“Abby!” As she grew closer, Stone’s rage swelled. In the beams of the flashlights carried by Tyree and her guard Abby’s face clearly showed the beating she’d endured.

Stone lunged at Tyree, but with his hands behind his back, he was easily subdued.

“I will kill you,” he said quietly to Tyree.

“I see it the other way around,” the warden replied calmly.

They walked on, Abby next to him while Knox shot curious glances at them.

“Abby, what happened?” Stone whispered to her.

“They came to the house and got me. Maybe killed the man Tyree had guarding me, I don’t know for sure.”

“Why would they want you?”

“Something to do with Danny.”

“So he is mixed up in this?”

A sob slipped from Abby’s mouth. She just nodded mutely.

Stone was going to say something else, but a billy club hit him in the back.

“No more talking,” the warden snapped.

Stone lost track of time. Minutes or hours, he couldn’t tell down here in the black of a mountain’s bowels. He couldn’t imagine spending his life down here on his hands and knees digging out rock. Digging his own grave.

Knox, Stone and Abby were suddenly grabbed and told to stay still. The two guards ran ahead and Stone could hear scraping sounds, large things being moved and the grunts and curses of the men doing that heavy moving.

Up ahead the darkness suddenly turned a bit lighter.

Tyree pushed them forward. Stone and Knox exchanged a glance. Neither knew exactly what was going to happen in the next few seconds. Stone kept as close to Abby as he could. If need be he would shield her with his body. He strained against the cuffs, trying to free himself. They probably only had a few seconds left.

They ducked down and came out into a moonlit night. Freedom at last from Dead Rock. Except for the cuffs and the men with guns surrounding them. And except for the fact that their lives were about to end. Stone could hardly believe that what many men with special skills had tried to do and failed, a pudgy warden from a backwater hole-in-the-wall was going to succeed in doing. Kill him. And yet as he glanced over at Abby, he felt far worse for her. The truth was he should have been dead long ago. He had done things that he deserved to die for. But not Abby. It shouldn’t end this way for her. And he told himself he would do everything in his power to prevent the woman’s life from ending violently here on this high rock.

Stone glanced around. They appeared to be in the middle of mountainous forest, but as his eyesight adjusted he was able to make out a wide path that had been cut through the heavy brush.