Page 107 of Counter Attack

“He drugged her,” Taylor said.

“The cocoa.” Nathan nodded toward the cup. “There’s nothing inside.”

“Someone rinsed it out.”

Phame. He read the note again. Nathan closed his eyes and concentrated.“If you’re smart enough, you’ll find where the bear took her.”

He looked up. “Bear Tail Cave.”

“It’s worth a shot.” Dylan took out his phone. “I’ll get Harvey to send deputies out there.”

“I’m not waiting for them.” He dashed to the door and stopped long enough to tell the Stones where he was going. A minute later he wheeled out of their drive and pointed his truck toward Eagle Ridge, where Bear Tail Cave was located.

Years ago he and Alexis had hiked the ridge and explored the cave. He gripped the steering wheel. A quarter of a mile inside the cave was a sheer drop-off of at least twenty feet. If Alexis fell—

Nathan’s phone rang. The forestry service? “Landry,” he barked.

“This is Steven Rogers with the Tennessee Forestry Association. Your sheriff’s department ask me to call and advise you there’s a fire on Eagle Ridge.”

“Near Bear Tail Cave?”

“How’d you know?”

“Just a guess.”

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Pain radiated from Alex’s knees to her hips. It seemed like she’d been crawling for hours in total darkness, but from her experience caving years ago, it’d probably only been half an hour at most. Once again, the wind had picked up, blowing over her. Since she was facing it, Alex was certain she was going in a direction that would lead her out of the cave. That again was from experience.

The whole time she’d been crawling, her thoughts were on her captor. She thought it was a large person, not so much from the deep voice—the speech modulator was responsible for that—but because it would take a pretty good-sized person to get her deep into the cave. Unless she’d been forced to crawl through this tunnel.

Was that even possible? Certainly, with some of the drugs out there, like GHB. Maybe her grandmother hadn’t left the cocoa on her bedside table. Alex stopped crawling and rested her forehead on the cave floor.

“Someone you love is going to die.”What if Phame had harmed her grandparents?

The thought spurred her to crawling again, and the wind brought a whiff of smoke to her nose. Surely her captor hadn’t...

More smoke, and stronger. Yes. Phame must have started afire at the entrance to the cave. Alex coughed and kept crawling.

Phame must have piled brush at the entrance and set it on fire. It should go out unless he’d hung around and fed brush to the flames.

A fit of coughing hit her again. Her knees throbbed, her head ached, her wrist burned all the way to her elbow. The desire to curl up in a ball hit her. If there was room, she might do it.

No! She hadn’t come this far to give up.Think!“Lord, I need help.”

Alex felt with her good hand to make sure she wasn’t near a drop-off. Solid walls all around. Like a casket.

Wait. If there was a fire, the forestry service should see it and send someone to put it out. But they wouldn’t know she was in the cave unless she crawled to the entrance.

Alex started crawling again. The mouth of the cave had to be close. So why couldn’t she see light? Maybe the tunnel curved. Or went up. She didn’t know if she had the strength to go much farther. So tired. She rested her head on the stone, feeling the cold seep into her bones.

“Alexis! Where are you?”

Was she dreaming? If she was, she didn’t want to wake up.

“Alexis!” Her name echoed through the cavern.

Except for her grandparents, Nathan was the only person who called her that. “Nathan?”

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