Page 14 of Fear the Reaper
“I don’t know, Star. But you can’t fall apart on me right now.”
“Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do!”
I measured my words carefully while inhaling deeply. “Like I was saying, now is not the time to fall apart. You can crash after we find out who this asshole is—”
“And I kick him hard in the nuts, right? Because it’s the least I can do.”
I hid a smile but nodded. “That’s right. So, are you in?”
She paused before her shoulders rose and fell. Star looked me in the eyes and I could see rage flaring in her.
“Let’s do this.” She folded her arms.
“Okay. First thing’s first. We find whoever is listening on the other end of those devices. But, we should get you to pack a few things. When you go back into the house, be silent. Don’t speak. Do not drop anything. Just grab what you need, and we can go.”
“Where will we go?”
“Don’t worry. I got this.”
We scrambled from the car and made our way back into the house. I watched as she tiptoed through the house, picking up a few things and shoving them into a duffle bag. Once she was gone up the stairs, I wandered through a sunroom I hadn’t bothered checking them exited the house through a side door. The garage was locked from the front and the only other access was through the house. I quirked a brow at the red corvette that sat in the space. I didn’t think she had a clue about cars, but this little beauty impressed me.
Slowly, I walked around it, inspecting every bit of it I could. I looked through the windows to find a black leather interior and an updated sound system. But as the beauty of the machine caused my breath to hitch, an overly familiar sound caught my attention.
Strange, sometimes we miss things in the world, all because we were breathing. The chaos around us, even when silent, the hum of life tend to draw our minds away from the bad things right under our noses.
Curious, I slipped to my knees, I braced my palms to the concrete floor and peered under the luxury car. There it was, red number ticking down. From the looks of it, we only had two minutes before it went off.
Weird. When had that been placed there?
It dawned on me someone was watching Star’s home still. They wouldn’t have known Star was home otherwise. I tried racking my mind. There hadn’t been anyone out front and to be certain, I’d found a back way into the property. The only explanation was that the listening devices had indeed been active.
“Shit!” I growled.
I surged to my feet and motored into the house. “Star!” I shouted.
She poked her head out of the office. “I thought you said we had to be quiet!” She whispered fiercely.
“No time for that. We have to go now!” I grabbed her arm and began heading for the back door. Even as I did, I reached into the back of my waist and pulled out the Glock I’d stashed there.
“But my bag!”
“No, Star! Move!” I barked.
She stumbled against something, but I merely pulled her back to her feet and pushed her toward the door. Though she had no idea for the reason of my urgency, the numbers were counting down inside my head. We had about forty seconds left.
I wasn’t sure how big the fallout for the bomb would be. But I knew with the oils and gasoline in that car, we couldn’t move far enough fast enough. The farthest away we could get in the little time we had left, the better. To make matters worse, I could hear footsteps storming up the path at the front of the house and voices yelling togo around back!
“Reaper!”
“I know.” I shifted so my body blocked hers. From time to time I looked back to make sure we were out of the line of fire. We were barely to the car when the searing sound of an explosion about to go off filled the air followed by a loudboom! I wrapped my arms around Star’s waist from behind, pulled her into my chest as the shockwave lifted me off my feet. We sailed through the air, Star pressing her face into my neck and landed on the far side of our SUV. She moaned with my weight on top of her but I didn’t move. Debris hit the ground around us. The only burn on my body was against the back of my leg. I shook it and the debris fell off. I was pretty sure I’d have a mark there—what’s another scar on my war ravaged body?
When I lifted my head, my ears were ringing like crazy. “You okay?”
“You’re heavy.”
I chuckled and eased to my feet. I shoved the gun back into my waist before reaching down for her. She had a cut against her left thigh from hitting the ground. “We have to get out of here.”
“They blew up my house!” Star was incredulous as I bounded her into the vehicle.
