Rocky Mountain Showdown. Victoria Austin W.
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with sweat. Her heart was beating again, but far too quickly. She tried to use Abby as an anchor, muffling a gasp into her sweet girl’s hair.
She was probably scaring her daughter. Laura tried to stop. She couldn’t.
When Seth suddenly turned and looked at her, Laura flinched. Her gasp must have given her away. He frowned and stopped midstride when she instinctively took the small step away from him. She didn’t want to be weak. But, if she was, she definitely didn’t want to be weak in front of him.
“Hey. Laura. It’s going to be okay.”
She looked at him like he had lost his mind, and he actually chuckled softly. “Okay, okay. It’s not good. But we’re not down yet, and I have faith.” He smiled at her, his face warm and almost comforting. Then he continued walking down the tunnel.
Faith. Laura had faith. But faith wasn’t always enough. Laura looked at her daughter and, as always, saw pieces of Josh. Abby’s eyes were all Laura but Abby’s dimples were all Josh. Tears welled up, and Laura closed her eyes as she kissed her daughter’s head. Josh was dead from a mugging. Sometimes the evil in the world won. Laura swallowed, trying to clear her throat of the panic and excess saliva her now-burning body was creating.
Abby must have picked up on her mom’s distress, because she reached those chubby hands up to frame Laura’s face. Then she placed a smacking kiss on her mom’s cheek, causing Laura to laugh out loud. Laura looked at Seth when she heard him chuckling, too. They shared a smile before Laura remembered that he wasn’t her friend. No. He was one of those people who delighted in their supposed superiority over others.
Seth certainly wasn’t the first person to say something disparaging about her dad. In fact, people had only bad things to say about the man who had shown her more love and acceptance in her life than she had ever found anywhere else. The man who had literally saved her life.
Josh had loved Laura. And Laura had loved him, and the family they created, in return. But the Laura who Josh met was relatively whole. She liked to think that it hadn’t been too hard for her husband to fall for her. The daughter that Laura had been... Well that person was someone who was scared and hurt and bratty most of the time. And her dad had loved her in spite of it and during all of it. He had brought her through it.
Laura usually recognized that trying to defend her dad was a wasted effort. People saw Malcolm Grant—saw how he lived—and made their judgments. They weren’t interested in the truth. They just wanted the most sensational story. They didn’t care about the man who had survived in this world the best he knew how.
Her dad might have chosen to live apart from everyone, but he had been the best man Laura had ever met. He had sacrificed his solitude to raise her because he knew that she did not have any other family. Just him, an uncle who wanted to be alone. And her Uncle Malcom had put aside his wants for her needs and had become her dad. He deserved better. Laura couldn’t keep quiet when people started telling the tale of Old Man Grant. If nothing else, the anger helped push away the loneliness. And Laura would much rather be angry than alone.
Her steps faltered and she squeezed Abby a bit too tight as she regained her footing. Seth turned to look.
“I’m fine. Keep going.” He pressed his lips together, then turned and started on again without saying a word. Apparently, he didn’t care for her demeanor just now. Too bad. Laura didn’t care what he thought. So there. She viciously shoved down the guilt. This man was not her friend. He could not be her friend.
Even if she really needed one.
Nope. She wasn’t going there. Not with this man. No matter how attractive he was. No matter how many times he was kind to her. She wasn’t going there. She’d tried the real world once, and it had shattered every bit of her life.
“Does it feel like the tunnel is going up to you?”
Laura was startled by Seth’s question. Embarrassed that she had been caught so deep in her thoughts, she suppressed a sharp retort. Snapping at him might feel good in the short term, but Laura would eventually regret it. Instead, she focused on the tunnel. On her feet and her senses, trying to discern whether they were moving deeper into the earth or coming up out of it.
“I...I think we are! Moving up, I mean.” It might be her mind playing tricks on her, but the floor of the tunnel seemed to be sloping upward. It was slight, but there.
Laura looked ahead and laughed. There really was a light at the end of the tunnel. Or at least a sliver of something that wasn’t dusty and dank.
They reached the door, and Seth pushed. The wood made some creaking noises, but nothing else happened. It did not open.
Laura set Abby down and focused her light on the latch, trying to give Seth enough illumination to hopefully figure out how to open it. Her headache had only worsened with all the emotional highs and lows of the last hour. It seemed as though her body was flooded with adrenaline or dread every ten minutes.
“It’s stuck, isn’t it?” Laura was trying to keep her tone even, aware of Abby’s little ears.
Seth didn’t turn to look at her, using both hands to fumble with the rusty latch. “It’ll be okay. If I can’t get the latch to work, then we’ll break it down.”
“Break it down?” Laura heard the doubt and hope in her own voice. Was everything in her life so contradictory?
Seth’s hands paused, and he turned and gave Laura an arrogant smile, knocking on the door in front of them. “Yeah. This is a wood door. An old, wood door. We can handle this.”
Laura wanted to believe him. She wanted to argue with him. Before she could do either, however, Seth spoke with smug satisfaction. “Got it.”
He pushed the door again, and this time it gave an inch. Then, nothing. Again. Laura made a sound of frustration. She was surprised when Seth turned and put his hand on one of her shoulders, squeezing it lightly. “Hey, hey. It’s okay. It looks like there’s a bunch of foliage growing on the outside of the door. Vines or something.”
Laura felt foolish. Of course. The tunnel door wasn’t exactly used every day. Nature had done what it always does. It had persevered, covering the ground and taking back what had originally belonged to it. She needed to get a grip. “Sorry. You’re right. I don’t know why I’m acting like this, but I’m done. No more hysterics.”
Seth laughed and squeezed her shoulder again before letting go. He was reaching into his pocket as he spoke. “You’re not being hysterical. I grew up with three sisters. Sisters who were all teenagers at one point. Believe me, I know hysterical.”
Laura knew her expression was rueful. He made it sound like teenage girls were torture. Which, they probably were to a brother.
“Besides, I’d say you have plenty of reason to be upset. I’m not exactly calm myself.”
Laura appreciated his efforts to make her feel better. She watched with growing excitement as he used the pocketknife to cut the plants that were visible through the one-inch space that the door had opened. Once done, Seth closed the pocketknife and put it back in his pocket. He looked at Laura and Abby, smiled and pushed the door open.
They climbed out of that tunnel and walked into paradise. The sky was blue and the birds were singing. Laura could smell pine. It was a beautiful day. The kind of day for skipping and playing and laughing.
The wind blew, and Laura felt the tears threaten again. Smoke. She smelled smoke. Or at least she smelled the suggestion of smoke. She’d forgotten about why Seth said he came up her mountain, onto her land. “There really is a forest fire, isn’t there?”
He was looking in the direction from which the wind had blown. Down the mountain. In between them and help. His voice was heavy with regret. “Yes, Laura. There really is a forest fire.”
* * *
Seth’s instincts were pushing against each other. The part of him concerned about a group of armed men coming out of the tunnel wanted to