Whirlpool (Cutter Cay Book 6) Page 35

  Finn, who was up, and trying to place his body in front of hers, grabbed her arm, to pull her down. "Are you fucking insane?"

  She locked her knees, and refused his urgent pull to get down. "Hear me, Theo? You said you need me by your side to fulfill your destiny. Shoot Finn, and you kill any hope of your future heir. What will your followers think about that?"

  "Come down, and we'll spare him." Fucker didn't pretend to be sincere.

  "Go away first."

  "Peri, I swear to God," Finn said through his teeth. "I'll knock you out and put you back there myself."

  "Take your men and leave," she yelled. "I'll come to you willingly if you give Finn safe passa-"

  Dakkadakkadakka. Too fucking close for comfort. The rain of bullets strafed the edge of the platform, causing six inches of granite in front of him to break away.

  "Hold your fire!" Núñez yelled in Spanish, sounding apoplectic.

  "Get. To. The. Back. Now!" Finn ordered Peri through clenched teeth. "Not because I'm telling you to do so, but because you're an intelligent, courageous and rational woman. If you're here, I'm distracted. Go." He glanced at her set face. "Please, darling, move the fuck to the back and give me room to shoot these assholes."

  "Don't you get shot."

  As Peri disappeared into the deep shadow behind him, Finn shifted his gaze from one climber to the next. Yeah. These guys were in the right spot. He shot them both. Didn't hear any splashing, but the bodies landed with a gratifying thump thump on the rocks.

  Núñez yelled. "—ly Lake!" Finn missed part of it since Peri was back there muttering to herself, and Núñez had sent up three more men.

  "Holy shit! Finn-"

  He fired off another shot, which echoed off the granite as if they were in an auditorium, but missed his target by inches. Fuck.

  "You okay back there?"

  "I think you'd better come and take a look."

  His heart leapt into his throat. He jumped to his feet, Glock aimed into the darkness. How the hell had someone managed to climb onto the platform without being seen?

  "Come out or I'll shoot." Not blind he wouldn't. Not taking the risk he'd hit Peri. He advanced into the wall of darkness the lights below didn't quite reach.

  "No one’s here. Not alive, at least." Peri sounded strange. Shaky. She came to meet him, taking his hand to lead him to the wall in back. "You need to see this."

  As long as this wasn't a semi-automatic wielding Núñez follower, Finn was prepared for just about anything. Except. . .

  "A skeleton?"

  The unexpected, incongruous sight of bleached bones was shocking enough, but the seated body was fully intact. Knees upraised, skeletal hands clasping something against its chest. Sightless eyes stared out of the small skull.

  "It's a child. Look at her small feet and han-" Peri hunker down beside the small form. For a moment she said nothing, then tilted her head to look up at him. "Do you believe in fate, Finn?"

  A frisson ran up his spine, and his heart began to pound. "From the second I laid eyes on you, my darling."

  Peri rose from her crouched position to come to his side. Sliding her arm around his waist, she held on tightly. "It's not a her. It's a him. Check out what's in his hands, Finn. That's the fifth tablet." A tremor of excitement shook her voice. "I think we just found Blackstar."

  A single gunshot echoed throughout the cavern. Peri flinched. The loud, sharp bang, sounded extremely close as it bounced around the small space where they stood.

  "Ariel. Your obstinacy is annoying," Núñez shouted. "Come down immediately. You know Blackstar's master plan for the world is dependent on us. Together. Enough is enough. Accept your part in the prophecy. This is a holy place. I cannot permit the death of more of my supplicants. If you remain up there with Gallagher, I cannot vouch for your safety. Without food or water, how long can you survive? Your willful disobedience will be punished if you keep resisting your god-given future by my side. It has been ordained. Stop this stupidity right now."

  "What now?" she asked Finn, as she shot Theo the finger in response, which he, of course, couldn't see, but made her feel marginally better.

  Like Finn, she was torn by the mesmerizing sight of the small skeleton and what he held, but also acutely aware that the men climbing toward them were getting closer by the minute. It scared her to death that those crazed religious fanatics were willing to kill Finn given the chance. Finn's bullets wouldn't last forever.

  He narrowed his eyes, assessing the massive wall they had yet to climb. "Now we get up to that opening and get the hell out of Dod--."

  Dakkadakkadakka. A chunk of granite exploded near their feet. Finn grabbed her arm and shoved her back.

  "Ariel! Got your attention now? I'm not playing games. Listen and obey."

  Peri’s heartbeat skittered. "Leave Blackstar and the tablet here?"

  "I can't carry him on my back. He's been here for five hundred years, he can wait a little while longer."

  "Agreed. But we have to take the tablet with us. We can't allow Theo to get his hands on it."

  "I'll carry it."

  Peri winced as he gently lifted the gold tablet from Blackstar's two-handed grip. The movement didn't make the small, bony hands fall apart, they remained exactly the same, almost as if lifted in supplication. She rubbed the chill on her arms. "I feel like I should say a prayer or something."

  "Make it quick." Finn started undoing the buttons on his shirt with one hand, then undid the top button on his pants. He pressed the tablet to his chest, then did up the buttons and tucked his shirt tightly into his waistband.

  "Will that hold? Can you climb like that?"

  "It'll hold." The tablet, held against his body, made for hands-free climbing. "Let's do this."

  It looked uncomfortable as hell. "Even though it's a bit smaller than the others, it still weighs a ton." Peri frowned. "It'll change your center of gravity."

  "I'll adjust for it. Come on, let's haul ass before anyone gets up here."

  "Where they'll shoot you in the back, for god's sake. Hang on, I have an idea- Theo?" she called as she stepped out of the shadows and walked to a few feet from the edge. "The more I think about this prophecy, the more I'm coming to like the idea. Tell me again, what your plan is? You'll be Supreme Leader, right? Is that like a king? Will I be the queen to the Chosen?"

  "What the fuck are you doing?" Finn whispered furiously. "Get the hell back here."

  "Yes," Theo shouted. "But your most important job will be to produce my heirs."

  "I want that, too." She wondered how the hell she'd ever let this man touch her. Gag. "I like bossing people around. I'll be a good queen." She let that disgusting thought penetrate. "Theo, I know exactly where the High Altar, and the fifth tablet, are. I'll take you there. I'm coming down. Take all your men, and wait for me at the house."

  "Persephone," Finn said from the shadows. "Get your ass away from the edge, and for crapsake stop goading him."

  Finn wasn't happy, but there was method in her madness. She hoped her raised voice sounded just as creepy with the echo as Theo's did for her. "This isn't the Holy Lake, Theo. Trust me. There are writings up here on the cave walls showing a detailed map of all the caverns. It spells out precisely where the Holy Lake and High Altar are. It says that's where Blackstar placed the tablet."

  "Tell me," Theo called up, voice reverberating. "I'll send my men to retrieve it."

  "I want to place it in your hands myself. I want my place in history, Theo. I want to ensure a direct link from Blackstar, through me, to you."

  "What about Gallagher?"

  "Gallagher is going to kill your skeevy ass," Finn said behind her.

  "Shh." Peri knew for Theo to believe her, she had to use just the right tone. He believed she was in love with Finn and would only accept words that indicated to the contrary. "I thought Finn was the love of my life. I was wrong, Theo. We must be pre-ordained to be together since Finn was shot. I doubt he'll survive this injury. Especially if w
e leave him up here without medical help.” She extended her arms, palms up in surrender.

  “He’s weak. Dying. He's going to bleed out. So clearly he wasn't my destiny after all. I see where my future lies. With you. You know I am not a fool. I’m pragmatic, logical. Smart. But to Finn, I’m a liar and a thief. Remember? He didn’t want me, not the way you do.” She paused again, to make sure he was taking all of that in. "He told me how to get the tablets out of his helicopter. I have the password for that electrical shock device he rigged it with. Once we have all five tablets secured, your men can leave him up here to rot."

  "Thanks," Finn muttered.

  "Why would you do that?" Theo yelled, not sounding convinced. "The man's richer than Croesus."

  "True, but we aren't married, so his wealth won't mean shit to me when he's dead. More importantly, you and I are going to rule the world. No contest. Power trumps great wealth. But we'll be wealthy, too, won't we, Theo?"

  She didn't pause for his answer. "The tide's starting to come in. You see where the watermark is on the rocks to your right? You have to go. Wait for me upstairs. You won't be disappointed, I promise. We'll have Blackstar's entire prophecy to show our people. We can take Finn's helicopter and fly wherever we want to go."

  "How will you get down on your own?"

  "I told you. I know a shortcut. Trust me. Go. I'll see you in twenty minutes or less."

  "I'll wait-"

  "You'll go. And no. Your men don't get to stay either. Until you and I are married, I don't want anyone to know the secrets of these caverns."

  "I have your word?"

  Peri shot Finn a grin. "Absolutely."

  Silence throbbed like a living thing, then Theo shouted. "All right. Twenty minutes?"

  "See you in the house."

  Theo shouted in Spanish for his men to come down. "I'll leave the light for you."

  "Thanks, you're so thoughtful, Theo."

  Finn, standing well back, shook his head and said quietly, "He can't possibly be this stupid."

  "He's actually brilliant. But his obsession with Blackstar, and his absolute certainty that he and I will rule the Chosen, have clearly made him dangerously unbalanced. He's convinced I'm the redheaded warrior from the texts. That without me, he can't rule and pass down that rule to his children."

  "Hopefully I baffled him with all that bullshit." Peri walked over and planted a kiss smack on his mouth. Then shifted to smile up at him. "I think I might've bought us a little time, while he tries to figure out what the hell I'm up to. But he won't buy into it for long. Let's go before he realizes he's been had." She peered over the edge. "Whether he bought it, or was just humoring me, to see what I'll do next, his men are climbing down."

  "Then let's get cracking. Head that way-" he indicated the vertical path they should take. Large patches of glass-smooth rock would have to be bypassed, craggy rocks would have to be navigated. All presenting a long circuitous route to the very top. And freedom.

  Peri's raw fingertips throbbed just looking at the distance, and her body balked at dredging up the wherewithal this portion of the climb presented. "Awesome. I love a challenge."

  He grinned, and she knew he read her like a book. "I'll be right behind you. Move fast and move smart."

  TWENTY-THREE

  Peri wasn't confident about moving either fast or smart. She was physically spent, her brain mush after the day she'd put in before this fiasco. Sweat rolled down her temples even though the cavern, she knew, maintained a sixty-eight degree temperature year round. Her sore fingertips bled, the hole in her cheek where Theo had poked his damn knife throbbed in unison to her heartbeat, and her wrists felt as raw and painful as they looked.

  "I've seen the aperture from the water," she said breath harsh and- damn it- a little shaky as she had to blow long strands of hair away from in front of her nose. The plait hadn't stayed braided, and her hair hung annoyingly loose down her back. And her front. Hampering her movements. "I didn't realize it was the ceiling of this cavern. I thought it- Never mind."

  "Anyone else know about it?"

  "Don't know. I only realized how big it is from in here. Outside it was just an interesting opening with some possibilities. But I was looking for it, I doubt anyone else will. So your answer is, no one is going to be looking for us where this hole comes out."

  Finn brushed her elbow with his in an oddly endearing caress. "We're going to make it out of this clusterfuck in one piece. Trust me on this. We will get out, I promise. Through that hole, and out onto the cliffside. Keep climbing."

  He followed suit, and Peri, who'd rested her hot cheek on the cool granite to look at him, felt a new burst of energy and reached up for the next hold.

  "I have a comm device, doesn't work inside. But as soon as we're clear of all this rock, I'll try contacting McCoy, let him know where we're headed." Finn waited for her to get a good foothold. "Up there the Cutters and your brother and dozens of assorted, well-armed men, are dealing with Núñez's soldiers. They're coming now to pick us up."

  "Psychic premonition or wishful thinking?"

  "I hear a helicopter."

  Hand. Foot. Hand. Foot.

  The drop from here would most certainly kill them on impact. Which Finn already knew, so no point belaboring it.

  Hand. Foot. Hand. Foot. "I don't hear anything other than my breathing."

  "The good guys are getting closer." Finn glanced down over his shoulder. "And so are the fucking bad guys. Looks like Núñez's men didn't get the memo about leaving."

  "So much for that plan." She held on with her left hand a little longer than she should because her arm shook. Finn waited until she started moving again.

  "Nobody would believe that bullshit about sticking with him. He's seen how we can't keep our hands off each other. Even he's not that much of an idiot."

  "I thought it would buy us a few minutes while he digested it." Her ruse hadn't worked worth a damn. Theo's men had clambered down to the water, but they were all still there. Waiting near the entrance. They were training the bright white spotlight on the two of them so they took center stage like bugs under a microscope.

  Finn climbed beside her, the heat of his body warming the musk of his skin, the starch on his shirt and sea spray-scented soap. Her throat tightened with emotion. She wanted to be wrapped in his arms on cool sheets in a dim room. Not clinging like a frightened monkey to a rock-face.

  "You didn't really think it would work, did you?" He adjusted the tablet between himself and the rock as he climbed. Every now and then Peri heard it thunk as marble bumped stone.

  She didn't know how he was doing it. That tablet weighed at least twenty-five pounds. Dead weight. Unnecessary freaking dead weight. Every time he moved, Peri anticipated the heavy tablet pulling him backwards. She hefted herself up to the next toe and fingertip hold and looked up to gauge the distance. Only about twenty more feet. You can do this. One foot, one hand at a time.

  "Had to give it a sho-" Now she heard the whop-whop-whop. It sounded as though the helicopter was right there in the cavern with them, and they were right inside its spinning blades

  "Cavalry arrived," he shouted with satisfaction.

  Lights from the hovering helicopter shone through the jagged hole directly onto them. The bright light blinded them as they continued to climb. Finn waved to acknowledge the rescue party as Peri glanced down to see if Theo was with the men who'd returned.

  "McCoy, do you c--?" As he tried his comm, Finn's body suddenly jerked as though he'd gotten an electric shock. He said, "Ah, fuck."

  Peri gave him a worried look. "What is it? Cramp?"

  His pause was long enough to concern her. Then he said, "Checking to see if I have contact. I don't. Keep going."

  Squinting, she looked up. Ten feet. They were going to make it. A wash of elation gave her a spurt of much-needed energy. Spurred on, keeping her eyes front and center so she wasn't blinded, she climbed for all she was worth. Until she realized Finn was no longer keeping pace.
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  "Finn?" She looked down at him from under her upraised arm. He wasn't moving, just clinging to the wall, forehead on the rock, immobilized. Her heart trip-hammered. "What's ha--"

  She didn't hear the next shot over the deafening whop-whop-whop of the rotors, but suddenly a chunk of granite near Finn's left hand exploded. Scared the freaking crap out of her. With a jerk of surprise she almost lost her grip. They were damn-well shooting at them again from below. Bastards.

  "Are you hurt?" Hell, she was already feeling downward with her foot, testing for a new foothold in the opposite direction.

  "Don't come down for God's sake!" He sounded absolutely livid as she closed the distance between them. "Get up there. I'll be right behind you."

  Peri found a solid hold, and gingerly lowered her body before swinging the other foot searching for purchase. "You're a damned liar, Phineas Gallagher."

  Oh, God, he still wasn't climbing. Her entire body itched with prickly heat and her heart went manic at the ramifications. With bloody fingers latching onto a small outcrop, Peri tested her weight on it, then inched her way down to him.

  "Jesus, woman, don't you ever fucking listen?"

  "How badly are you hurt?"

  Surrounded by noise and brilliant lights she got a good look at his face. Lips in a tight line, his forehead slick with sweat, Finn glared at her.

  "Tell me," she demanded, tracking her gaze over him until she saw the sheen of wetness spreading over his right shoulder. Goddamnit, she wished that freaking helicopter would just move away and take the noise for a few minutes so she could think.

  His breath looked ragged, she couldn't hear it over the din.

  "Shot. Give me a minute. . ."

  Shot. She anchored herself. Two feet. One hand. Cupped his cheek. His skin felt clammy and cold. He was in shock.

  She gnawed her lower lip. Crap crap crap. Wouldn't leave him, couldn't carry him. Could the guys in the helicopter see them down here? "I see a tunnel off-shooting to the left about four feet, looks like it goes horizontal, not vertical. Big enough for us to fit in until they can come down and get us."