Page 92 of Forged in Peril

Even though her own sense of time felt hopelessly warped, she could still read the clock on the wall, and the delivery van had been sitting down there for a while now.

Had it been coincidentally delayed from entering FBS, or did someone suspect something?

She felt a small spark of hope igniting within her chest, and she did not seek to quash it.

It was better to dwell on hope, however small, than on sadness or fear.

Perhaps Grace had found out about the early delivery before she’d made it to Austin and had alerted security that something was off.

It was possible, but Bristol feared it was more likely that she would have assumed it was nothing more than a mistake, especially considering how disorganized she had been in getting the order together.

Well played, Jaclyn.

A scheduling error was what everyone would assume… unless Cam had decided to go over Gabe’s head and investigated further.

Her heart ached.

Had she told him everything she’d remembered about Grapas as soon as the memories had resurfaced, he might have believed her. But with only a suspicious phone call and an unscheduled delivery, she doubted he had any reason to suspect that anything was amiss.

She glanced over at the window.

The street–and her freedom–were so painfully close.

Even now, there were people everywhere, all around her, people that could have helped her.

Instead, as always, she’d chosen to rely on herself, and there was nothing she could do but watch as Jaclyn caressed the gun like a child in her arms.

CAMERON

Cameron paced behind Ben’s computer chair as his brother’s hands flew over the keyboard.

They’d missed things in Jaclyn’s records, all right.

The kind of things that could get them all killed.

He reached down and touched the gun at his belt, reassured by the presence of its cool metal. He forced himself to breathe, feeling the weight of the bulletproof vest that Reilly had just strapped over his chest.

On one of Ben’s several spare monitors, he could see the security camera feed of the legal department. Just as before, he could see Bristol and Jaclyn through the window in her office door. They were still small and pixelated, but it was a much better view on the larger screen.

Jaclyn had pulled the gun off of the desk, and for a moment, Cameron was certain that he had made a terrible mistake by leaving Bristol there.

Instead of raising it, however, Jaclyn had simply taken the weapon onto her lap.

He could see nothing beneath the edge of her desk, but neither she nor Bristol moved, and their faces looked largely calm.

Still, waiting to act was killing him.

Gabe and Asher were both pacing along with him, near Ben’s office door. Each had his phone to his cheek, and Cam could make out snatches of conversation.

It was obvious that Gabe was talking to Allie, their liaison at SAPD, and Asher was coordinating their own guys, including calling in several operatives who were currently off-site.

Cam struggled to focus, unable to sit down, let alone to sit still.

All he could do was think about bursting through that door, running upstairs, and saving Bristol.

Every minute that he managed to keep waiting felt like a hard-won victory.

At last, he watched as his eldest brother hung up the call.

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