Page 45 of Two Hearts' Subterfuge

But then her eyes went wide as she took a harder look at one of them. “Wait a minute. I don’t want to scroll away from your video. Could you focus in on this guy for me, Ben?” she asked, pointing at the man wearing a stocking cap that she was certain she’d seen a few minutes earlier.

He grimaced, reaching for the tablet and enlarging the man’s face before handing it back to Aylin.

“I could see the curls sticking out from under the stocking cap. I’m pretty sure I just saw this guy, and it’s definitely him.” And then she studied him harder, her eyes going wide. “Oh, my God, Ben. I can’t believe it. This is my brother, Beau. I didn’t recognize him with all that hair and the beard. He’s supposed to be serving time in an institution.”

“We’d better get a hold of your dad and mine right away,” Ben muttered. “What in the heck could he be up to?”

“I don’t know,” she replied, feeling dazed. “Mom was certain he could be rehabilitated, even though Dad and I weren’t so sure. But if he was released from the institution, why doesn’t anyone seem to know about it?”

* * *

“Was there anything missing from those storage sheds?” Dad asked as Aylin switched her phone to speaker. Dad had beenshocked to discover that Beau was no longer in the psychiatric institution where he’d been living instead of serving time.

“No, Dad. Ben said that according to the groundskeeper, everything inside each shed appeared to be organized, just the way he’d left everything in the fall,” she replied.

“Was there anything inside those sheds that he didn’t remember seeing there before?”

“Ben?” she asked, raising a brow.

Ben scratched his head. “There was one thing. Max couldn’t understand how he’d overordered so much fertilizer last year.”

“Ben. This is an important question,” Dad said tersely. “What kind of fertilizer? Someone needs to read the label.”

“Let me send Max a text and ask,” Ben answered.

Suddenly spitting out a bunch of cuss words after reading what Max texted back, Ben growled, “Ammonium nitrate. Don’t worry, sir. I know what it means when ammonium nitrate is combined with fire. I’ll call the bomb squad. Meanwhile, we need to evacuate the Inn. One of the wooden gardening sheds is located immediately across the road near the equipment building where our plows and transport vans are parked.”

Ben was still cursing as he disconnected, calling his father on Aylin’s phone.

“Dad,” he said quickly. “The fertilizer that was stocked in those sheds is composed of ammonium nitrate.That’s what it’s all about.Revenge. Most likely against us—mein particular.”

“Get those fire alarm sirens running throughout the Pointe, Ben.Hopefully, they’re still just getting their plan into place, and nothing’s already rigged to go off. We need to get everyone away from Dragonfly Pointe.”

* * *

Two hours later, Ben was staring at the craziness around him, relieved that they’d somehow managed to evacuate all the guests from the Pointe, while the bomb squad moved out the chemicals by way of the lake.

The twelve-man bomb squad was making one final sweep of the property, and once it was cleared, both guests and employees would be welcome to return.

All it would have taken was a lit fire at each location. After trimming branches and chopping up fallen limbs and debris, the extra ground crew they’d hired to do the spring cleanup had conveniently stacked lumber near each of the wooden sheds located throughout the Pointe. An accelerant at each location would have been all that was needed to set the saboteur’s plan into motion.

How much this thwarted threat would affect business, he couldn’t say, although this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened. Years earlier, a bomb had been planted on a vehicle in the parking lot and dismantled. But if it had gone off, the destruction would not have been on such a horrific scale—except for possibly ending the lives of undercover agent Rand McAllister, along with Ciara Ryan, who was now his wife.

He glanced over to where he’d left Aylin, beside the two girls who worked for her. They’d decided that the Inn’s shop owners and employees would be safe enough sticking around since there was no accelerant detected at any of the sheds where the ammonium nitrate had been stacked.

But where was she?He spent the next five minutes scrambling through the crowd until he felt himself begin to panic.

He could see Dad standing over in the road, talking to a few members of the bomb squad. The situation was obviously deescalating as members of law enforcement were preparing todepart. Dad could easily convey all the details to other members of the FBI once they were on scene.

“Dad?” he called out across the road after searching the crowd.“Have you seen Aylin?”

“It’s been about twenty minutes since I last saw her, son,” Dan yelled. “Try giving her a call.”

And when he reached for his phone, he stilled, closing his eyes while exhaling a ragged breath.

Ben couldn’t call Aylin becausehe still had her phone.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

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