Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75478 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75478 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
My breath felt trapped in my chest, worried about every noise.
“Sweep the house until you find him. Don’t engage without me unless you have to.”
Rune cut the engine.
We pulled up our masks, reached for our guns, then moved out of the SUV in unison.
There was no more discussion then, just action, just men who knew what they had to do and sprang into action to do it.
I noticed again with a sort of detached interest how deftly and confidently Rune moved. Like this wasn’t his first—or second or tenth—mission.
But that was a conversation for another day.
I made my way around the house, my shoes crunching on the ground, sounding like damn cannonballs to my ears.
The basement doors were exactly where Bonnie had said. She’d even mentioned the hose hookup just beside it.
Sucking in a deep breath, I reached for one of the doors, almost not believing my luck when the door lifted outward toward me.
I made my way down the steep steps, smelling the damp, musty scent as I went deeper underground. The cool met me too; this basement clearly not heated.
There was a creak on the floor above, making my adrenaline surge through my veins, wondering if it was one of my men or if it was Will Antone himself.
Once I got to the bottom step, something underneath the dust and must met my nose.
Something metallic mixed with the more industrial scent of ammonia.
Gunpowder.
Under that, though, there was something else. It was slightly sweet and medicinal. As I stepped through the basement, the scent teased at the corners of my memory, just out of reach.
Until a third scent met my nose.
Sawdust.
For stabilization.
That sweet, medicinal scent?
That was fucking nitroglycerin.
The main component in a fucking bomb.
Fuck.
I mean, I was no expert on explosives. But I did know that nitroglycerin was unstable as fuck. In an unheated, damp basement, it was just asking for a problem.
Even just a goddamn vibration could set it off.
One gunshot and we all go up.
Fuck.
Fuck fuck fuck.
I needed to get upstairs and warn Rune and Perish.
I could die. It would be almost karmic. But I couldn’t let more of my men die on a mission I was leading.
I stepped carefully through the room, not sure where the chemicals were stashed, but damn sure not wanting to knock any over.
I tucked my gun away, knowing there was no way I could use it anyway.
Why the fuck hadn’t I packed some other weapons?
It didn’t matter.
Nothing mattered but getting us the fuck out of there.
I was almost to the interior stairs when I saw it.
A cardigan full of bright, happy colors.
It was like the fucking universe needed to remind me of Bonnie, of why I was here, of what I wanted to go home to.
I grabbed it before starting up the stairs.
I was almost to the top when there was a slam upstairs, followed by grunts and more pounding sounds.
Someone was fighting.
“Don’t,” I called, running the rest of the way up, but the door didn’t give.
I lifted a hand, ready to pound, before remembering the goddamn explosives.
“Don’t fucking fight!” I yelled through the door.
The lock on the door slid, then the door was opening. And there was Perish.
“Don’t shoot. Don’t knock anything over. And for fuck’s sake, stop—“ I started to bark out orders.
But it was right then that Will broke away from Rune.
I had a split second to see the wild look in his eyes. And just below it, the dark sort of glee as he ran toward the basement door.
I didn’t try to stop him.
“Out!” I roared to Rune and Perish.
To their credit, they didn’t ask questions. They didn’t even hesitate.
They turned and ran toward the front door, flying out and down the front path with me on their heels.
“Go, go, go,” I yelled as Rune jumped into the driver’s seat and turned the SUV over.
Perish climbed in.
“Go!” I screamed at Rune even before I was fully inside the SUV.
He reversed down the drive as I dropped my ass into the seat, my door still wide open.
And it was right then that the entire fucking house exploded.
The sound was as deafening as I remembered, and all three of us ducked at the sound, at the way the whole fucking ground shook below the car.
But to Rune’s credit, even that didn’t slow him down as he flew down the street.
I could see Perish’s lips moving, but I couldn’t make out the words, hearing nothing but my own blood pounding in my ears, that strange high-pitched screaming sound that came from the pressure of the explosion.
For a moment, my mind flashed back.
And suddenly, I was somewhere overseas.
I was flying on my back. I was being covered with rubble.
It was the material in my hand when my fingers curled into fists that had the memory slipping away again, leaving me back in the present.