Page 148 of Stealth Mission
She looks at the blackened sky with a worried expression. “I didn’t know this was going to start so soon.”
I turn and push Scout toward the stairs. “We need to hurry. The rain is going to make the trail impossible to use.”
“Be safe!” Elsa’s shrill voice is covered by a peel of thunder that shakes the ground.
As I pull the hood of the coat Scout gave me tighter, I grab his wrist. “The caves are deadly when the rain comes.”
Chapter Fifty-Seven
The yawning hole in the side of the mountain is big enough to drive a car into. If you could get a car down here. But the small well-worn trail to the entrance, drops steeply between dense brush and trees.
Rocks scatter down the winding path ahead of me from my hurried stride.
Looks like people visit often, given the wear, but only by foot and only when the weather is good. Unlike today. Soon the rain is going to make access even more treacherous.
After descending for several minutes I finally reach the opening. A damp earthy scent hits me as I walk inside. I haven’t been in many caves but they’ve all smelled the same—like something mysterious and dangerous.
Fortunately for me, my target is just a hundred yards inside the cavernous space, leaning over a rock formation with something bulky in his hands.
“Hey! What are you doing?”
The man from the bar turns to look at me, his expression first shock, then…
Maybe remorse. Maybe resignation.
His forehead creases as his shoulders sag. “I knew you’d come.”
I step deeper into the mouth of the cave, my fists clenched so hard my arms are aching. “Why did you do it?”
He tightens his hold on the pink camouflage backpack in his hand and sighs. “You won’t believe this, but I did it for Marianna.”
Rage barrels through me.
I scream so violently spit flies out of my mouth. “You took everything from her!”
The backpack falls to the floor and his hands snap up into a defensive posture. His arms are shaking and the wrinkled skin on his face is so pale a roadmap of blue veins are visible. “Son…”
“Shut. Your. Damned. Mouth. Don’t call meson.”
The beast inside of me stretches its wings and growls. I’m going to kill a defenseless old man and not give a FUCK.
Then my mind makes a sickening goddamned correlation. Peter’s close to the age of Mike—the man who saved me.
A good man. A kind man who sacrificed to give a scared, angry teenager a home.
This piece of shit… he’s nothing like Mike.
“You bastard, she trusted you.” I take a stalking step forward. “It’s sickening. You’re nothing but a greedy old man.”
He stumbles over the backpack and looks down. “I’m sorry. Sorry for her pain, but her father was going to use her and thatfarm against her until the day he takes his last breath. He was going to force her to marry that conniving freak?—”
I kick the backpack furiously, sending it flying across the cave, through a narrow river of water that’s now pouring in.
He grimaces and stutters, “D-don’t break that… It’s got fragile equipment in it.”
Blinded by rage, I seethe at him. “I’m gonna fucking break you for hurting Marianna.”
“Oh my god! Evan!” A blur of gray and yellow streaks past me.