Dom carried me piggy-back style into City Hall and down two sets of stairs to the basement. The county assessor had moved all the old deeds and property assessments along with maps to a large storage room off the main entrance.
Taylor put his key in the door and jiggled it. It wouldn’t turn.
“I left my lockpicks at home, so I hope you can get this open.”
Dom turned his head over his shoulder and said to me, “I can’t believe we forgot to bring the fanny pack.”
“In our defense, I wasn’t planning to not-break and enter into City Hall.”
Dom, with his forearms under my knees, hoisted me up higher on his back. “In my defense,” he emphasized the word my, “I think you’re a bad influence on me.”
Eldin snickered. “He knows you so well, Nic.” He looked at Dom. “I was a model student and citizen until I started hanging out with Nicole.”
I squeezed my thighs against Dom and pointed indignantly at Eldin. “You were thirteen-years-old. You weren’t even fully formed yet when I found you. You cannot blame me for your bad behavior.”
“Sure I can,” he said. “I do it all the time.”
“Still?”
“Got it!” Taylor said. He opened the door. “And to answer your question, yes, Eldin blames you all the time.” He winked at me and gestured for all us to enter.
“Are there any guards who patrol here at night?” Dom asked when Taylor turned on the light in the room.
“This is Peculiar, not some metropolis, and besides, this room has no windows, not even in the door, so,” he closed the door, “no one is going to see the light on.”
We searched for only half an hour before Eldin said, “Bingo!”
“How’s your back holding up?” I asked Dom. He hadn’t put me down once since we’d exited the car.
“It’s fine.” He raised me up again.
“You can put me down if I’m getting too heavy.”
“I’ve carried weapons and rucksacks heavier than you.”
“Rucksacks?”
“I was Army Intelligence before I joined the FBI.”
“How freaking old are you?”
“Old enough know better, but young enough to do it anyway.”
“Will you two stop flirting and get over here?” Eldin took a stack of rolled-up papers out of a cylindrical canister. “I’ve got the maps.”
I looked over Dominic’s shoulder at the property description and the topographical outlines. There were several areas that crossed. “There,” I said, indicating the stream we knew flowed under the gate. “Right there where the stream comes in from the right, that where we breached the compound. We probably went about twenty to thirty feet before we crawled out of the creek bed, across a road to a building probably the same distance. So go back another twenty feet and to the right about ten feet and that’s where we saw the underground door.”
Dom poked his finger on the map. “And there’s the tunnel. The description says a storm shelter was built in this location. They must have built the pantry over the top of it.”
“There was so much dust, I can’t imagine more than a few people still know the underground room exists.”
“Well,” Taylor said, “if this map is accurate, it looks like the tunnel comes out over here.” He indicated a spot near the edge of the property that bordered a big pond.
“That’s probably where the stream empties.”
Eldin nodded. “You know, that pond is at the edge of Brady Corman’s new property. He is building a house out there for Willy and their new babies.”
“Those kids are going to have the biggest potty mouths,” Taylor said.
Dom laughed. “That’s the God’s honest truth. That woman can make the people who make sailors blush blush.”
“I’m sure Deputy Boden will be a fine mother.” I rested my upper arms on Dom’s shoulders and rubbed my hands together. “Let’s go find ourselves a super-secret entrance to this evil lair.”
TAYLOR THOMPSON HAD been an immediate, hellz yes, but Dom and Eldin had taken some coercing. Dom would learn soon enough that I was a girl who liked to get her way. Eldin already knew that about me, which is why I couldn’t understand what took him so long to get on board...until I realize he was worried something might happen to Taylor, the only civilian in the bunch.
However, Taylor, in no uncertain terms, told Eldin he was going with or without him. I’d given the same speech to Dom, and both men reluctantly agreed to join us on this little adventure.
Mr. Corman hadn’t finished the house yet, so the property was vacant. Good. I didn’t want to have to beg Willy for any favors. I mean, I liked the woman, she was feisty as hell, but I didn’t really want to hang out with Dominic’s ex-girlfriend if I could help it.
Since I wasn’t about to go home to grab my gear, we had to make due with what Eldin had laying around his house. Two small flashlights, some pore tweezers and a pore remover that I hoped I could make work for locks, some nylon twine, and a couple of knives. Dom brought his gun, just in case, and I had my multi-tool because I’d put it in my jacket pocket. We had our bulletproof vests in the trunk, and I insisted that Taylor Thompson wear one. The gesture helped Eldin relax, but it made Taylor a little tense. I don’t think he’d considered the danger real until the moment he put it on.
We took off, with me still riding Dom’s back. The plan was for me to shift into raccoon form if something happened or we were caught. We were far enough away from the compound that I felt like we were probably safe.
We walked the property for about half a mile until we came to the pond. We followed its edge poking sticks into thicker parts of the brush trying to uncover a manhole or some kind of cellar door. We’d had no luck by the time we reached the wide mouth of the stream where it flowed into the pond.
“Well, poop.” I sighed. “I was hoping it would be easier than this. A super-secret opening to an evil-lair is always easy to find in the movies.”
“Hey!” Eldin shouted. “What the hell was that?”
“What?” Dom asked.
“Quiet,” Taylor hissed.
I heard it then. Doo-ip, doo-ip, doo-ip, and a small splash. “There!” I pointed to where the water was rippling out from four spots on the small lake. “Someone skipping rocks.”
Skipping rocks on the lake. Damn that Sunny Trimmel. She was three for three.
“Help,” a weak voice called out. “Help me.”
“The stream,” Eldin shouted. “It’s coming from the stream.”
Dom practically dropped me on the ground, his gun raised and ready. “Taylor, you stay with Nic. Eldin and I will go check it out.”
I hopped in his direction. I wasn’t missing whatever was happening. I didn’t get far before Dom came rushing back to me. His eyes were haunted as if he’d seen a ghost. “It’s Lieberman. He’s barely hanging on.”
“We need to get him to Doctor Smith right now,” I said, my adrenaline raising my voice an octave.
“Eldin is calling your dad and the sheriff’s department to get emergency vehicles out here, but Lieberman’s foot is caught in a bear trap under the water. He’s half frozen, and the water is neck high. I put a stick down, and it hit another trap. I don’t know how many are out there.
“Coil spring, long spring, or conibear?”
“The one I triggered was a long spring, but I don’t know what kind trapped Lieberman.”
“Get me there,” I told him. “I can swim out to him without activating the traps, dive down and unlock the claws on his feet.”
“But how? Especially if you don’t know which kind of trap he’s caught in.”
“I have twine, a multi-tool, and a raccoon’s opposable thumbs.” I wiggled my fingers at him. “My dad had taught me how to get out of any bear trap if I was ever caught in one. I’ll cut a length and tie it to my multi-tool. That’s all I’ll need.”
“If you have any problems at all, you get the hell out of the water. I want to save Lieberman, but not at your expense.”
I kissed his worried face. “I’ll stay safe.”
At the edge of the creek, I watched Lieberman struggle to keep his head above water. “Hang in there. I’m coming to help. Just hold on a while longer.”
“I don’t know if I can,” he said. “I’m so tired. I just want to sleep.”
I stripped my shirt off, and Dom braced me up as I slid my palazzo pants off one leg at a time.
“This wasn’t what I imagined when I thought about getting you naked.”
I covered his lips with my finger. “Don’t make this any more awkward for me.”
I shifted, and Dom handed me my tool on the string. I grabbed the string and dragged the tool down into the water with me. I kept the surface until I got to Lieberman.
“I’m not cold anymore,” he said, his words slurring. Crap, he was suffering from hypothermia, and God knew what else.
I dove down, the water dark and murky, and felt for the trap. Damn it. It was a conibear, one of the most dangerous traps out there. Whoever laid these in the creek was not messing around. I surfaced for a breath of air then went back down feeling for the upper and lower loops. I threaded the twine through the top loop then down through the bottom loop and back up into the top loop just like Dad had taught me.
Then I swam up as hard as I could to pull it open, but I was yanked back for my efforts and dropped my tool and the twine. I surfaced for air then went back down again. I positioned my stepped on the chain of the trap, found the twine, and tried again.
I couldn’t budge it. I wasn’t strong enough as a raccoon to hold the trap down and pull up on the string at the same time. All I was doing was killing Lieberman faster.
I surfaced again, shifted, and let out a frustrated scream. Dom shouted my name.
“Don’t come in! There are traps everywhere!” I warned.
Lieberman’s head slid under water.
No, no, no. Oh, God, he wasn’t going to make it, all because I wasn’t strong enough. No, I thought, I won’t give up. Not on Lieberman and not on myself. I lifted his chin, getting his face out of the water. “Come on, buddy. You have a pregnant wife at home that needs her husband.” I gave him a breath before inhaling deeply and diving under again. It was harder to concentrate without the extra layer of fur, but I managed to find the twine again. I pressed down on the chain on either side with my feet and pulled up on the string with all my might. It was slowly opening. I only hoped I could get Lieberman free before I ran out of breath, and he ran out of time.
Finally, the damn thing opened enough for me to yank Lieberman’s foot out of the trap. I let it go, and it snapped shut. I swam up. Lieberman was passed out, and he’d stopped breathing. “I’ve got him,” I shouted. I swam on my back, keeping the poor man above me and away from the other traps. I kept going like that until we were at the shore and Dom hauled us both out.
Breathlessly, I said, “He needs to be resuscitated.” Lights and sirens roared in the distance as Eldin and Taylor performed CPR on him. I prayed to anyone listening to save him. To not let him die. When Lieberman started coughing and throwing up water, all good signs, I started laughing, and then crying, as Dom rocked me in his arms.
As the police vehicles roared into the field near the pond, I looked up at my green-eyed rock, and said, “How in the world are we going to explain this to Dad?”
Dom kissed me. “I think he’ll forgive you this time.”
I shook my head. “You obviously don’t know my father.”