Page 29 of Vanished in the Mist (A Mystic Lake Mystery #2)

The knife nudged Shanna in the back.

“Hurry up.” The man calling himself the Phantom pushed her, making her stumble in the dark tunnel, lit only by the flashlight he was holding. “I don’t like being downtown. Too many people. Don’t make me cut you again, or wrap your mouth in duct tape again.”

Like he’d done in the closet at the B and B.

One minute she’d been pulling her shirt over her head.

The next, a draft of cool, musty air had her turning to see a man coming through an opening in the wall.

Before she could even scream, he’d pressed a stun gun against her neck.

And before she could recover from the electrical shock, he’d shoved a cloth in her mouth and covered it with duct tape.

Thankfully he’d removed it once he was far enough away from the B and B to worry about being heard.

She could breathe much better without that rancid cloth in her mouth.

The sound of water dripping somewhere up ahead had her stopping. “Is—is there water down here?”

“It’s a mine, in a mountain full of waterfalls and creeks. What do you think? Now, go.” Once again, the knife pricked her in the back.

She jerked away from its sharp tip and forced her legs to move, to trudge forward in spite of the panic flowing through her veins.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Please don’t let this lead to water. Don’t let it be water. Please.

Finally, the tunnel began to even out, head more in what seemed like an uphill direction. She drew a relieved breath, then another. He wasn’t taking her to an underground pool of water to drown her. So where was he taking her? And why?

Focus. Think.

She tried to picture the maps she’d reviewed earlier of the old, abandoned mines in the area. But the maps were from before the deadly storms had diverted the river and flooded the old town that used to be here. Were they even reliable?

Think, Shanna. Talk to him. Get the information you need.

“If—if you tell me where we’re going, maybe I can go faster. It’s hard to follow the path in the dark.”

“Just keep going straight where my flashlight is shining. It doesn’t curve again for a quarter mile. I’ll tell you when to turn.”

She kept going, doing her best not to stumble.

She didn’t want to make him mad or fall and break a bone.

Staying healthy and able to run at the first opportunity was her only chance.

A quarter mile to the next turn? There were only two mines she remembered on the map that were that long.

The two of them had only made right turns since coming down the secret passageway at the B and B and entering this shaft.

And the musty smell was still strong, The old Cooper’s Bluff mine.

That had to be it. The other long mine would have taken them off to the left.

If they were in the Cooper’s Bluff mine, then they were heading…

She started to shake. A whimper caught in her throat. She knew exactly where this mine would end.

Keep it simple, stupid.

The bonfire clearing.

Where Tanya had disappeared. Where Jack had likely disappeared. And now—now, where she would disappear.

They were heading to the lake.

“Up ahead, there’s your right turn.”

After making the turn, she drew several bracing breaths. How far was the bonfire clearing from here? Miles. Too far to walk. Maybe he wasn’t taking her where she thought. Maybe—

“That patch of light. That’s our exit.”

Sunlight. The green of trees. This was her chance. She sped up.

He jerked her backward, a rock-solid arm around her neck. The cold steel of the knife pressed against her cheek. “You remember that knife back at the cabin? The one that other guy threw? He missed. I never miss. You try to take off and I’ll kill you. Got it?”

“G-got it,” she whispered, struggling to answer without getting cut.

He let her go, and shoved her again. She could feel the heat of him behind her as he kept close, no doubt pointing the knife at her back. She’d have to bide her time, wait for the right opportunity to escape. For now, she’d do what he said.

Kaden.

Unbidden, his image rose in her mind. What was he thinking right now?

He had to have discovered that she’d gone missing.

And she knew he was probably tearing the place apart searching for her.

But the hidden door in the closet was locked from the other side with a thick steel bar.

There was no way he’d be able to go through it even if he knew it was there.

He wouldn’t have any way of figuring out where she went.

He didn’t know about the tunnel under the B and B.

According to the Phantom, no one did. But him.

She was truly on her own.

Bright sunlight temporarily blinded her as she stepped out of the mine shaft.

Her captor chuckled as he jerked her arms behind her, using his duct tape again to tape them together.

When her sight cleared, she realized he was wearing sunglasses.

He must have put them on just before exiting the mine.

She blinked and looked around. They were in the woods, in a small clearing.

And on the other side of the clearing was a side-by-side, the exact same kind of four-wheeler that Sam had described.

Without a word, he lifted her onto the front passenger seat, then secured her with a seat belt. He held up the knife again, inches from her face, then chuckled and shoved it into a sheathe attached to the doorframe beside him.

“There’s no one around to hear you scream, so don’t bother. If you do, though, I’ll gag you again so I won’t have to listen to it.”

“Where are we going? Why are doing this to me?”

He looked at her as if he thought she’d lost her mind. “We’re kindred spirits. I’m helping you.”

“Helping me?”

“Saving you from the bullies.” His mouth scrunched in a sneer. “No one saved me. But I saved you. You should be thanking me for getting rid of that ex of yours.”

He set the vehicle in motion, racing down a well-worn path through the woods, a path that wasn’t on any of the tourist maps of the area. “They never thank me,” he complained. “Not once.”

They? Never? How many people had he done this to?

Practically feeling the heat of the anger seething in him, she said, “Thank you. For—for saving me.”

He gave her a suspicious glance. “You’re thanking me?”

“Of course.” She smiled, or tried to. “Troy made my life hell. I’m sure he would have…would have hurt me if you hadn’t been there. You protected me.”

His chin lifted and his back straightened as if with pride. “Dang straight I did.”

“Can you… Can you tell me where we’re going? Please?”

His mouth curved in a benevolent smile. “I’m taking you where you’ve wanted to go ever since you got here and started snooping around. I’m taking you to Tanya.”