Page 11 of Disappearance at Angel’s Landing (Red Rock Murders #2)

Pain. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. It felt as though a boulder was sitting on her chest. Or she’d been body-slammed again.

It had all happened so fast: the shaking; Branch’s order for her to run; the darkness. She hadn’t made it more than few steps before the first rock had knocked her to the ground.

Had it been an earthquake? Zion was positioned near four minor fault lines, but nothing had triggered anything like this in the past. That first boulder could’ve been a warning.

Exhaustion urged Lila to slip back into unconsciousness—to take away the pain—but there was something she had to do. A reason why she was here. Why couldn’t she remember?

Dust caught in her throat, and her body jerked to dispel the invasion.

Once. Twice. Searing pain shot through her side as she tried to roll onto her stomach.

She couldn’t stop the moan scraping up her dry throat.

Everything hurt, and she was dying. Curling her fingernails into the ground, she fisted a handful of what felt like gravel.

Dirt slipped into her uniform and rubbed in all the wrong ways.

She pressed one hand into her ribs, prying open gritty eyes.

Meeting nothing but darkness. The moan contorted into a whimper as she tried to take a full breath.

Her ribs screamed in protest, only allowing shaky, shallow inhales. “H-hello? Can…anyone hear me?”

No answer.

At least not any that she could hear. Sunlight filtered in from above, helping her eyes adjust to the unstable walls threatening to crush her. “Branch?”

Where was he? Was he hurt? The taste of copper filled her mouth. She swiped at it, coming away with something sticky and warm, but she couldn’t make it out clearly enough. Blood?

Lila studied the precarious positions of the boulders overhead.

One wrong move, and the entire house of cards could come down on her.

It was a miracle it hadn’t already. Sand trickled between the cracks and stole some of the sunlight, which felt like death in and of itself when she imagined being stuck without a way to see.

Being truly alone. Forgotten. She swallowed past the thin coating of dirt in her mouth.

Her bottom lip wavered with a held sob. She could do this. She had to do this.

“Help.”

Her call barely filled the too small space in which she’d been thrown.

No. Shoved. Branch had shoved her ahead of him.

He’d saved her life. Again. The sob built in her chest until it consumed what little air she’d managed to hold onto.

It was only a matter of time before this dark little hole collapsed or was filled with dirt.

She couldn’t be here for that. She had to get out.

“Branch!”

Lightning speared through her side and behind her eyes.

Tears burned down her face. Every NPS ranger was required to earn their EMT certification.

She was trained to remain calm in case of emergency and to assess any potential injuries.

Breathe. She just had to breathe. One breath.

Two. Both hurt like a mother, but prodding her fingers along the epicenter of the pain in her side, she concluded her ribs weren’t broken or cracked. Most likely bruised. She’d live.

Hopefully not in this hole.

“Okay. Step one—don’t panic. Easier said than done.

Whoever came up with that step clearly wasn’t buried under a mountain.

” Lila swiped at her face, caking dirt and tears to her hands.

Focus. There had to be a way out of here, to get to Branch.

Make sure he was alive. One step at a time. That was all she could do.

“Step two—assess for injuries.” Inventorying the rest of her body, she was grateful to find nothing but a few cuts and bruises in the low light coming through the cracks. A gash cut across her shin, but it was difficult to see the damage clearly.

Working her pack from her shoulders with nothing less than four moans and one scream, she dragged it to her chest and searched for her first aid kit, flashlight and a bottle of water.

Three large boulders had pinned her in place, with the largest overhead.

Any movement against them and she was dead.

One wrong move? Dead. Another earthquake?

Dead. Which only made escape that much harder. Great.

She curled her upper body off the ground, holding onto her ribs to contain the gut-nauseating spike in pain and unpacked her kit. “Step three—don’t die of infection.”

Alcohol pads, a little water from her bottle, her largest bandage and a few tabs of ibuprofen did the job.

“Four—figure out where the hell you are.” She hit the power button on her flashlight.

She had about three feet of space overhead, a few more to her right and only a foot or so to her left.

Smaller rocks acted as nothing but annoyances.

It was the big ones she’d have to watch out for.

Though how she was going to chest press a two-ton boulder was beyond her.

She regularly hit the weights—even managed a PR last week—but this felt a little out of her reach.

“Well, it could use some color, but otherwise, not so bad.”

Who was she kidding? This place was a hole.

Almost literally. But she hadn’t cried in a few minutes.

She’d count that as a win. Lila shifted onto her stomach, searching for…

Okay. She didn’t know. Something, anything, that might look like a Jenga piece she could pull without setting the whole tower down on top of her?

Dirt grated against her skin beneath today’s kerchief as she toed herself closer to the wall of rock ahead.

A collection of smaller boulders—the size of basketballs—were wedged tight.

The mammoth rock hanging over her head was supported by these smaller ones on this side of the death trap. “Okay. So you guys are off-limits.”

Craning the flashlight to her right, she lost count of the number of rocks squeezed into every nook and cranny between two of the largest boulders.

Those could work. They were higher off the ground.

Very little chance of causing a complete collapse with the larger boulder ready to take the weight.

Where was her architectural engineer dad when she needed him?

She stopped that thought in its tracks. She didn’t need him. She’d been doing just fine on her own.

More than fine. Maybe a little lonely with no one but a roommate she barely saw once a week—if she was lucky.

Her parents and siblings blamed her for the destruction of the family and wanted nothing to do with her, but she had a good job.

She got to work in one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Though getting trapped underneath it wasn’t great.

She could get a little obsessed with romantic comedies and probably went overboard on the Ben & Jerry’s more than she wanted to admit.

Her boss and fellow rangers avoided her at all costs, mimicking and mocking her when they thought she wasn’t paying attention.

Oh, and then there was her unhealthy crush on a man who would never see her as anything more than a coworker because of his whole messed-up past and bad attitude, but damn it, she was fine.

Where was Branch? Had he survived? Was he hurt? She wouldn’t let herself believe anything worse.

The fact was no one was coming to save her.

If she was being honest with herself, nobody cared she was out here, about to die, and wasn’t that a kick while she was down?

Risner would pretend to grieve but ultimately just want to get himself some attention.

There would be a service. She could see him now, giving some big speech where he went out of his way to tell people how close they were. The sexist asshole.

Sayles might shed a few tears, but she’d have her big, strong FBI agent boyfriend to help her through it.

The other rangers would probably use the gift cards she’d given them to go out together.

Her family considered her dead a long time ago.

And Branch… Her heart tried to tell her he wasn’t all grizzly bear and growls, but they didn’t know each other.

Nobody really knew her. Which meant, even if she got out of here, she had nothing to go back to. No one.

Gravity intensified its hold on her body. Trying to bury her in all the bad feelings. But she had her smile. She had those little pockets of happiness, even if it came bottled from the pharmacy.

“I’m not as mean as I could be, and people should be more grateful for that.

” Lila got her knees under her, her head bumping the ceiling of her little cave.

If she weren’t about to die, this would be a great shelter in the middle of a storm, but she wasn’t planning on sticking around to test that theory.

Her injured ribs squeezed, and she lost the air from her lungs.

Another moan slipped free, but she used the pain to keep her in the moment.

To focus on reaching for that first rock.

“Just like playing Jenga. Nothing to it.”

She didn’t even believe herself. The rock—about the size of her hand—came quietly, and Lila released the tension she’d held in her neck. “See? Nothing.”

The boulder overhead shuddered. Then sank another couple inches.

Her scream triggered ringing in her own ears as she flattened herself against the ground. Dust settled, a few other rocks came loose. And she waited to die with her eyes pinched tight.

Except she wasn’t dead yet. Her lungs seemed to get the message, letting go of the need to hyperventilate.

She pried her eyes open. Instantly blinded by the increased sliver of sunlight coming from between the two largest boulders.

It wasn’t much. Definitely not enough for her to crawl through, but a couple more rocks might fix that.

“Please, just let me have the chance to kiss Branch before I die.”

That was all she wanted. All she’d ever wanted. And if he was out there—hurt, alone—she had to get to him.

She collected the flashlight she’d dropped and shoved it in her pack before threading her arms through the straps.

One shot. She had to make it a good one.

Lila two-handed a basketball-size boulder and put her weight into dislodging it from its position.

The rock tumbled free, landing short of her kneecaps.

She pumped her fist gently up at the boulder threatening to end her puny existence. “Yay me.”

The next part would be the trickiest. Tricky. Tricky. Tricky. Nope. She had to down the urge to start singing Run-D.M.C. Those would not be her last words if this went poorly.

A few other rocks skittered down the slope wedged between the two boulders, but she’d managed to clear a good amount.

The breeze trickled into the cave-slash-prison, and for the first time since waking, she could really breathe.

For now. She could see trees and mountains and sky. And dirt. An entire waterfall of dirt.

Was Branch out there? Was he looking for her? Was he as worried about her as she was for him?

Grabbing for the next section of rock, Lila set each down peacefully in an attempt to not anger the earth gods. She could do this. Excruciating seconds turned into excruciating minutes as she carefully removed and set down each piece of the very dangerous puzzle.

Finally, a hole large enough she could fit through held strong.

Another sob built in her throat, but she swallowed it back.

She could have a mental breakdown after she got the hell out of here.

Preferably in the shower. With ice cream.

And one of her favorite scream-o songs on repeat. Everyone needed a self-care day.

She unshouldered her pack and tossed it through the opening. If she didn’t make it out of this, at least someone would know where she’d met her maker. No time to think. She just had to move.

Lila thrust herself through the opening.

The ledge of rock under her ribs gave out, and she sank a couple of inches.

The next scream was lost on a gust of wind as panic took control.

Clawing her nails into the dirt, she shoved through as the boulder shifted down with a rumble.

Her toes cleared the deathtrap, and Lila collapsed onto her back.

“Well, aren’t you a determined little thing?” The outline of a man cast a shadow over her from above, though she could make out his features as her vision darkened. Strong hands wrapped around her arms. “Looks like you’re coming with me.”