Stolen Innocents (The Shadow Series Book 2) (40 page)

“Don’t make this harder on yourself than it has to be,” warned DiNolfo.

This made Angie laugh. Not in amusement, but in bitter, unfiltered hatred. Before DiNolfo could cuff Angie, she climbed back to her feet as she braced herself to barge through the barrier that Tommy Morrow had created.

***

“Bridgette! Tristan!” Frank’s deep voice called down the gaping hole that lay where the Bone Tree used to stand. His booming voice echoed down into the heart of the mine and pulsed through the tunnels.

“Is anyone hurt down there?!” Frank yelled again.

“Yes!” Jack yelled. “Bridgette and Liam have been shot and Liam and Adam are trapped in the mine! Tristan fell down a mine shaft and Angie locked her in! Oh, my God!” Jack screamed in a frantic voice that Frank had never heard before.

“She stabbed Tommy! Get down here! Bring that chainsaw!”

“I’m sending the boys for help!”

But before Jack could answer a terrible rumbling sound echoed from the mine below.

“What the hell was that?!” Frank demanded to know with wide eyes. He stared down the hole to the mine as he waited for a response, but one would not come.

After the sound faded, Jack ran in the opposite direction screaming as loud as he could, “Liam, Adam, no!”

***

Patrol Car E5 was quiet and dark with the exception of Liam’s labored breathing. He had lost a lot of blood and was becoming weaker by the minute. Adam shined his flashlight over the fractured windshield where fallen rocks were threatening to break through and crush them to death. The strength of the reinforced glass was failing. Suddenly, a terrible noise groaned overhead. More rocks were falling on top of the police cruiser denting the roof of the car. It was only a matter of time before Adam and Liam would be crushed by the debris.

“You guys have to hurry!” cried Adam with hysteria clear in his voice. “We’re being crushed alive in here!”

Bridgette’s heart threatened to jump out of her chest at the sound. She dug even more furiously, despite her own injuries. She
had
to get them out.

“Keep digging Joe!”

***

Frank ran back to his truck and alerted Blake and Shane to call 911 for an ambulance and police back-up. He ran from the truck back to the forest, grabbed the rope firmly, and barreled to the mine floor, determined to get his wife and his family out safely.

***

Jack raced to the sound of the noise with panic in his eyes. 

“Get out of the way,” he yelled at Joe and Bridgette as he barreled to the source of the sound.

“They are being crushed alive in there… We need to move these bigger rocks. Joe, help me. Bridgette, you need to go sit down next to Natalie, you are losing too much blood.”

“Jack, they are my nephews in there. No!”

Realizing that Jack wasn’t going to argue with her, she decided to go where she could be of assistance.

While Joe and Jack tried to shift the heavy boulders from the entrance to the tunnel where Adam and Liam were trapped, Bridgette ran, head on to where Tommy was fighting off Angie.

***

DiNolfo had her gun out and aimed at Angie’s head, but she was unable to determine which silhouette belonged to her. The pair was engaged in a violent dance that lingered close to the edge. One would not come out of this fight alive.

“Get out of my way!” Angie screamed with bared teeth as she tried to claw her way past Tommy.

“Not a chance. You’re not hurting anyone else!” said Tommy as he slammed Angie hard against the wall of the tunnel.

“You were supposed to be the fall guy!”

“I’m nobody’s fall guy! This ends tonight!”

“You’re damn right!” barked Angie as she took a hunting knife out of her back pocket and jammed it into Tommy’s stomach and twisted vengefully. Tommy wretched with pain as he fell to the ground. Angie spat in Tommy’s face and ran fast as a fox into the heart of the mine. Finally, DiNolfo had her shot and she took it, but missed. Angie wasn’t going anywhere, though. Cole snuck up behind Angie and lifted his gun aiming at Angie’s head just ten feet behind her. DiNolfo saw that someone else was aiming towards the tunnel with a gun in their hand. Cole took an aggressive stance as he pointed his gun at the person who had caused so much heartache and bloodshed.

He pulled back on the trigger gently, as a bullet flew through the thick, dusty air of the mine. It cut through the dark like a knife through butter and slipped through Angie’s skin, cracking through her skull, until finally it found a warm home in her delusional and disturbed brain. Cole Piedmonte delivered a swift death sentence with just a small twitch of his finger. DiNolfo watched as Angie’s eyes went dead. The ethereal pools of blue were stained black as the life escaped from her eyes. Her chest still rose and fell, though.  As Angie O’Mara’s battered body fell to the ground, Jenna approached her and put another bullet in her chest for good measure.

“Game over,” spat Cole as a cold glare emitted from his eyes.

Jenna stared at her boyfriend’s son with a surprised expression and deep-seated respect.

“I didn’t think you had it in ya, kid…” said DiNolfo in shock.

Cole responded firmly, “No one messes with my family.”

Despite the tension that still rampaged through the mine, Jenna and Bridgette couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. Cole would not feel any semblance of relief until Tristan was out of the mine shaft. The murderer was dead. Now, they had the seemingly impossible task of getting everyone out of the mine safely, including two officers who were trapped under hundreds of pounds of rubble and a young man with a knife wound to the stomach. DiNolfo tore off her shirt and handed it to Bridgette to help control Tommy’s bleeding. She was glad that she remembered to wear a tank top under her uniform shirt.

“C’mon… Liam and Adam are in trouble…” urged Bridgette as Jenna ran down the tunnel towards the wreck. Bridgette helped Tommy walk to where everyone else was, holding a firm compress over his wound.

***

Frank barreled to the bottom of the mine with the rope in one hand and his chainsaw in the other. He landed in the dirt with a loud thud as he ran to the spot where Cole was standing. He was trying to pry open the hatch to the mine shaft, but he wasn’t having any luck.

“Watch out kid…” yelled Frank as he revved the chainsaw to life.

Cole jumped back as Frank pushed the blade of the chainsaw into the wood frame of the hatch.

Frank shouted into the shaft below, “Tristan! Look out!”

As the final piece of wood was splintered, the heavy metal door of the mine shaft fell to the floor of the chamber below with a loud bang.

“Tristan!” Frank and Cole yelled in unison.

Tristan coughed at the dust that had billowed in the chamber.

“I’m here!”

“Are you okay?” Frank asked loudly.

“In theory!”

“What?”

“She killed everyone down here! Get me out!”

Frank took another length of rope off his shoulder and tossed it down to Tristan. He passed the end of the rope to Cole, and he wrapped it around his hands. Frank grabbed hold of the rope and began to hoist Tristan out of the chamber. As her feet left the ground, the black raven flew out the mine shaft to freedom. After several moments of struggle, Tristan was lifted to the ground. As her feet reached the ground of the main level of the mine, tears flooded from her eyes. She tackled Cole and Frank, holding onto their necks tightly. She honestly didn’t think that she would come out of the chamber alive. 

“Oh, thank God,” said Cole as he buried his face into her hair. The scent of vanilla and jasmine wafted from her hair and skin. The warmth of her embrace felt like home to him. Even down in the murky darkness of the mine, Tristan was his anchor. She squeezed him tightly as her fear left her body within his hold.  The moment was sweet but fleeting, because Tristan soon remembered that the rest of their family was in trouble.

“We have to get to Adam and Liam.”

***

Jack ran to the source of the noise with Cole, Frank and Tristan on his heels. “Jack!” Cole yelled with worry in his voice as he chased after Jack in the dark. Cole couldn’t see him, but he could certainly hear him.

“Hurry up, I need you!” Jack yelled.

Cole’s pace quickened at the sound of Jack’s voice. Tristan ran to the wreck where Jack’s demolished SUV was engulfed in flames. Smoke polluted the air and escaped up the passage where the Bone Tree used to stand. The flames were contained; for now.

Jack, Joe and Cole struggled to move the heavy rock from the entrance to the tunnel in a desperate attempt to rescue Adam and Liam.

“Careful! One wrong move and this whole this is caving in on us!” warned Cole.

Joe, Jack and Cole rolled a large piece of rock out of the way as a threatening sound emerged from the rubble. Rocks began to shift precariously towards them. From inside the rubble, the sound of Adam’s voice startled Tristan.

“Hurry up! We’re going to be crushed!” yelled Adam.

Dust and debris were beginning to fall into the police cruiser, choking Adam and Liam. The glass wouldn’t hold much longer.

“Move!” Tristan yelled at her father as the rocks began to roll towards them.

Tristan climbed the mountain of rubble, careful not to disturb the unsettled rock below. If she wasn’t cautious, the mine could quickly collapse on all of them. Tristan brushed some of the looser rocks to the ground from the rubble. She kept going, removing as much small rock and dirt as she could in a careful, but quick manner.  She could not disturb the settlement of the larger rocks until she determined which ones would cause the least damage. It was a puzzle waiting to be solved – With dire consequences if the wrong piece was selected.

“Uncle Frank. Help Dad, Cole and Joe move this rock,” said Tristan as she pointed to a large piece of concrete that stood in their way. “Be very careful and move quickly.”

Jenna and Bridgette had just arrived back at the wreck with Tommy.

Jack looked at Tommy with wide eyes.

“Tommy!”

“She stabbed me,” Tommy said weakly with little color left in his face.

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Jack said to Bridgette.

“Just hold tight. I’m keeping the bleeding under control.”

Cole’s hands were beginning to bleed from handling the large rocks, but with Frank’s help, the large rock was much easier to move. Cole wiped his hands on his shorts before anyone could notice. Much to Tristan’s relief, only a small bit of rubble fell from the pile. She continued removing small pieces of rock, dirt and debris from the wreck. She could move much quicker now that much of the larger, more perilous obstacles were out of her way. Finally, she saw it. The bright headlights of her brothers’ police cruiser shining out of the tunnel. There was still a lot of rock to move, but they were making headway.

“We’re coming for you guys! Just a little longer!” yelled Tristan.

“Hang in there! We’re all trying to get you out!” Jack said.

Liam yelled from the passenger seat in an exhausted voice, “Please tell me someone has Angie in handcuffs.”