Page 87 of Protected By Her Mate

I suspect if the only thing I was good at was tying my shoelaces, you’d still be enamoured by me.

Very true.

“Over here.” The guard shows us to a large boiler room, pointing at a corner containing a hot water tank, then backing away. “I should get back upstairs.”

To my brother and Magdalene, I say, “You go, too. There’s no point in all of us being here.”

Lock shakes his head. “I’m not going anywhere with my family in danger. You might need an extra pair of hands.”

“The only hands needed are mine,” Charlie pipes in, her voice muffled from the helmet. “The rest of you need to leave.”

“Tick, tick, tick!” Magdalene says loudly. “Can we agree none of us are leaving except the smart human who’s hightailing it outta here?”

Charlie proceeds into the boiler room, the loud sound of several heating units working overtime making it so we have to shout at each other to be heard. “Over here!” Charlie points at a what looks like a suitcase leaning against a wall.

She kneels awkwardly in front of it, examining it, then looks up and around, a frown marring her brows.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“I’m certain this is a load bearing wall. If the bomb were to go off, the blast would be enough to weaken the structure significantly, but it’s unlikely to bring the whole building down.” She chews her lip as she thinks. “Two would do it if there was another bomb against the opposite load-bearing wall.”

I straighten and turn to Lock and Magdalene, shouting, “We need to look for another bomb.”

I crouch next to Charlie as she opens the container, glancing at the bomb before looking up at me. “I hate that you’re here with me. Please leave, Lennox. I can’t concentrate when you’re in danger. I need to – ”

“Not happening,” I cut her off. “Just do your best. If you can’t disarm it, then you’ll get to see just how fast I can run.”

Offended, she says, “Of course I can disarm it.” Then she adds, “Can you contact Dale and tell him where to send the bomb disposal unit when they arrive?”

I send the message to her Chief.

“You need to let Charlamagne know what’s going on in case the other targets are facing a similar setup.”

I snap a picture of the bomb and send it to Charlamagne who says he’ll pass the information on. Then he gives me a message to pass on to Charlie, “Captain says two bombs were found at the Washington Monument and they’re being disarmed as we speak.”

“Good,” Charlie says, then, “I found the timer. This bomb is set to go off in 52 minutes.”

She looks up at me. “If all the bombs are meant to go off within minutes of each other, that doesn’t give us a lot of time to find the ones we don’t know the locations of.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I try to reassure her. “There are plenty of competent people out there working fast to find them. Concentrate on this one so I can get you out of here.”

“Done,” Charlie says, pushing herself up with difficulty.

“You’re done already?” I ask, surprised.

She grins through her visor. “It’s not like the movies with all those red and green wires. Most bombs contain the same basic ingredients. This one is pretty simple. I just needed to find and remove the detonator. There’s no dead man’s switch, so we’re good to go.”

Relief floods me and I hug her so hard she squirms. My wolf is elated at her survival, telling me now is a good time to fuck our mate. I push my horny beast back and take Charlie’s hand.

When we emerge from the boiler room, Magdalene shouts from down the hall, “Over here!”

We rush toward her, entering what looks like a storage room. There’s another container exactly like the other set against a wall, except this one is open. Dropping to her knees, Charlie inspects the interior.

Lock hovers over her. “I opened it and there’s a fair number of explosives inside and fifty-two minutes on the timer.”

Charlie gapes at him through her shield. “Don’t open the containers! There could be a trigger.”

He shrugs. “There wasn’t.”

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