Page 75 of Trapped with the Covert Ops Soldier

The sheriff’s head poked out of the hole, and he waved his arm in big circles to get them to move faster.

“Does this shaft go all the way into the old mine?” he asked, holding out his hand to Abby.

“Not anymore,” she answered, taking his hand. Smitty put his hands on her butt and shoved her so hard she landed on the sheriff.

She got off him in time to let Smitty land on him too.

“You’ve had an open entrance to the mine this whole time?” the sheriff asked. There was a note to his voice, excited, intrigued, greedy, sounding enough like Virgil’s voice when he first stepped foot in the mine, it made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

“Any way into the mine is gone now, sheriff,” she said, working hard to keep her voice from shaking. “The whole thing just collapsed.”

“But,” the sheriff looked at her and Smitty, completely covered in dust and dirt. “Where’s Virgil? Jack said Virgil was down there.”

“He...” her voice trailed off. She wasn’t sure how to explain that she’d left him there to die in the dark.

“Holy shit, Abby,” Smitty said, putting a hand on her shoulder from behind.

“What?” she asked.

“You’re bleeding. A lot,” he said.

He moved his hand and she felt air hit her skin and a painful tingle ran down the left side of her back.

“Fuck,” Smitty breathed. “This looks bad.”

The sheriff craned his head around to see and he swore. “We need to get you to the hospital. You’re going to need stitches.”

“What is it?” she asked again.

“It’s a long cut, about an inch deep and maybe twelve inches long down your back. You don’t remember getting hurt?”

“A rock hit me there when Virgil was chasing me. He did have a knife...”

“We’ll figure it out later,” Smitty said. “After you’ve been had this taken care of.” He got to his feet and pulled her up to hers. “Let’s get you out of here.”

“Virgil?” the sheriff asked.

Abby met his gaze. “He threatened to kill me, Smitty, and Jack. He’s the one who took the shots at me. He was—”

“Insane at the end,” Smitty interrupted. “There was no mine down there, sheriff, just a cave that went nowhere, and now there’s not even that. Virgil refused to leave even when the ceiling started coming down.”

The sheriff studied Smitty’s face then Abby’s. “Oh, now, none of that,” he said, ushering her to the ladder so she could climb out of the cellar. “It’s not your fault he wouldn’t listen to reason.”

That’s when she realized tears were rolling down her face to drip off her chin. “I should have gone back for him,” she whispered.

“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink it,” the sheriff said. “Not your fault that old man had decided you had a backdoor to the mine and all the gold that’s supposedly down there.”

“Darkness and death is all that’s down there,” she said softly, afraid to give her voice any freedom at all.

“Too bad that cave hadn’t been part of the mine,” the sheriff said with a wistful note in his voice. “You would have been rich, Abby.”

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