Page 59 of Savage Knight
Once more, Lowen leaned forward.“I know lots of things.”
“Is that so?Well, then you’re definitely going to die after I beat you for running away.No one can hear you scream and I have all the equipment I need to make your body disappear.”
Horror washed over her.So that was it.He was going to bury her somewhere in the barren landscape.Digging in the Nevada desert was tricky because the compacted dirt of the desert baked like bricks in the hot sun.She had to quickly reconcile the thought that if he was successful and killed her, her body would never be found.Taking a deep breath, she refused to let him know how much that thought bothered her.
“We’ll see,” she said.
Then, before he could blink, she lifted her leg and kicked him as hard as possible right between the legs.Scias let out a pained moan and dropped to his knees.Lowen grabbed his gun but before she could shoot him, his men fired off a warning shot, forcing her to duck.She turned and darted away, using the machines to shield her until she could think of a way to escape.
****
The area was eerilysilent.No breeze.No moonlight.A ghost town where even the ghosts didn’t want to play.
“There’s nobody here!”Evren shouted in frustration.“Goddamn it!”
Saxon went hunting through the abandoned village.Run-down wooden buildings reduced to rotting boards and rusty nails.Jeremiah headed toward the fenced-off mine opening.
Evren tilted his head back, staring into the inky-black sky.He didn’t know where she was, and had no way to save her from Scias’s clutches.“That asshole traitor is dead and he got the last fucking laugh.”
“We’ll find her,” Jeremiah assured him.“He probably took her to his home.”
“What if she’s not there?”Evren demanded.“He could’ve taken her anywhere!Damn it, Jeremiah.I can’t lose her.”
“Focus, Evren,” Jeremiah snapped.“You can’t help her if you can’t think straight.”
Suddenly, a noise came from the mine, and both brothers turned.Something cold sluiced down his spine.He’d never been a man afraid of things that went bump in the night because his own fucking stepparents were the boogeymen, but that didn’t rule out the jump-scare aspect of an abandoned mine.
“Who’s there?”Jeremiah called out.
From the ebon darkness of the tunnel, a figure emerged.Evren took a step back before his logic came to the rescue.
“Phineas?”Jeremiah asked.
“Didn’t mean to scare you,” the older man said, looking around cautiously.“The other one isn’t with you, is he?”
“The other one?”
“Scias Mailliard.”
“Uh, no.”
Evren stepped up.“We were told he brought a woman here.Do you know anything about that?”
“He’s been here a couple of times, but never brought a female.”
“I’ve been trying to find you,” Jeremiah said.“Where’ve you been hiding?”
Phineas gestured to the mine entrance behind him.“The first time Mailliard came here, he was threatening things.He knew things.He was gonna take the mine from me, so I had to protect it.I moved here to make sure that bastard wouldn’t get his hands onmygold.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?What about a cave-in?”
“I’ve mapped this mine,” he said, boastful.“It’s sturdy and safe.As good a place as any to make my temporary home.I just never realized how many people wanted Direridge.”
“Phineas, there’s no gold or silver in the mine,” Jeremiah gently told the older man.
He cocked his head, looking confused.“How do you know?”
“I had a geologist come in and do some testing.”
