Page 60 of In the Pursuit of Haven
Jessie turned from Hunter, his hands finding my waist. “Stop dragging her,” he said. “Nothing about this structure is stable.”No duh!
Gideon jumped in his way.
The jerk manhandling me muscled past Jessie. I fought my mouth free from his hand. “I can walk!” I said, but he wasn’t giving me a chance to run again or scream. The guy’s hand clamped back over my face. His breath was stinkier than his hands and it was blowing into my nostrils, which was the only way I was getting any air in.
What a way to die!
Struggling against my assailant, I felt the sounds of dismay leave my mouth. Nothing I did made a difference as he carried me over the crumbling stairs leading down to the crypt. He threw me roughly against the hard cement floor.
“Watch it!” Jessie shouted at him. He followed us down.
The musty smell inside almost undid me. Looking up, I saw the tomb framed the cloudless sky. I didn’t like this, not at all!
“What are you doing?” a disembodied voice cried out from somewhere in the upper reaches of the world. Finally someone had discovered us!
My tormentor’s disgusting hand reeked of fish as he grappled with my mouth to keep me from screaming for help again.
“It’s okay,” I heard Hunter reasoning to the person above us. “We’re authorized to work here. Move on… we don’t have time to mess around.”
“Your wife makes one peep and she’ll be sorry,” the muscular man threatened. His head whipped up to face Jessie. My husband was taller, but he was powerless with me in danger. “I’ll rip her arms out!” Well, that was unnecessarily violent, but I absolutely believed he might try. “Don’t try me, Jessie.”
Even I knew that was the wrong thing to say. Jessie shoved him back with his shoulder and unbelievably, the smelly fish-eater let me go. Gasping for breath, I scrambled backwards and ran into the hard tomb wall behind me. There was nowhere to escape any of this.
The man threw his elbow into Jessie’s face. Jessie reared back as my assailant dragged me to him again, the same time he whipped out something metallic from the back of his trousers. The gleam of moonlight shining off the barrel showed me it was a gun. My tormenter ran the cold metal past my face. “See this?” he whispered.
I couldn’t breathe.
“Whoa, whoa,” Jessie hissed. He tried to get between us again. “You shoot that and those guys up there are calling the cops. She’s staying quiet. We’re both quiet… quiet as mice.” The guy wasn’t answering him. He cleared his throat. “Don’t shoot her or you’ll get the rest of those bullets. I’ll chase you down to the ends of the earth.”
The smelly fish-eater didn’t answer. He just put his finger to his mouth. “Shh.” Stretching lazily to his feet, my assailant backed up the stairs, pointing his weapon from me to Jessie. Unbelievably, the tough guy wasn’t eager to be stuck down here with us in this tomb of despair.
Jessie dropped to his knees beside me. “Are you okay?” he whispered.
I nodded, unable to get anything out with that man still watching us from the shadows. I listened to the argument above us as he disappeared from sight. Jessie’s hand found mine and I squeezed his fingers, trying to ground myself.
“We’re excavationists,” Hunter explained to whoever had disturbed them. “Would you like to talk to our boss at the museum or are you through being a stupid nobody?”
Whoever was out there should be careful. I’d had the misfortune to discover for myself that Hunter’s men had guns and weren’t shy about using them. Glancing to the side, I saw that these caskets were square… definitely newer than the ones in Reverend Higginson’s time when they’d be molded more closely to the body. I didn’t dare look closer, for fear of finding that glass window on Susanna’s casket.
“Jessie,” I whispered. “Why are they trying to find the ‘witch’s’ body?”
“They think there’s a map with her.” His eyes squeezed shut. “I might’ve told them there was one.”
So there isn’t?What would happen when they found out he’d lied? Only two bullets would keep us resting in peace with the rest of the corpses down here. No one would find us for centuries.
Thenwe’dend up as museum pieces.
I shuddered in fear.
“Don’t make me go over there,” Hunter continued his shouting match with the unwelcome intruder. “Why are you so important? You’re in charge of the underground tunnel tour?”
Wait. Is that Davey?My eyes went to Jessie and I tried not to make any sound that might put Abby’s friend in any more danger. “You think you have some sort of authority over here, huh?” Hunter said. “Hold up. I’ll show you our permits.”
The stone over the tomb began to close over us, shutting out the sky with its scraping complaints. They were trapping us down here with the dead. My heart raced and my mouth ripped open as the blackness smothered us.
Jessie stopped my screams with his hand. “No, no,” he whispered into my ear. “They’ll kill us. We’ll get out of here, okay? But we’ve got to use our brains. Are you with me, Roxy? You get what I’m saying?”
I nodded miserably, unable to answer until his hands left my mouth.
