Page 16 of The Villain

“The letter brought you to a ghost.”

I frowned. “Yeah. Something like that.” I banded my arms over my chest and looked at Harm before settling my gaze on Ty.“Where’s Rhys?”

“He left with Merritt for the day.”

It was a small miracle that I wouldn’t have to endure Rhys’s probing stare, too, when he learned the truth.

“How’s Athena?” Rob probed, hoisting herself back onto the table where she’d been sitting.

I glanced at my brother, his heavy look warning me that harder questions were coming.

“Blind. Confused. Afraid.”All the things she should be.“She doesn’t remember anything about the explosion—doesn’t even remember being at her house.”

“And she doesn’t remember you?”

Here we go.

“No, but it’s been a long time, and she can’t see me.”

“But when you talk to her…”

“If a voice was that identifiable, The Masked Singer wouldn’t be a damn show,” I ground out. “Can we move on?—”

“Are you going to tell her?”

Dammit.Guess not. “No.”

“Dare—”

“Is it relevant to her safety? To our duty?To anything?” I ground out, the frustration and anger of the last twenty-four hours draining into my voice. I hadn’t done anything—ate, slept,moved—because I wanted to be there when she woke up.As though it mattered.For some reason, it mattered to me. “Unless you can prove that telling her who I am will make hersafer,this discussion is over.” My fist balled against my side, and I looked to Ty, hoping I could count on him for a rational discussion. “Did you get the security feeds? Any update on the bomb or who planted it?”

“I went back yesterday to return the truck you borrowed, and local PD was at the scene with Hadrian,” Harm began and stepped forward, extending his hand with my motorcycle keys, which I quickly took.

“Good.” The band around my chest loosened a little.

Hadrian Mills was an explosives expert and was currently employed by Armorous Tactical, a large, elite private security company just outside San Francisco.

“He said, based on his initial sweep of the scene, it lookslike it was an amateur bomb. Something about the pattern and radius of the blast,” Harm continued. “He also said he’s pretty confident the bomb was remote detonated, but he won’t know for certain until he examines all of the debris and will call with an update when he does.”

“Doesn’t make sense,” I said gruffly and dragged my hand along my jaw until I found the ridge of my scar. “Why not trigger the bomb when she was back in the car?”

“Maybe killing her wasn’t the bomber’s intent,” Ty suggested.

“Or there was a timer,” Rob said.

“Hadrian thinks it was a remote?—”

“A remote that triggered a timer,” she interrupted and shot me a glare that warned me to let her finish. “Think about it. Amateur bomb with a remote detonator?” She shook her head. “The transmission radius was probably small—forty? Fifty feet?—from the trigger to the bomb. If he couldn’t trigger the bomb from farther away, the only other way to compensate and give himself time to get away before the blast would be to have it activate a timer.”

“So, Athena exits her house and heads for the car. The bomber starts the timer, thinking she’s getting right into her car and giving himself time to get away…”

“But then you stop her,” Harm finished. “Even if the bomber could disarm it, he would be too far away at that point, possibly to even realize his plan was going awry.”

I grunted. It was a solid theory, but I wouldn’t be satisfied with anything less than certainty. “What about the footage?”

Ty answered this time. “Doorbell cam from across the street only saves the last forty-eight hours, and the footage is pretty limited. There’s a good shot of Athena’s car, so I can tell you no one planted the bomb while she was at home, so either it was planted before that window or?—”

“It was planted somewhere else,” I finished, tracing my scar again until I caught Rob staring, and I quickly lowered my hand.

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