe he got lost, too.” Seth rubbed the back of his neck. He managed to move his collar enough that Julia could see scars disappearing up into his scalp and down below his collar. “Can you help me find my way home, Rafe?”

“If you want to go home, I’ll take you right now.” Rafe gave Julia an apologetic look.

She prepared to argue with him, knowing she’d lose. They probably should put this off. Seth wasn’t up to it now. Maybe not ever.

“No, I wanta explore. I’ve always loved to explore in that cavern. It’s beautiful.” Seth’s eyes lit up. Wild and blue and, Julia was sorely afraid, just the littlest bit insane.

“You aren’t going to run off, are you?” Rafe hesitated.

“Nope, I’m not running off ever again. I want to stay with you so you can help me find my way home.”

“And you can show us all the prettiest things you’ve seen in the cave.” Julia hooked one of her arms through his. Rafe must have given him another bath, because Seth smelled just fine now. His skin was chalky white and peeling, like layers of old skin that would have to be scrubbed off over time. His clothes—she recognized a blue shirt Ethan had worn—hung on his gaunt frame. But he looked much better with a shaved face and shorter hair. “Have you got the rope, Rafe? We want to be really cautious in there. You’ll let us tie ourselves together, won’t you, Seth? We don’t want to get separated.”

“Sure, whatever you want.”

Julia saw a lot of the tension leave Rafe when Seth agreed. Tying himself to Seth would give Rafe a much bigger chance of keeping track of him.

“It’s not dangerous, though.”

Julia thought of Seth’s scars. “It can be dangerous, so let’s be real careful.”

“I’ve hunted around, and I know where the cave floor is thin. I know where it’s safe and where it’s not.”

“We can’t stay too long,” Rafe said. “Ethan looked a little overwhelmed with Audra and two babies.”

Scared to death was more like it. Julia didn’t say that out loud. No sense giving Rafe a bigger reason to hurry.

Rafe pulled out his matches and lit three lanterns so they each had their own. He made short work of fastening the rope to each of them. Seth at the lead. Julia noticed Rafe doubled up the rope as if Seth might cut the rope and escape—though to Julia’s knowledge, Seth had no knife. She sure hoped not. Seth and sharp objects didn’t seem like a real good combination.

“I’m giving us a few feet of rope, so if someone falls we’ll have a better chance of bracing ourselves and not be pulled down. Seth can lead.” Rafe talked as he tripled the knot. “I’ll go next.”

Julia suspected Rafe wanted to be a buffer between Seth and her.

“Then Julia can bring up the rear.” Rafe made quick work of tying them together. Then he slipped his arm around her waist and kept her beside him.

Seth headed into the cave with no hesitation, so eager to get in he could barely hold back from running. Julia was so eager to follow that she only noticed she’d left Rafe behind when the rope, tied around her stomach, jerked. She and Seth both turned back. Rafe rolled his eyes and caught up with them.

Instead of going into the downslope tunnel, Seth went straight and they found the little room where a bedroll still lay beside the cold ashes of a campfire.

“Did you sleep here?” Rafe didn’t see any other exit from this room, so he wasn’t sure why Seth had brought them here.

“Yep. But this is my friend’s bedroll. He seemed to hate the light after he’d been in here awhile. He was kinda crazy.”

Rafe and Julia exchanged a glance.

Seth bent over and picked up a little packet of some kind off the floor. “I got this after Andersonville. I wondered where it went.”

“What is it?” Rafe asked.

Seth showed them a little stack of papers folded thick and wrapped in a patch of leather. “It’s a bunch of pages out of a Bible. I like having it close.” He stuck it in a pocket of his shirt.

“I thought we’d go down that lower tunnel, Seth.” Julia was chewing on her upper lip, trying to control her impatience. “I don’t see a way to go on into the cavern from here.”

“I remembered sleeping in here and wanted to see it.” Seth led back the way they’d come and headed down the lower tunnel. They were quiet, Seth lighting torches along the way, until they got to the hole he had skirted alongside of when they’d found him.

“Seth, wait!” Rafe ordered.

Turning back, his eyes glinting in the lantern light, Seth said, “Why? It’s a long walk to the best caves.”

“I just want us to be really careful on that ledge.” Rafe went ahead of Seth and dropped to his knees. He held out the lantern. “I want to make sure this part of the floor isn’t thin.”

“It’s fine, Rafe. I’ve walked across it plenty of times.”

Rafe didn’t answer as he leaned down and tried to see the underside of the ledge. Chafing at the delay, Julia crossed her arms and tapped her foot, her mouth clamped shut so she wouldn’t start nagging the man to hurry.

“It looks fine. But, Seth, I want us to string out. I’ve left about six feet of rope between each of us. I want you to go out slowly until you reach the end of the rope.”

Julia thought about the end of her rope and how close she was to reaching it. Her toe tapped faster.

“Then I’ll start across and . . . Julia will you stop that?” Rafe snapped as he rose to glare at her. His voice echoed over and over. It came back from beneath them and from the tunnel in both directions, as if ten men were yelling at her.

She froze. Her tapping toe included. Annoyed that she’d obeyed him but sorry she hadn’t been a bit more subtle about her impatience, she shrugged. “I’m sorry. I’m just eager to explore.”

Shaking his head, Rafe said, “Go, Seth.”

It was a ledge about a foot wide, narrower in some spots, wider in others. On her right was a solid wall of stone. On her left, empty space that fell to jagged rocks. There was a drop of at least twenty feet where Seth had plunged through the floor and Ethan had nearly fallen, where a dropped lantern had burned Seth terribly. No wonder Ethan and Rafe hated this place. The wonder was that Seth didn’t.

Julia was careful. She’d never noticed this ledge in her earlier explorations. The hole had seemed like a dead end, and she’d turned back. The ledge was wide enough; it didn’t seem dangerous so long as it didn’t break under her feet. Seth was nearly halfway across when Rafe set out. Julia waited, obeying him. Seth got across and turned back. Rafe reached the midway point, and Julia set out. They crossed the ledge without trouble.

“Now, I want to show you something really beautiful.” Seth gave her that untamed smile. Julia nodded and they set out, single file but closer together. They came to a torch and Seth lit it.

“Seth, why did you put out our torches yesterday?” Rafe asked.

Julia had wondered about that, too. Rafe had lit them all as they’d walked in. Then, on the way out, they’d been extinguished.

“And is there a way around that hole?” The tunnel was wide enough that Julia came up to walk beside Rafe. She walked, running her fingers along the tunnel wall, enjoying the feel of rough stone gently scratching her hand. “There has to be for you to have put out torches, then gotten ahead of us, across the broken place in the floor.”

“This tunnel leads to a T just ahead.” Seth’s voice echoed in the confined space. He spoke more quietly, as if to stop the haunting voice that echoed every word. “To the left is that entrance where we used to come down, Rafe. To the right is a beautiful room.”

“I’ve seen it.” Julia knew the room exactly. “And I’ve seen side tunnels almost as beautiful, though not as big. But I haven’t begun to explore the ends of it.” The air was dank and cool, no matter how hot the day. Julia had never noticed the temperature change down here.

“See the markings?” Julia pointed at black lines on the tunnel on Rafe’s side, clearly visible if a person looked, yet very much part of the darkness if you weren’t aware of them.

“Yes.” Rafe touched one.

“I marked the tunnels so I wouldn’t get lost. I bring a piece of charcoal along and my arrows always point back to the entrance.” Julia pulled out a blackened chunk of wood she’d fished out of the fireplace.

“Then you’ve been down this way?” Rafe’s voice echoed. Seth looked back as he moved along.

“Yes. But I stopped when I came to the hole. I didn’t realize there was enough room to walk along the side of it. To think I was so close to that caldera.”

They reached the T, and Seth lit a torch located there and turned right. Julia’s heart sped up to think of the first magnificent room. She’d sat in there many times, soaking in the beauty. Towering, glistening stalactites and stalagmites, the constant drip of limestone-laced water that was building on each formation it had created.

They came to the room. Seth lit a torch, then another and another until the room was visible at all but its farthest reaches.

Julia listened to the dripping water.

“I’d forgotten how beautiful it was.” Rafe spoke reverently, almost prayerfully.

Light danced off the glistening wet rock formations.

“This isn’t the room I want to show you.” Seth sounded eager to be off.

Julia wanted to stay. She wanted to bask in the beauty of this place, but if she could show Rafe what she’d found, she knew he’d agree to let her explore.

“Can we go through that tunnel, Seth?” Julia pointed to one of several tunnels that opened off this big room.

“I like that one, but the stuff I really love is that way.” Seth pointed to a smaller opening.

Julia had seen it before, but she’d never gone in. She knew better than to dismiss a tunnel opening because of its size, but she hadn’t gotten to that one.

Curbing the urgent need to show Rafe her fish fossils and force him to admit they weren’t just some abandoned bone from a lunch pail, she decided that if Seth thought there were things worth seeing this way, then she’d follow.

“What formed all these?” Rafe ducked low to fit through the tight tunnel. “A volcano? Is that what you think?”

From close behind him, she marked the tunnel as she talked. “Many would say a volcano, but I’m not so sure.”

“What then?” Rafe’s voice echoed in the tunnel, and their footsteps sounded hollow and bounced back. For a second, Julia thought she heard more footsteps than just theirs. She wanted to tell Rafe and Seth to stop so she could listen, but she shook off the notion. She’d never let cave exploring spook her. She wouldn’t start now.

Then she thought of just how frightened she’d been the day she got stranded down here. Fear tightened her throat.

“God flooded the earth in Noah’s time.”

“I know. It rained for forty days and forty nights. How would that create these huge caves and tunnels?” Rafe straightened, and a few steps later, Julia stepped out into a cave about three times larger than her cabin, which wasn’t all that large.

“It didn’t just rain.”

Rafe stopped and turned to her, which jerked Seth to a stop.

“Let’s keep going.” Seth pulled on the rope.

“It didn’t?” Rafe knitted his brow.

Julia decided it was a good time to rest awhile. She drew an arrow on the wall right next to the cave tunnel they’d just come through. She didn’t know if there were multiple openings in this cave, but to be safe she marked it. “No, we think of the rain, but God sent fountains of water up from the ground, too.”

Rafe frowned. “I don’t remember that.”

“Genesis says on the day the Great Flood started, ‘were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of the heaven were opened.’ The windows of the heaven, that could be rain, although I wonder about that. A very strange rain, I’d think. The rain came for forty days and forty nights. But the part about the fountains of the great deep—I think of the way a volcano erupts out of the deep, and I wonder if water didn’t sort of erupt in the same way.”

“And formed these tunnels and caves?” Rafe looked at the cave they were in at the moment. The three lanterns did a good job of lighting it all the way to its edges.

“That would explain the fish, Rafe.”

“You have fish?” Seth came up beside them. “Because I’m hungry.”

Rafe’s eyes fell shut as if he was slightly pained.

Julia was surprised by her willingness to help, even if just for Rafe’s sake. She didn’t like the untamed look in Seth’s eyes, but with Rafe right here in case Seth showed signs of being dangerous, and the heavy rope in case Seth took it into his head to run, things seemed well under control. “It feels like it’s mealtime, doesn’t it? I don’t have fish, but I have sandwiches from last night’s venison and a can of peaches.”

“More peaches?” Seth reached for the bag Julia carried over her shoulder. She took a step back, then regretted the telltale movement.

Seth wiped his hands on his pants as if he was nervous. “I love peaches. My mom used to give me peaches.”

She jerked her head toward a level spot in the floor, against the cavern wall. “Let’s eat.”

“So you think water maybe came . . .” Rafe hesitated. “Uh . . . blasting up from deep in the earth somehow?”

Julia unwrapped sandwiches thick with venison and handed them to Seth and Rafe. “It would be one explanation for these tunnels. And if the rain came down and the water came up and the earth was covered, then it stands to reason that fish, normally found in rivers and oceans, usually the lowest ground around, would be up here. They simply swam here. Then, when the waters receded, they were stuck. How else do you explain the fish?”

“An Apache—”

“It’s not lunch, Rafe. Who would come all the way down here to eat lunch?”

Rafe held up his sandwich and smirked at her.

“They’ve found fossils in an Arizona Territory desert that are a type of shark.”

“What’s a shark?” Seth spoke around a mouthful of food.

“It’s a large ocean fish. It only lives in salt water. And I think this fish I’ve found might be one, too. I’ve seen drawings of sharks, and the teeth look similar. What Apache rode his horse to the ocean, rounded himself up a shark and brought it across the mountains, then climbed down here to eat it?”

Rafe swallowed, so Julia knew she was in for more of his ridiculous opinions.

“Maybe they were using the bones. They could’ve carried them a long way if they kept them as tools. Indians use all parts of what they catch. With the buffalo they—”

“But they don’t leave it intact! This skeleton I saw wasn’t cut up. No, there had to be salt water, ocean water, up here.”

Rafe shook his head and chewed.

“I’ve seen bones in these walls.” Seth relaxed, stretching out, crossing his legs. He was really at home down here.

“Really?” Julia was starting to like Seth. “Where?”

“There are some in the room I’m taking you to. Up high. Strange to see them up there. My friend looked at them for a long time, and we talked about how they got up there.”

A chill raced up and down her backbone. “About this friend, Seth. Tell me about him. Did he come here with you or did you find him here?”

Seth eased back as if he was preparing to spin a yarn.

Rafe moved in the exact opposite manner of Seth. He tensed up. Sat straight. His jaw chomped up and down as if he were at war with his food. Julia braced herself to be told to not bother Seth, but instead Rafe kept quiet.

“He came with me.” Seth quit chewing and rubbed a palm against his pant leg.

“From Andersonville?” Julia tried to eat and question Seth at the same time since he seemed willing to talk at least somewhat rationally for once.

“No . . .” Seth’s brow furrowed like it was painful to think. “We met in town.”

“In Rawhide?” Rafe asked.

Julia realized that Rafe knew as little about Seth as she and was no doubt eight thousand times as curious.

“Yep. I rode in on my horse.” Seth sat up straight. “What happened to my horse, huh?”

“We’ll find him,” Rafe soothed. “We haven’t had much time to look yet. So, what’s your friend’s name?”

Seth looked around the cave as if he hoped someone had written the name on the wall. “He was tracking someone. Tracker. I told him I was from out this way and we rode out together. But he didn’t go home. I told him I wanted to go home, but he wanted to go a different way. Follow some trail. Then I recognized this mountain and knew there was an entrance to the cave, and I showed it to him.”

“When was that?” With a shiver, Julia wondered how long Seth had been hanging around. Maybe he’d been watching her explore for days.

Seth ate the last of his sandwich and seemed to be searching around inside his muddled head for an answer. When he swallowed, he said, “I don’t know. Once we were down here. There’s no . . . no day or night. Time doesn’t mean much. And every time I talked about going home, I ended up being so tired I just wanted to rest. This is a good place to rest.” He eased back again, and his eyes drifted shut.

“Just like you were always good in the dark. You knew this cave better than any of us, Seth. And even after your accident, you were never scared.”

“I came down because . . . well . . . because it was peaceful. The cavern eased all the wild thoughts in my head. I felt whole down here. I felt like . . . like . . .” Seth’s eyes flickered open, and he absently rubbed his hands up and down on his legs, drying his palms, or maybe it was just a nervous habit.

“Whole? What does that mean?” Rafe sounded bewildered. “You made Ethan crazy worrying about you. I had to come after you and I didn’t want to. But I was so afraid you’d fall and need help.”

Seth closed his eyes and was silent for so long, Julia wondered if he would answer. She felt sorry for the poor man. She did. And she knew Rafe loved his brother.

Seth finally whispered, “I left my soul behind when I fell. I needed to find it.”

Goose bumps rose on Julia’s arms.

Seth crossed his arms and eased back until he was nearly lying down. Julia watched, waiting for Seth to speak again or Rafe to say something.

Suddenly a slow, steady noise rose from Seth. It took Julia a minute to figure out what it was.

Snoring.

She looked away, no idea what to make of Rafe’s brother. Wounded, scared, lost, dangerous. Her gaze met Rafe’s.

“He’s asleep.” Rafe shook his head. Then he looked at Julia, frowning, and slid closer to her, the rope only giving him a few feet of distance from Seth. “I don’t know what to do for him.”

“Neither do I.”

“I think . . .” Rafe said, swallowing hard. “I have to stay with him, Jules.”

“And I think he’s not safe to have around Audra and the children.”

“We’re not . . .” Rafe closed his eyes, and Julia wished it didn’t have to be said. More than that, she wished she didn’t have to say it, but Rafe didn’t seem capable of it.

So it had to come from her. “We’re not going to be able to be together. At least not until you’ve seen to Seth and made sure he’s okay. You have to help him because that’s the man you are. You can’t fail your brother.”

“Not again. I can’t fail him again.”

“And I can’t let my family live in a house with him if he’s dangerous.”

With a sudden move, Rafe grabbed her arm and dragged her to meet his lips. His grip was gentle iron, but she wasn’t trying to escape. Instead, she leaned closer and held on tight. He lifted her and sat her on his lap. The kiss deepened, and she knew it wasn’t the kiss of a promise and a future. It was good-bye. Long moments later, he said, “I don’t want to give you up. How can I give you up?”

“But how can we be together?”

They both turned to look at Seth.

“Just give me time. We’ll figure something out. I’ll take Seth home and—”

“And,” Julia cut him off, “I want to stay and explore. Except I can’t with Audra and two little children. So we’ll search down here today . . . and maybe a few more times. Then I’ll take my family and go. Maybe I’ll have enough research to write my papers. Maybe even a book. But whether I have it or not, my family’s safety has to come first. We’ll go somewhere civilized, where I can find work and the children can go to school and there’s a doctor nearby and a store to buy food.”

“No,” Rafe said, then shut her mouth with his lips, and Julia couldn’t bear to push him away. She wanted him so badly that she had already given up on asking for his love. Now she would need to give up on her cavern and even give up on a life with him. It was everything that mattered most to her, except God and her family. She had to do what was right by her family, and God would give her the strength.

Rafe wouldn’t have been the man she loved if he’d been able to turn his back on Seth. He finally pulled away, when her lips felt swollen and her heart was so softened toward him it could be torn apart with no effort at all.

“I have to take care of him.”

“I know.”

“He needs to go home.”

“I agree. And I can’t come.”

Rafe’s gaze burned through her like lava. Finally he eased her off his lap. “But you can go somewhere safe. Somewhere I can find you.”

“When, Rafe? A month? A year? How long do I sit somewhere while you battle for your brother’s sanity? No, you have to commit to him and forget me.”

“I can’t.”

“If you work with him all the while knowing I’m waiting somewhere, it will make you treat him differently. You’ll either resent me or him or both. And I’ll wait for my life to have meaning until you come to me. That’s a sad, empty life for me. And I want Seth to be well. I have compassion for him. We can’t ever hope to find happiness built at the cost of your brother’s sanity. You have to help Seth, don’t you?”

She made it a question because somehow, if he never said it out loud, she could wait. She could pretend not to, but wherever she went, she could make sure Rafe could find her. And she could go on with her lonely life, only less so now caring for Audra and the children. And find new places to explore, and through it all she’d wait and hope and pray that Rafe would come.

A heartbreaking way to live.

“No! It burns!” Seth suddenly cried out. “Stop. Help. Rafe, help me!”

He thrashed in his sleep, slapping at his arm as if it were on fire. Kicking and rolling side to side. “Rafe, help me. Ethan, save me!”

“Yes, for now at least, I have to take care of my brother.” He held her gaze as Seth’s nightmare drove home the point. The brutally sharp point.

She’d forced Rafe to say those words. And now she had to live with them. Even if they cut so deep she wanted to die.

Rafe turned away from her and shook Seth. “Wake up.”

Julia waited as Rafe struggled to pull Seth out of his nightmare. It wasn’t easy, but it was a reminder of all that stood between them.

At last Seth awoke fully, and Rafe spoke quietly to him while Julia packed up their food from lunch. They needed to go back to the surface. What good was this fascinating cavern when she was crying inside.

“Let’s go.” Seth stood, apparently over any lingering effects of his dream.

“You want to keep exploring?” Julia had thought Seth would wake up scared and want daylight.

“I think we need to stop with the exploring for the day.” Rafe looked more shaken than Seth.

“No. I want to show you a special room. It’s beautiful.” Seth turned his wild blue eyes on Julia, and they seemed to burn in the lantern light.

Julia looked at him and wondered, If we headed for the surface now, will Seth even come? Or will we have to restrain him and drag him up to the surface?

“All right.” Julia felt as if the weight of the world were on her shoulders. She didn’t have the will to make a decision, so she let Seth make it. “Let’s go.”

Julia started forward. She passed Rafe, and the rope jerked her to a stop at the same moment it stopped Seth. They both turned to face him.

He looked like a mountain under pressure. She wondered if it was the end of their plans to marry or his dislike of the cave.

“Can’t you feel it?” Rafe asked, so quietly that Julia came a step closer to hear him, Seth with her.

“Feel what?” Seth asked.

“This place. It’s like I can feel the weight of the mountain on top of me.”

Julia felt it, too, but hers was for a different reason. She looked at Seth.

“It feels fine to me.” Seth turned away, but Julia thought he did so too quickly. Like he didn’t want to see his big brother show any weakness. “Let’s go. I want you to see this.”

Julia waited. If Rafe really wanted out, she’d go.

Rafe drew in a deep breath and, without meeting Julia’s eyes, went after Seth. She followed, wondering what all this was costing the man she loved. She knew what it was costing her.

Seth kept moving. Rafe kept moving. It was easy for Julia to keep moving, marking as she went. Seth bent low to enter the next tunnel. Rafe was an inch or two taller than Seth and much broader in the shoulders. He had to bend even further. Julia stood upright, but there wasn’t much headroom. The only light in this narrow cave was their lanterns. No torches, but why bother? There was nothing here except passage to the place Seth was so excited about. They stepped into a larger cave. Julia looked around.

“It’s farther on,” Seth said. “There are a string of caves before we get to the one I want you to see.”

Julia marked the cave wall with an arrow pointing into the tunnel they’d just walked through. Her black arrows would be useless if something happened to the lanterns. They’d be trapped so far below the ground . . .

Suddenly, just like Rafe, she could feel the cave overhead pressing. How far had they gone down? Had the cave floor sloped? And they were surrounded by mountains. They could be climbing up as well as down, but it didn’t seem like it. It seemed like they were headed into the belly of the earth. Into the very gateway to hell.

They were being drawn in so deep, they would never get out. He would pick a spot and rob them of light. This would end. Soon.

Fighting down the laughter, he corrected himself. It wouldn’t end, it would just begin. Before he was done, Rafe would be dead. His friend would be dead, too. He was tired of sharing this cavern with anyone.

Except the red-haired woman—she had secrets she could tell him about the money.

He bided his time as they went deeper and deeper. Gullible fools. They were coming along as if he were a master and they were mules moving beneath his whip.

He rubbed his hands on his pants, the excitement making him sweat. Soon it would be time to make his move, and he knew exactly where that would be. He knew the tunnel he wanted them near. So he could grab the woman and vanish. He’d leave the others alive for now. But only to enjoy their terror.

When that got old, he’d finish them and find his treasure.

In the dark.

Julia watched Seth wipe his hands on his pant legs as if he was nervous. He seemed so comfortable down here. And it was chilly and they were setting a slow pace. Why would he sweat?

It only added to her tension. Disgusted with herself, Julia fought off the fear. She’d climbed around in dozens of caves. And they had never bothered her. Much.

Of course, that had been before the day she’d been trapped down here. And she’d never been in one so deep, with such a labyrinth of tunnels.

Rafe’s breathing sped up. She could almost feel the tension vibrating off of him. He didn’t like it down here. But he had such iron control that he faced his fear and moved deeper into the cavern.

She wondered if he’d reach his limit. Then she wondered if they’d reach hers. How long it would be before they needed to leave?

Seth passed through a small cave and then entered another tunnel, smaller than any they’d passed through before. She saw him again wipe first one hand, then the other on his pants. It had to be nerves. Why would so bold a man as Seth be nervous?

She turned her thoughts from Seth. He was close enough to being a lunatic that maybe he was both fearless and terrified at the same time. A broken mind living in two halves inside one head. It only made her more determined to carefully mark her path. As she reached for the wall with her chunk of charcoal, she noticed her hand trembling. Thanks to Rafe putting the idea in her head, the weight of the mountain pressed on her.

Then they got to a much larger cavern full of massive stalactites and stalagmites. Their bright lanterns were feeble in a room so large, and they cast deep shadows everywhere. Seth lit torches wedged into cracks in the wall.

“Isn’t this pretty?” Seth said. “But it’s not what I want you to see.” He headed for another tunnel.

“Wait!” Julia needed a few minutes to get her nerves calmed down and to give Rafe a chance to get used to the depths. “This room is spectacular. I want to see more of it.”

As the flames from Seth’s torches grew, she did see more of it. There were openings on all sides. Small, large, some might just be shadowed crevasses, while others might lead downward forever.

“No, we’re almost there.” Seth headed straight for the smallest opening yet, pulling Rafe and an increasingly reluctant Julia along with him. Their footsteps echoed in the room until it almost sounded like someone was following them.

Seth dropped to his knees. “We’ll need to crawl through this one.”

“What was that?” Rafe stopped, pulling the rope taut so Seth couldn’t move.

Julia came up to Rafe. “I didn’t hear anything.” Or had she? She wasn’t wild about entering that tiny hole.

“Wait a minute.” Julia saw Seth reach for the rope around his waist, clearly determined to go on with or without them. “Seth, don’t!”

Still on his knees, he turned to face them. “But this is the best part. This is what you wanted to see, Julia. I’m going in.”

“I don’t like this.” Julia surprised herself by saying it. She wanted to see what Seth had seen. She wanted to find the wonders deep in the earth. She might not get another chance.

Then a footstep echoed.

None of them had moved.

“Hey,” Seth said, looking past Julia. He lit up with his wild smile. “Great. Now you can meet my friend.”

The sharp crack of a gun cocking sounded just as an arm wrapped around Julia’s neck.

“Get back!” A voice rough as gravel scraped her ear.

Rafe whirled around and froze.

A gun waved right by Julia’s ear; she could just see the muzzle. “Get back or I’ll kill her.”

The gun pressed to Julia’s temple so hard she’d be bruised—if she lived long enough. The arm around her neck was so tight she had to fight to breathe. She grabbed at the arm, but it was solid as iron.

Rafe raised his hands slowly and backed up a single step.

“What’re you doing?” Seth stepped forward, and the man lifted the gun from Julia’s head and aimed down. The gun roared, deafening in the cave, ricocheting with a series of whining, echoing cracks. The man jerked her back, and when he pulled her far enough, she realized the gunshot had severed the rope that had tied her to Rafe.

“I come for what’s mine.” The man pulled her backward.

“What are you doing?” Seth shouted. “Don’t hurt her.”

“I won’t hurt no one if I get what I want.”

Julia didn’t believe him for a second.

“Tell us who you are and what you want.” Rafe’s voice was so steady, Julia felt the cold of it stab into her heart. His tone penetrated her terror. He didn’t look at her or act like he cared if she lived or died.

“They call me Tracker.” He sounded half mad, and he smelled of rancid filth. “And I reckon I did a mighty good job of tracking you down.”

“What do you mean ‘what’s mine’?” Rafe asked, his voice strong but collected, detached, as if he were horse trading. Julia’s heart sank. She knew how she’d feel if someone had a gun to Rafe’s head. It would be nothing like this.

Rafe didn’t love her.

He could never have been this controlled if he did.

“She’s got money hidden at her place. Her pa stole it from my boss, and I come for it.”

Julia had to find a way to survive. In the face of Rafe’s cool reaction, Julia knew she had to think about Audra and the children.

“My father? Wendell Gilliland?”

“Wendell is the last name of the man my boss is hunting. In town they called him Gill. I’ve been on his trail since he left Texas. The boss give me the job of tracking him down to get his money back.”

She wondered if he knew Father was dead. “Why come for me?”

“Your pa is beyond asking, isn’t he?”

Julia’s jaw tightened, not sure what to say next.

“Yes, I know your pa is dead. I been watchin’ you mighty close.”

She shuddered at the rough tone of his voice. “But why?”

“In Rawhide, I caught up to your pa. I laid low and bided my time, but there was no chance to grab him and force him to hand over the money. It took me a while to figure out he was sneaking out of town on weekends to come see you. I finally figured it out early one Monday morning when I saw him slipping back into town. So I set out to see where he’d been. I couldn’t follow his trail the whole way the first week or the second or the third. And I couldn’t spot your pa leaving town. He was a wily man, and he went out of town a different way each time. But finally his back trail led me to your place. I headed for town to catch him out alone but missed him.”

“So are you really Seth’s friend?” Julia hated the thought that maybe Seth was in cahoots with this man. Maybe they’d planned all of this together.

“If he’s my friend, he oughta put down the gun.” Seth nearly bounced with energy, but Julia thought he showed a lot of restraint not to come running at them. A lot of sanity.

“I met up with Seth headed this way for home. When I realized how well he knew the area, I convinced him to ride along with me. I threw in with him figurin’ he’d know everyone who lived around these parts. But Wendell’s tracks didn’t go toward Seth’s home. And Seth’s the next thing to loco.”

“Hey!” Seth clenched his fists. But again he stayed in place. Or maybe he just didn’t care that much that she had a madman threatening her.

“Now, Seth,” Rafe said, “you gotta admit you’ve been acting a little crazy, even for you.” He crossed his arms as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

Julia caught a little smile on Rafe’s lips, as if he was having fun teasing his brother.

“He led me into the tunnel in that mountain valley and showed me how close it was to Wendell’s cabin.”

“I didn’t know you were looking for Julia.” Seth’s eyes flashed wildly in the torchlight. “You said you liked caves.”

“Why didn’t you just go on home from the cavern, Seth?” Rafe leaned his left shoulder on a man-sized stalagmite.

“I . . . I meant to.” Seth rubbed both hands through his hair.

“I figured out real quick he knew his way around down here and I wanted him to show me the tunnels.” Tracker’s voice was calm as he enjoyed boasting. “It’s a mighty good hiding place, easy to slip up close and watch for Wendell. So, when Seth woke up the first night screaming, I gave him some laudanum.”

“You drugged me?” Seth lifted his head, his fidgeting stopped.

“The first time I did it just to shut you up.”

Julia had heard Seth’s nightmares. Terrible to listen to.

“I forced you to drink it while you were awake enough to take the medicine but asleep enough to forget I done it. You woke up so confused the next morning, it was easy to keep you here and get you to show me this place.”

“I . . . I don’t remember taking anything.” Seth turned to Rafe. “But I’ve been feeling so wrong, so lost.”

Rafe crossed one leg over the other, nodding. “Makes sense. You’d be an easy one to fool, Seth.”

Julia wanted to despair of Rafe’s tone. He didn’t seem to care about her or his brother.

“Once we were down here, Seth seemed to forget all about how to get home. He’d say he wanted to go, but he never did, not as long as I kept dosing him with the laudanum.”

Tracker leaned forward, and Julia saw him for the first time. His face was horribly scarred. He smiled and the scars drew his face into a nightmarish mask. He wore an eye patch on his left eye, the one closest to her as he leaned over her right shoulder, using her as a shield. Julia noticed his grip on her neck had loosened as he mocked Seth.

“You seemed happy down here exploring, and I was learning my way around.” Tracker’s laugh echoed through the cave.

Rafe’s eyes suddenly met hers. They hardened, then his gaze slid downward to the cave floor, and back up. The expression was gone almost instantly but it changed everything.

Julia realized he wasn’t detached, he was controlled. Two very different things.

Rafe was keeping his head. He was asking her to be ready. For what, she didn’t know, but he was planning something.

“Seth always knew this cave best,” Rafe said. He reached up to rub the back of his neck. He looked for all the world like a man stretching, getting ready to yawn. But his right hand, his gun hand, settled at his side only inches from his revolver.

And Julia needed to distract Tracker so Rafe could make his move. “What happened to your eye?” she asked, then turned just a bit so she could see him. She was on his blind side, so she was hoping he’d feel the need to turn his head to see her.

“I spent a few years with no sight as a child after an explosion. A second accident, years later, restored the sight in my right eye. I was right at home in the dark and started liking it down here.”

How much could he see? Enough, but maybe not everything. She leaned forward just a bit, until she was no longer pressed hard against his foul body.

Busy gloating, he didn’t seem to notice. “We got here after your pa had gone back to town. By that time I’d figured out he wouldn’t be back until Saturday night. So we had some time to explore.”

Julia bent just another fraction of an inch away. She only needed one tiny chance, and then she’d slip to the ground. She needed to mess up his aim. Rafe would never beat Tracker to the draw if Tracker’s gun was already out and cocked.

“I have no idea where my father put his money,” Julia said. “I doubt he even has it anymore. He bought supplies to travel out here, and he bought a house and a business in town. I’m sure the money is all gone.”

“Nope.”

“How can you be so sure?” Julia took a quick look at Rafe, who was calm as ever. He didn’t even seem to be paying much attention, and Tracker had definitely decided he was in charge of the situation. “My father liked to gamble. He could have lost it.”

Tracker scowled, then shook his head. “He stole a whole lotta money. Not much chance he could ever spend or gamble it all, even if he’d had it for a lifetime.”

“Well, then why didn’t he buy us a nicer house?” Julia decided arguing with him was the best way to draw his attention away from Rafe. She watched out of the corner of her eye to see if Rafe would signal her again and realized the rope around Rafe’s waist had gone slack; he’d untied himself from Seth.

“Your pa was pure mean, that’s why. Besides, I’m sure he didn’t want to draw any attention to himself by being a big spender.”

“But what do you expect Julia to do?” Seth asked.

Julia wished he’d be quiet. Now Tracker was watching the men.

“If her pa died, then the hiding place for the money died with him.” Seth sounded so reasonable. “So what’s the point in threatening her?”

“If she doesn’t know where the money is, at least she knows her pa.” Tracker turned to her. She was grateful he was again focused on her, until she saw the cruelty in his eyes. “You might have some idea of where he’d hide it.”

“If I did, I’d tell you. Did you search his business in town?”

“Yep, little rattrap of a building. Nowhere to hide much of nuthin’. He didn’t have anything in there but a deck of cards or two and some whiskey. No money I could find. I had to be careful, though, so your pa or anyone in town wouldn’t notice I’d been there. I didn’t want him to hightail it.”

“But our cabin is so small,” Julia said. “There’s nowhere it could be hidden. I can’t help you. I give you permission to search for the money as long as you like. Let me go, and we’ll walk out of here. If my father stole money from someone, then I’ll gladly return it. But I have no idea where to begin searching.”

“I think you might know more than you realize. I think if you stay down here long enough to know I’m dead serious and willing to hurt you, you’ll try hard to come up with a hiding place your pa might use.” He looked toward Rafe and Seth.

“She knows her pa as well as anyone. And I think, if I let her go, she’s gonna want that money just like anyone else does and she’ll decide not to share it. So I’m gonna take her away.” He gestured toward a tunnel opening with the gun.

Rafe drew his Colt. Julia dropped. Tracker’s grip slipped, but he dove for the floor. Rafe’s bullet missed. Seth ran straight at Tracker, putting his body between the gunman and Rafe, just as Tracker fired. The bullet slammed into Seth, but the forward momentum kept Seth flying forward. He struck Tracker but dropped to the floor like a dead man. Tracker staggered back. His gun fired into the ceiling again and again. A massive stalactite cracked overhead just as Rafe rushed into the fight and grabbed Tracker’s hand, trying to wrench the pistol free.

Julia scrambled to her feet. “Rafe, look out!” A heavy stone plummeted from the ceiling, striking Rafe on the shoulder and knocking him down. Tracker was on his feet, still shooting and laughing like a madman. He grabbed Julia as more stones cascaded down.

Dust exploded from all directions. Screaming over the thundering gun, Julia saw Rafe slump to the ground unconscious. Seth sprawled facedown on the floor as more stones bounced off both of them, burying them.

Flames whooshed up from one of the lanterns, racing in a path straight for Rafe and Seth, who lay under falling stone.

“No!” Julia twisted wildly to escape Tracker’s grasp.

Tracker laughed wildly and continued shooting into the ceiling.

She screamed as he dragged her into a tunnel. An unmarked one, pitch-dark. The man had no light. Her lantern was gone.

The cave ceiling continued to collapse. Stone crashed down.

Tracker laughed. Hot breath blasted her face. His clawing hands sunk into her belly, latching on to the rope she had around her waist.

Crying out, Julia grabbed the edge of the tunnel, but Tracker tore her hands loose just as the entrance to the tunnel vanished under stone.

Seth and Rafe were buried. Her only way out was cut off by tons of stone.

The mountain had fallen on Rafe.

And Julia was buried alive, trapped in total darkness with a madman.