We reached the main 1880 tunnel, and I almost let myself relax. Even if we all collapsed here, someone would find us. The distance the train had covered in five minutes took twenty to walk. We reached the first chamber, where the tunnels split in three directions, and my dad shouted, running for us with a search party on his heels.
“Grandpa!” Rose dropped my hand and ran for him. He fell to his knees and threw his arms around her, his shoulders shaking. “I’m okay,” she promised.
Exhaustion slammed into me, and my steps slowed as I neared them. “We found her—”
Dad gripped my coat and pulled. I slipped to the ground, and he wrapped his arm around my back. His breaths were ragged, and I laid my head on his shoulder as he regained his composure.
“Thank you.”
I didn’t need to look to know that he spoke to Cam.
“I didn’t have to carry her this time,” Cam replied, and I smiled despite the weariness creeping into my bones.
When Dad felt together enough to rise, we piled into the train. Art drove after telling Cam he damn well knew what he was doing. Dad sat across from me with Rose tucked under his arm, and I rested my head on Cam’s chest.
“I’m so tired,” I told him as the train took off.
“Adrenaline letdown.” He pressed a kiss against my forehead.
“Same with you?” I asked as the train sped toward the light and fresh, clean air.
“I’m not done yet.” His muscles were coiled with tension, but he still held me gently as we came to a stop at the gatehouse.
Xander stood at the structure, giving an interview to some news channel, and I wondered how much time had passed. The crowd erupted when they saw us, and Charity sprinted from the side of the tunnel, sobbing wordlessly as she ran for her daughter.
Dad lifted Rose over the side of the car, and Charity enveloped her in her arms.
“Thank you!” she cried at Dad, then pulled back from Rose long enough to examine her face.
“Thank Cam,” Dad answered.
But Cam wasn’t watching the reunion. His eyes were narrowed on Xander, malice pouring off him in waves.
“Cam,” I whispered.
He dropped his eyes to mine, and they didn’t soften, but he gently stroked the bridge of my nose with his fingertip, then looked at my father.
“I make no excuses for what’s about to happen.”
That was our only warning. He climbed from the train onto the platform and charged at Xander.
“There you are, Cam! I was just giving an update!” I heard Xander’s voice despite the thirty feet that separated us. Then I heard his breath expel in a gush as Cam pinned him to the side of the building.
“Cam!” Gideon shouted, racing after him.
I scrambled to the deck and ran.
“How could you?” Cam screamed. “How the hell could you do that to her? She was nine, you asshole! Nine! And you shoved her into that tunnel and slammed the door on her goddamned face!”
I skidded to a halt, realizing that Cam had figured it out, too. He’d been so silent on the trek back here that I wondered if he’d come to the same conclusion I had when I saw the bloodstains. My bloodstains.
“What?” Gideon questioned, voicing pretty much everyone’s exact thought.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Xander countered, putting his hands against the rock, showing the world that he wasn’t the aggressor here.
“I’m talking about you killing your headlamp and shoving Willow into that damned tunnel. You’re the one who broke her nose! Why? Why would you do that? Why would you leave her there?”
“You have no proof! You sound as crazy as Dad!” Xander’s eyes bugged out.
“I remember,” I said loud enough for Xander to hear. His eyes snapped to mine. “The headlamp died, and you said to keep our hands on the wall. But then there was a rush of air, and you pushed me. I stumbled back, and when I tried to run forward to get back to where we’d been, you slammed the door. I woke up on the ground, and when I backed away, I didn’t see the ledge in the dark and tumbled right over it.” Where I then lay for hours until Cam found me, not remembering exactly what brought me there in the first place.
Xander shook his head. “No, Willow, you must be confused.”
Cam pressed his forearm across Xander’s throat. “Try again.”
Gideon stepped forward, but his father stopped him, putting a hand on his shoulder.
“I’m not,” I snapped. “I didn’t remember until I saw the blood. It’s still on the door, Xander.”
He blanched. “I was coming back for you!” His eyes swung to Cam’s. “I was going back for her. I thought if she was missing for a few hours, and I found her…” He shook his head. “I was fourteen! I was a stupid kid!”
“She was nine!” Cam shouted, shoving Xander harder against the frame. “Nine! And you left her there bleeding and hurt so you could go back and rescue her? Are you fucking kidding me?”
“She was fine! See, she’s fine!”
“Because I found her! Because I slid down fifty feet of a mine shaft and then pushed her up every foot of it to get her out. She’s fine because of me!” Veins bulged in Cam’s neck, and for the first time, I worried that he might really kill Xander.
“I would have found her if you hadn’t ripped the headlamp off my head and run!” Xander shouted. “You ruined it. You ruin everything.”
Cam pushed off Xander, putting a foot of space between them, and Gideon relaxed next to me. “This is what you really are? Under all the polish and the PR, you’re just a pile of shit.” Cam shook his head. “I thought you were the best of us. You were the golden boy. You were going to change the world, Xander. That’s why I took the fall for you that night when you set the bunkhouse on fire.”
There was a collective gasp, and my heart broke. The very thing he’d been condemned for in this town hadn’t even been his sin. He’d taken it from his brother.
“That’s not—”
“Shut up! I saw you! I couldn’t figure out what you were doing with the hose from the mine’s water tank until I saw you throw the torch.”
My head felt light, and I swayed on my feet.
“No one was in there! Everyone was outside at the bonfire.” His eyes darted toward me. “At least they were supposed to be.”
“So, what? You were just going to put the fire out and call yourself a hero?” Cam shouted. “Instead you sat there. Holy shit. You watched Sully crawl out. You watched me go in. You stood there the whole time, didn’t you?”