The man’s eyes darted to his right, and flicked back to the door. Lex followed his gaze, saw the trip wire. And another one. His heart began to slam. Smythe had rigged the whole cabin. This place was set to blow the minute he left here.
“Did you rig this place? Is that your plan?”
The man’s eyes shot to the cell phone that lay on the table. So, thought Lex, that’s probably how he was going to detonate his explosives once he’d left. Using the cell phone.
“Okay,” Lex said slowly. “I’m going to put the ring down on the table now.”
“Gun first.”
“No. I keep my gun.” Lex moved his hand to his pocket, and the guy got instantly jumpy, shoving his knife tight against Jenna’s throat.
“Easy, buddy, I’m just reaching for the ring, okay?” Lex extracted his wallet from his pocket, leaned forward, placed it on the table. “It’s in there.”
“Take it out.”
“No. You take it out.”
The man’s eyes were fixated on the wallet. His whole body began to shake with desperation to snatch the ring he believed was in the wallet. They were locked in a standoff now.
Then Lex heard it, the distant sound of approaching vehicles.
The man picked up the sound, too. Panic flared in his dark eyes behind the mask. And Lex saw him struggling mentally, pulled by the powerful lure of the ring. Abruptly the man swung his gun, fired at the lantern. The glass exploded, lantern flying back and clattering to the floor. The room went dark, small flames licking through spilled lantern fuel.
Lex saw the man lunge for the wallet and cell phone, but he couldn’t risk shooting in the flickering shadows from this angle. Instead, he moved on instinct to block Jenna’s body should the man fire.
Headlights suddenly illuminated the desert outside as FBI vehicles crested the distant ridge, and Lex saw the shadow of the assailant as he fled out the door. Flames were licking into dry wood, smoke filling the cabin. Lex quickly groped on the floor for the blade the man had dropped in his desperation to grab the ring, and he cut Jenna free. She collapsed into his arms. “Oh, thank God,” she whispered, her face wet against his neck, her body soft and beautiful in his arms. “Jenna, you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I’m fine, but Perez—”
Lex moved quickly over to his partner’s limp form, felt her neck. “She has a pulse! Get out there, Jenna! Tell them we need an ambulance. Bomb squad. And get as far away from this building as you can!”
Holding her ripped dress together, Jenna ran outside to warn the FBI team as Lex gathered Perez in his arms, and staggered out of the smoke-filled burning cabin.
It exploded behind him in a whoosh of orange, sparks brilliant in the desert sky. Fire began to crackle fiercely, and black smoke billowed up to blot the stars.
Lex stood in the dark desert with his arm around Jenna as they watched firefighters extinguish what was left of the blazing cabins. Jenna was wearing a tracksuit provided to her by a female member of the tactical response team, and had a blanket draped over her shoulders. Paramedics had checked her out, and crime scene techs had taken evidence from beneath her nails—she’d managed to gouge her assailant’s neck as he’d fought to truss her up to the rafters.
Her attacker had, however, managed to slip like a ghost into the Nevada night. He was in for a small surprise when he learned there was no diamond in Lex’s wallet.
Meanwhile, Epstein had been taken into custody, and Perez had been rushed to hospital after being stabilized on the scene.
“You think Rita is going to be okay?” Jenna said.
“I believe it with all my heart,” said Lex. “The paramedics said she was lucky. The bullet just grazed her skull. She lost a lot of blood and received a bad concussion, but she was already starting to regain consciousness when the ambulance left.” Too bad Perez hadn’t managed to get a glimpse of her assailant, thought Lex. They had no definite proof it was Smythe.
Jenna slipped her arms around his waist, holding him so tight, like she never wanted to let him go. And Lex knew immediately what he must do—take her away. Get off the case. Get the hell out of Vegas until that maniac was caught.
Until his woman was safe.
He didn’t care if it cost his job, his career, anything else, as long as he kept her.
Forever.
He was not going to allow Jenna out of his sight for a minute. His heart brimming with emotion—and purpose—Lex turned to face her. Cupping the back of her neck, he threaded his fingers up into her thick lustrous tangle of hair and tilted her jaw up with his thumb. “Jenna, I may not have had The Tears of the Quetzal on me, but I do have a diamond,” he whispered.