Wilderness Peril by Elizabeth Goddard

Author:Elizabeth Goddard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2013-10-15T04:00:00+00:00

THIRTEEN

Rick sat atop the backhoe, maneuvering the joystick levers to dig dirt and dump it in a pile. The skill had taken him several hours to grasp and he was still way too clumsy. To be worthy of his hire, it would take him weeks to master this. But thankfully they were too short handed to be picky about his abilities. Regardless of his haphazard maneuvering, the dirt would end up in the jig that pretty much automated the panning-for-gold process.

Though gray skies loomed, the full brunt of the storm held off, only teasing them with cold sprinkles and threatening them with more. So they continued to work through the afternoon.

The smell of diesel that fueled the excavator sent his mind back to his time in Afghanistan, to military caravans on backcountry desert roads. His thoughts hovered over the vicious fighting he’d witnessed and participated in as part of his job. You either grew numb in order to survive or your senses were heightened to every sound. Every smell. You turned to God, as had been his case, or you turned to something else. At first, Aiden had chosen the bottle.

With the men standing around him, a few of them controlling the others with their weapons, he could almost imagine he was in a war zone. He had the sense that these men had shut themselves off from feeling. There was no sympathy to appeal to, no hope that he could convince one of the men to help him. He and Shay were on their own in a situation that was only a step away from descending into pure chaos.

Though the men didn’t tell him much, he’d learned that they were bringing in only a few ounces of gold a day, and Kemp had had to cash in that gold to keep the operation going.

But gold flakes or pieces weren’t like the nuggets Kemp had supposedly promised the man he owed.

Rick watched Shay over at the shaker wash pan helping another guy clean it out. He hated that Kemp had kept them separated like this, but tonight he would insist they stay together so he could protect her. Kemp had all the proof he needed after last night’s assault that Shay wasn’t safe on her own. And what about his brother? Was Aiden safe, wherever it was they’d stashed him?

He watched every man, guarding or working, to see if anyone disappeared or went with a plate of food to one of the buildings where Aiden might be kept. But he saw nothing.

His stomach growled. It had to cost a small fortune to keep these men fed. The crack of a rifle rang out in the distance and Rick stiffened, all his senses on alert.

He reminded himself that he wasn’t in the Middle East now. He wasn’t a marine anymore. He shoved his focus back to digging dirt, watching the camp and forming an escape plan in case plan A involving the airplane didn’t work.

An hour later, he spotted one of the men hauling in a four-point buck.

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