Run to Ground(106)

Instead, the beeping stopped.

All remained silent. Letting out a harsh breath, Theo removed the hidden blasting cap from the box, placing it on a shelf as far from the explosives—and him—as he could reach. He disconnected the first cap he’d noticed, again waiting for the boom as his cutters sank into the insulated wire. The beeping had stopped, but Theo didn’t know if he’d successfully disarmed the bomb.

“Did you do it?” Jules whispered, as if a too-loud voice might set off the explosives.

“Think so.” He returned to crouch by her feet, picking up the bolt cutters again. “But we should get out of here anyway.”

Jules huffed a half laugh. “I’m all for that plan.”

Theo slid the tool next to her hip, reaching the handcuff chain from underneath. With this new angle, he was able to get a better grip with the cutters. Pulling the long handles together, he made the heavy blades bite down on the links until the metal parted with a snap.

With an inhaled gasp that sounded very close to a sob, Jules threw her arms around his neck and hugged him, hard. The remains of the handcuffs dug into his upper back, but Theo didn’t mind. It reminded him that he was alive—and so was Jules. Something damp touched his arm, and he looked down to see Viggy trying to insert the bedraggled penguin into their embrace. Theo dropped a hand to the dog’s head and rubbed his ears.

“Let’s get out of here,” Jules said, her voice muffled against his chest. With a glance at the bakery box that held such deadly contents, Theo gave that plan his enthusiastic agreement.

“Agreed. Let’s go.”





Chapter 21


Of course he had come for her, her cranky white knight with his battered but not broken K9 partner in tow. She didn’t know why she’d doubted it, when he’d been there every other time her life had been in danger—and even when it hadn’t—over the crazy past few weeks.

He helped her to her feet, which had gone shaky from fear and cold. When Jules swayed, catching his shoulder to keep her balance, Theo frowned and bent as if to lift her in his arms.

“No,” she said. He gave her an appraising look, and she knew any hint of weakness on her part would lead to him scooping her up and carrying her from the building. “I’ve been too much of a damsel in distress already today. I want to walk out of here.”

Although he frowned, the lines on his forehead predicting an onset of stubbornness, he didn’t push the issue. Instead, he stepped back, allowing her to take her first, admittedly shaky, steps out of the cooler. As soon as she got her legs under control, she moved quickly toward the back door, wanting to leave the place as fast as possible from the closest exit.

Behind her, Theo spoke, making her jump. She twisted her head toward him, but once she realized he was talking on his portable radio, she resumed her quick almost-run to the door.

“Let the bomb guys know I removed two blasting caps, but the explosives are still live. I have Jules, and we’re exiting through the north side of the building.”

The smooth release bar was under Jules’s hands again, and she shuddered as she remembered her first escape attempt of the morning. This time, though, nothing was going to stop her. She shoved the bar down, letting her weight carry her forward into the new morning sun.

“Wait! Jules!”

She tried to turn, but all her momentum was carrying her forward, and she stumbled farther into the alley instead.

“What is it?” she started to ask, but her words trailed away as she saw the look on his face. Her gaze followed his, and her stomach cramped at the sight of Sherry stepping out from behind a dumpster only ten feet away.

She held a cell phone in one hand and a matte-black gun in the other—a gun pointed right at Jules for the second time that morning. “It didn’t work,” she said in a strangely conversational tone. “Gordon promised me it would work, but it didn’t.”

With horror, Jules realized the cell phone was some sort of remote-control device for setting off the bomb. If Theo hadn’t disarmed it, they would all be in pieces.

Theo took a step toward Jules. “Sherry—”

“No!” She raised the gun another inch, keeping it aimed at Jules’s chest. Looking grim, Theo stopped advancing on Sherry, his gaze shifting between Jules and the gun. She was having a hard time believing the whole situation was real. They’d been so close to safety, so close to being okay, but then Sherry had yanked the rug out from under them yet again. “I don’t want to hear anything you have to say, Theo Bosco! If you hadn’t been such a selfish prick, my dad would still be alive.”