Chapter 15 - The Cave-In"Arthur," Taylor gasped, stepping backward. "You're supposed to be in Crestwood!"
"I took a private jet," Arthur said smoothly, leveling the shotgun at us. "Evelyn doesn't trust you, Taylor. She never has. You're weak. You couldn't even freeze a six-year-old properly."
Hearing him talk about Lily with my voice sent a surge of pure, white-hot rage through my veins.
"The dead man's switch," Taylor pleaded, turning to Arthur. "He has the data rigged. If you kill him—"
"I don't care about the data," Arthur interrupted, his eyes locked onto mine. "Evelyn can hire an army of lawyers to bury the feds in paperwork. I care about the fact that this peasant shoved a piece of glass into my shoulder. I care about taking my rightful place. I’m going to paint this tunnel with him."
Arthur racked the shotgun with a deafening clack.
He aimed directly at my chest.
"Get down!" I roared.
I didn't dive away. I dove forward, grabbing Taylor by the collar of her trench coat and yanking her down behind the rusted ore cart just as Arthur pulled the trigger.
BOOM.
The roar of the shotgun in the confined tunnel was apocalyptic. A spray of buckshot shredded the top of the wooden ore cart, sending lethal splinters of wood and rust raining down on us.
But the gunshot did something else.
The concussive force of the blast slammed into the rotting, century-old timber supports lining the ceiling of the auxiliary shaft.
Above us, the mountain groaned. A deep, tectonic shifting sound that vibrated right through my bones.
Arthur froze, looking up at the ceiling. "What the hell..."
"The supports!" Taylor screamed, covering her head.
CRACK.
A massive wooden beam snapped like a twig. A shower of dust and small rocks cascaded down upon Arthur. He raised his arms, stumbling backward as panic finally broke his arrogant facade.
"You stupid bastard, you compromised the shaft!" I yelled, pulling Taylor to her feet.
"No, no, no!" Arthur screamed, raising the shotgun to fire again, completely losing his mind to panic.
BOOM.
He fired wildly into the ceiling. It was the final straw for the unstable tunnel.
With a deafening roar, the ceiling directly above Arthur gave way. Thousands of pounds of solid rock, dirt, and timber collapsed downward in a violent, crushing avalanche.
Arthur’s scream was cut instantly short as the cave-in swallowed him whole.
A thick wall of dust blew over us, blinding and choking me. I grabbed Taylor's arm and dragged her backward, coughing violently as rock continued to fall, sealing the tunnel completely.
When the dust finally settled, the beam of my flashlight revealed a solid wall of collapsed stone where my doppelganger had just been standing. Arthur Vance was gone, buried alive under tons of Texas rock.
Taylor collapsed to her knees, hyperventilating, staring at the rubble.
I stood over her, brushing the dirt from my jacket. I picked up the pistol she had dropped.
"Arthur is dead," I said coldly, pointing the gun down at her. "Now, you are going to pick up that radio, and you are going to tell your mother that I'm dead, too."
Taylor looked up at me, her hazel eyes wide with shock. "She'll never believe me."
"She will if you tell her you killed me yourself to save the family," I commanded, tossing her the radio from my belt. "Tell her you have the drive. Tell her to call off her men, or this dead man's switch activates and I take the whole Vance legacy to hell with me."
Taylor caught the radio with trembling hands. She realized she was entirely at my mercy. Her muscle was dead, her replacement husband was buried, and the only way she was walking out of this mine alive was if she did exactly what I said.
May you like
She pressed the transmit button.
"Mother," Taylor said, her voice shaking but eerily convincing. "It's done. Mark is dead. Call off the men."
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