Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
The first explosion had Tiny freezing where he stood, but he’d started moving and was halfway to Ryleigh when the second one went off. He had to make sure she was safe! He had no idea what was happening, but it was serious, whatever it was. Explosions like the ones going off outside the lodge weren’t accidental. One, maybe. But two?
No, something bad was going on, and he had to get to Ryleigh.
Instead of getting down, as he’d hoped, she’d run toward the dance floor. For the youngest of Cora and Pipe’s foster kids. Max was standing stock still, crying. Ryleigh reached him just before he got to them both. Tiny didn’t hesitate to snatch them up in his arms, and rush them away from the windows.
Scenarios shot through his head. Snipers. RPGs. Gas leaks. He had no idea what the threat was, only that there was a threat.
He went to his knees and huddled against the wall, putting his body between Ryleigh and Max and the nearest windows. He felt, more than heard, Ryleigh’s phone ringing. It was in her back pocket, and her ass was pressed against his leg where he held her tightly.
Her head came up and her gaze met his. She took one arm from around Max and reaching for her phone.
Everything moved as if in slow motion for Tiny. He wanted to tell her not to answer it. That they were in the middle of an unknown situation, and besides, all their friends were already here. No one should be calling her. Not right now. It was too much of a coincidence, and Tiny knew deep in his bones that whoever was on the other end wasn’t calling to say hello.
Pandemonium reigned around them. Babies were bawling, his friends were trying to calm the invited guests, and pretty much every adult was trying to figure out if anyone was hurt. What had happened. But Tiny’s attention was focused on Ryleigh.
Max squirmed in her grasp. He’d seen his sister and wanted to go to her. Ryleigh let go of him, but kept her eyes on the boy as he ran across the room to his oldest sister, Joyce, who was in a huddle with her other siblings, Cora, and Pipe.
The phone in Ryleigh’s hand continued to vibrate. Whoever was on the other end wasn’t hanging up. He or she wanted to talk to her with a determination that made the hair on Tiny’s arms stand up.
“Unknown,” Ryleigh whispered, turning the phone to show Tiny.
He wanted to take the phone from her, throw it across the room, but whatever was happening needed to be played out. And if the person on the other end was somehow responsible, they needed to know .
“What if it’s him? My dad? What if he did this?” Ryleigh whispered.
“He’s in prison. It can’t be him,” Tiny said, not really believing his own words. There was only one person he could think of who wanted to do harm to The Refuge.
Harold Lodge.
But Ryleigh shook her head. Her eyes no longer held the excitement and happiness that had been there just minutes ago. That Tiny had loved seeing so much. She once more looked like the paranoid and wary woman he’d watched over after she’d admitted lying to everyone to get the job at The Refuge.
Tiny wrapped his hand around her nape, the only thing he could think of at the moment to show her that she wasn’t alone. That whatever was going to happen when she answered the phone would go down with him by her side. He and Ryleigh may not have exchanged vows that day, but everything Brick had said, he’d felt. And he thought Ryleigh felt the same way.
Ryleigh took a deep breath…and answered the phone. She put it on speaker, and she and Tiny bent over the phone so they could hear what was said over the voices of their friends.
“Hello?”
“Hello, daughter dear.”
Ryleigh’s eyes widened and her pupils dilated in fear. Tiny tightened his grip on her nape, doing what he could to reassure her.
“What…how…where are you?” she asked.
“That’s not important. It sounds as if things are kind of crazy there,” Harold Lodge said with a small laugh.
“What did you do?” she demanded .
“Nothing much. Just blew up two cabins. I made sure no one was in them first though. Doesn’t that give me some brownie points?”
Ryleigh’s horrified gaze met Tiny’s. “Blew up two cabins?” she asked.
“Yup,” her dad said, sounding completely unaffected. “C4 is amazing stuff. It can blow up buildings but there’s not a huge fireball after. Really, daughter, you should be thanking me. That entire forest could be burning down around you right now. Instead, you just have a shit-ton of new kindling for those bonfires you all seem to like so much.”
Ryleigh was shaking so violently in his grasp, Tiny had a hard time holding on to her. It was a good thing they were already on the floor, otherwise he had a feeling her knees would’ve given out by now.
“Why? Why can’t you just leave me alone?” she asked, the agony easy to hear in her tone.
“Because you have something I want,” Harold said in a hard voice. “You double-crossed me, again , and you already know how I feel about that. No one fucks with me, and you’ve screwed me over more times than I can count. I want my goddamn money, Ryleigh.”
“It’s not your money. It’s never been your money,” Ryleigh told him.
“I stole it. It’s mine .”
“You didn’t steal anything. You made me steal it. So it’s doubly not yours!”
Tiny was glad to see a little color coming back into Ryleigh’s cheeks, and that she seemed to be getting over her shock about what happened, what her father had done. But he wasn’t sure antagonizing the man was smart right about now.
“It’s my money!” her dad yelled, making the people nearest them look over in surprise and curiosity.
“If you think I’m giving you anything when you’re hurting my friends, you’re insane,” Ryleigh told him.
“I didn’t think you’d simply hand it over, not when you already had that chance and failed,” Harold Lodge said almost conversationally. “That’s why we’re going to play for it.”
Tiny didn’t understand what he meant, but it was obvious Ryleigh did. Every muscle in her body tensed. “No,” she said firmly.
“Yes,” her dad countered. “I’ll give you twenty minutes to go check out my handiwork, to see that I’m serious about this. That I’m not going to fall for any more of your tricks. There’s nowhere you can hide. You have no idea what building might explode next. It might be that lodge you and your so-called friend are holed up in. It might be the barn with all those adorable animals. Maybe a vehicle. Or maybe another cabin. But which one? Nowhere is safe from me. No one is safe. You play my game, or everything you’ve come to love is gone.”
“How’d you get out of prison?” Ryleigh asked, actually sounding calm.
Harold chuckled. “It wasn’t hard. All I had to do was steal a cell phone from one of the guards and I had everything I needed. I altered my records to indicate I was scheduled to be released immediately. It took like half an hour.”
Tiny pressed his lips together in irritation. Someone would definitely get fired for that. For allowing a prisoner who was known for being a world-class computer hacker to gain access to anything electronic. And the fact that he’d allegedly just walked right out of prison irked him to no end.
Then something else occurred to him. Harold Lodge was a free man. Was out there somewhere—and he knew they were all “holed up” in the lodge. Did that mean he was hacking their cameras even at that very moment? He doubted the man would be stupid enough to step foot onto their property…but if he was pissed enough at Ryleigh, he could do anything.
“I’ll give you what I can of the money. I don’t have it all,” Ryleigh told her father, clearly trying to do anything she could to protect everyone at The Refuge.
“Too late. We’re playing. Oh, you’ll give me my money, but I want to have some fun. You know my favorite game too. Twenty minutes, daughter. I’ll see you online.”
Ryleigh stared at Tiny with tears in her eyes.
Without a word, he stood, taking Ryleigh with him. He wanted to comfort her. Wanted to take her in his arms and tell her that everything would be okay. He had a million questions for her as well, but he didn’t have time for any of that. Ryleigh apparently needed her laptop. And he needed to assess the damage, see if what Harold Lodge had said about the cabins exploding was correct, and get with his friends to come up with a plan.
As Harold had said, there could be more bombs anywhere. And he wouldn’t put it past the man to torture Ryleigh by killing her new friends just because he could.
Tiny walked Ryleigh over to the blown-out window and blinked at the destruction in front of him. Two cabins had been blown to smithereens, just as Harold claimed. They were the two guest cabins closest to the lodge. Wolf and Caroline had been staying in one, and Brick’s mom had been in the other. If they’d been inside…
He took a deep breath. But they weren’t. They were safe…for now.
Small flames could be seen between the trees, but again, like Harold had said, the forest itself wasn’t on fire. The C4 had done what it was designed to do, blow things apart, not cause a huge fireball.
Still…Harold Lodge had followed through on his threat. Tiny couldn’t help remembering the asshole’s last words during their first online chat and they made a lot more sense now. It’ll be fun to watch the sparks fly.
“What the fuck is happening?” Spike asked as he joined Tiny and Ryleigh. He held his baby in his arms, the boy looking so tiny in his grasp.
“It’s my fault,” Ryleigh said in a small voice.
“No, it’s not. It’s your asshole father’s fault.” Tiny recounted what Harold Lodge had said, what he’d threatened.
“Meeting. Now ,” Spike said, turning to head back to where the other owners of The Refuge were standing with their wives. Their family and friends were gathered not too far away, most looking scared and confused, with the exception of Wolf and Raid. The carefree and happy wedding reception had turned into a nightmare.
Tiny followed Spike over to his friends, his hand in Ryleigh’s. As far as he was concerned, she wasn’t leaving his side. No way in hell.
“Sit rep,” Brick barked.
Tiny once again repeated what Harold Lodge had threatened .
“What’s this game he’s talking about?” Pipe asked Ryleigh.
“He used to make me play it with him before I left. We’d basically battle via computer. See who could hack faster and outsmart the other to prevent an entire electrical grid from being taken down in some random city.”
Everyone stared at her in shock.
“What? Is that even possible?” Henley asked.
Ryleigh nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. My dad always wanted to play the ‘bad guy,’ of course. He’d try to out-hack me to take down the grid, and I’d have to do what I could to prevent it. I was better than he was, so I could’ve stopped him, but he hated losing and would take out his anger at me by stealing more money than usual from the people in those cities who needed it the most. From government programs that helped the homeless, the poor, kids, things like that. So I learned to let him win, let the electrical grid fold. He could gloat that he beat me, then he’d usually get drunk to celebrate, and I’d bring the grid right back up again as soon as he passed out.”
“So that’s what he wants to do now? Play this insane game with you again? Why? What’s the end game?” Stone asked.
“And what city is he targeting? Or does he want to mess with The Refuge’s power supply?” Tonka asked.
“I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense,” Ryleigh said with a small shake of her head.
“I agree. Why threaten to blow up everything at The Refuge, only to make her play a game?” Brick said.
“Does he need a reason? He’s sick,” Owl pointed out.
“What matters now is getting everyone somewhere safe,” Pipe said. “If Ry makes a mistake, this wanker could decide to punish her by blowing up another cabin. We have no idea what he might strike next.”
“We could all go to Los Alamos,” Alaska suggested.
Spike shook his head. “Tiny said that Lodge mentioned the vehicles. He could have put a bomb in one or all of them, for all we know. The second we try to get everyone out of here, he could blow them up.”
The women’s faces all leached of color.
“So what do we do?” Cora asked, gaze going to her foster kids, who were standing with the other guests, huddled around their sister Joyce, who was holding onto them as tightly as if she was their mother.
Tiny met Brick’s gaze, then looked to his other friends. They’d made a vow years ago never to disclose their secret to anyone. But that promise seemed pointless in the face of the current threat.
Brick cleared his throat. “The bunkers,” he said.
Immediately, the owners of The Refuge all nodded.
Ryleigh squeezed Tiny’s hand. He returned the pressure but didn’t look at her.
“Bunkers? What bunkers?” Maisy asked.
“When we had this place built, we had seven bunkers installed. Out in the woods. Underground. One for each of us. As a precaution. When we first arrived, we were all paranoid and still dealing with our own versions of hell that we’d been through. I stashed Alaska in one when I was hunting a man who was here to kidnap her, and it was where Ry stashed Jasna when she’d gone missing, until we could get to her,” Brick told the group.
“Holy crap,” Reese said.
“You knew about them?” Cora asked Ryleigh.
She nodded but didn’t elaborate .
“Ry found evidence of the bunkers easily enough, maybe her father did too,” Tonka said.
“Maybe. But I swear I erased any mentions of them on the web that I could find,” Ryleigh countered.
“It’s a chance we’ll have to take,” Brick said. “They’re our best option. The bunkers aren’t huge, but they should be large enough to fit everyone. We can make an even split between women and men, keep everyone safe for the time it’ll take us to search all the buildings and make sure there aren’t any more bombs. While Ry does her thing, that is.”
Ryleigh straightened. “No, you all need to go to the bunkers. There’s no telling what my dad has up his sleeve. He could set off one of the bombs right when you go into a cabin to search it. No one is safe. You have to go with your wives and friends to the bunkers.” Her voice was hard and unbending.
“I’m not sure the Wi-Fi will reach the bunkers,” Tonka said. “Sometimes it gets flaky even down at the barn.”
“That’s okay, because I’ll be right here,” Ryleigh said.
Everyone immediately protested. Loudly.
But she held up a hand. “We don’t have time for this,” she hissed, looking at her watch. “My dad gave me twenty minutes to get online. There’s only twelve minutes left. You guys have to get everyone to those bunkers. I need to get my laptop from the cabin. You go. I started this, and I’m going to end it. I’ve put each and every one of you in enough danger. I won’t do it anymore. Please . Get everyone to safety.”
Tiny’s friends weren’t happy. They were used to taking control of any kind of dangerous situation. They were used to action, not hiding. But Ryleigh was right. No one could do what she did. They couldn’t pretend to be her, couldn’t go online and face down her father.
Their lives were, literally and figuratively, in her very skilled hands.
“She’s right,” Tiny said. “Take the others to safety. I’ll stay with Ryleigh.”
“No, Tiny, you can’t.”
He ignored her protest. If she thought he was leaving her here to face Harold alone, she hadn’t been paying attention to the kind of man he was. He might not be smart enough to go toe-to-toe with Harold Lodge on a computer, but he damn well could have Ryleigh’s back while she was fighting for all their lives.
As the others began to plan who would go to which bunker, Tiny pulled Ryleigh to the side. “I’m going to go run to our cabin and grab your laptop. Stay here. Do not go anywhere, do you hear me?”
“Tiny, please! Go to one of the bunkers.”
“Not happening.”
“I won’t be able to live with myself if you’re hurt because of me,” she told him.
“And I won’t be able to live with myself if I’m hiding away in a damn bunker while you’re up here battling your dad. I’ve got your back, sweetheart. For better or worse, in sickness and health. I’ll never leave your side.”
She sniffed, but thankfully nodded. “Be sure to get the power cord too, I don’t know how long this will take.”
Tiny kissed her hard and fast, wanting to say so much more, but the clock was ticking. He could feel it in his bones. It was a risk to leave the lodge, her father could’ve planned for this exact thing. He could blow him up the second he stepped inside the cabin .
But he didn’t think he would. No, Harold Lodge wanted this showdown. Was cocky enough to think he could win.
Tiny would put his money on Ryleigh every day of the week. Somehow, someway, she would come out on top. She had to. Because if not, everything he’d ever wanted, everything he and his friends had worked for, would be destroyed in front of their eyes.
Tiny had never run so fast in his life as he did when he left the lodge. He was on high alert, but nothing seemed out of place…except for the slats of wood, bricks, and other debris scattered everywhere from the two destroyed cabins, of course. He grabbed the laptop and power cord from the kitchen table and was back at the lodge in under three minutes.
Ryleigh grabbed her laptop from Tiny and placed it on the reception desk. Her fingers immediately began moving over the keyboard almost frantically as she set up whatever she needed in order to play her father’s “game.”
While he was gone, Brick and the others had obviously explained to everyone what was going on. That they were going to evacuate to the bunkers located around the property. It would be a bit of a hike to get to them, but nothing too strenuous or that anyone couldn’t handle.
Everyone looked a little freaked out, but no one was panicking. They were ready to go, split into groups…
Bunker 109 with Brick, Alaska, their dog Mutt, Brick’s mom, and Robert and Luna. Bunker 110 with Tonka, Henley, Jasna, baby Elizabeth, Cheri Singleton and her daughter. Bunker 111 with Spike, Reese, baby Dylan, Woody and Isabella. And bunker 112 with Pipe, Cora, their four foster kids, and Jess and Carly .
At the one o’clock position to the lodge, bunker 101 would hold Owl, Lara, Sharyn Vogt and her mom, and the property’s landscaper, Hudson. Bunker 102 included Stone, Maisy, Paige, Jason, and Savannah. And the last bunker, the one that Ry had put Jasna in for safekeeping after rescuing her, 103, would be Raiden, Khloe, Tonka’s dogs Beauty and Wally, and Wolf and Caroline.
The animals in the barn would have to stay where they were, and everyone prayed they’d be all right, but with such a short time frame in order to get to safety, there wasn’t a minute to spare to go down and open all the stalls, letting them escape if there was an explosive planted in the building or nearby.
Even as worried and stressed as Tiny was, he still appreciated each and every one of the women telling Ryleigh they loved and believed in her as they hurried toward the doors. He could see her shoulders relax a fraction. Knowing no one blamed her for this fucked-up situation, even if she blamed herself, did wonders for her mental health.
Soon, the lodge was empty except for Ryleigh and himself. It was eerie to look around at the food on plates, discarded on tables around the room. The half-full cups of punch. It was obvious a party had been interrupted, and if he didn’t know what happened, Tiny would wonder what in the world had made everyone disappear as if into thin air.
As it was, knowing his friends would be safe in the bunkers allowed him to turn his complete attention to Ryleigh. She was hunched over her computer at the reception desk, a furrow in her brow .
And she was crying.
Tears fell from her eyes onto the desk, and every few seconds she impatiently wiped them away with her arm.
“Ryleigh?” Tiny asked in concern as he stepped closer.
“I can’t believe you stayed,” she whispered, but her fingers never stopped typing. “You should’ve gone with them.”
“I told you before, I’m not going anywhere.”
“I saw a movie, a long time ago. Toward the end, Sandra Bullock’s in trouble. Handcuffed to a pole on a moving subway car. The hero couldn’t get her out of the cuffs and they were going to crash. But instead of leaving, getting away safely, he stayed with her. Sandra Bullock couldn’t believe he chose to stay with her instead of jumping off the train.” Ryleigh looked up at him then, her fingers going still on the keyboard. “You stayed. No one’s ever chosen me over… anything before.”
Tiny couldn’t stay away from her. Not then. He pressed against her side and lowered his forehead to her temple. “If I had to choose between a life without you and certain death—I’d choose death. Every time.” He picked up his head, stared into her eyes and said sternly, “But this isn’t me choosing death. No way in hell have we gone through what we have and found each other, only to die now. You’re going to beat him, Ryleigh. I have absolutely no doubt about that.”
She sighed. Then took a deep breath before turning her attention back to the screen in front of her. “I can beat him at this stupid game of his. He always wanted to be the bad guy when we played in the past. And I let him win. Every damn time. Because if I didn’t, he was even more horrible. But it wasn’t hard to figure out what he was going to do before he did it. He’s predictable…or at least, he used to be. Now? I don’t know. I’m positive I can beat him at games on the computer, but it’s what else he has up his sleeve that freaks me out.”
“Like what?” Tiny asked, giving her some space but staying right at her side.
She didn’t look up from the screen. “He didn’t set those bombs, Tiny. He’s simply not that smart. I mean, sure, he could look up how to make them, but physical stuff just isn’t his jam. He doesn’t like getting his hands dirty…literally and figuratively. So who did set them? Who’d he hire to do that for him and how did they get onto the property without being seen? And are they still out there now?”
Tiny pressed his lips together. She was right.
“I’ve still got,” she looked at her watch, “three minutes before it’s time for his stupid game to start. I’m looking into the camera feeds. The ones around the cabins he blew up first. I want to see if I can find anyone lurking around.”
Tiny held his breath as she scanned the camera footage. He wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but he trusted her. He didn’t need to be the one to study them, Ryleigh would find what she was looking for.
It didn’t take long. “Son-of-a-bitch!”
Leaning forward to see what had her sounding so concerned, Tiny saw that a message had popped up on the computer screen. He had no idea who it was from, assumed it was her dad fucking with her. All it said was, Camera 3; 10/16; 2:26am.
Without hesitation, Ryleigh began to click on the keys, pulling up the link to camera three on the property and pulled up the time and date indicated in the message.
“Holy crap! Look, Tiny! See that?”
He did. All he saw was trees. The footage was from one of the cameras facing the woods. One of the cabins that didn’t exist any longer was in the right-hand corner of the screen. “What am I looking at?” he asked when he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. No one skulking through the woods. No birds or other animals. Nothing.
“There, that ? See it? That branch falling? It shouldn’t be there. It fell two minutes earlier. He looped the footage so it shows the same thing over and over. And since all we’re looking at is trees, it was easy to miss. Shit, shit, shit !”
She hit a few more buttons on the screen, and the current view from the camera came up on the screen. The cabin was no longer there, just the foundation and some burning debris in the middle of it.
She switched to another camera, and they both watched as Spike helped Reese climb down into bunker 111. She pulled up all the bunker cameras—of course she knew which ones were placed so they could see the bunkers—and they saw all their friends entering, the doors closing behind them. All that was left once they were inside was a pretty forest scene, nothing anyone who saw the feeds would think twice about.
“I need to look at the other cameras. I also have to see if I can find the missing footage. See if I can figure out who placed the bombs after he looped the footage,” she muttered. But then a digital timer popped up on her screen, over the camera feeds. It started with the number twenty and began counting down .
“Take a breath, sweetheart. I believe in you. You’ve got this,” Tiny said, feeling helpless. He hated this. Almost wished this was a mission where he could use bullets and knives to protect his teammates. Because Ryleigh was his teammate. His everything. But he couldn’t do a damn thing other than stand next to her and let her know he was there.
“Bring it on, Dad,” she muttered.
The numbers counted down to zero, then line after line of code began to scroll on Ryleigh’s laptop screen.
“Fuck! That asshole! He’s targeting Albuquerque,” Ryleigh said as she frantically typed code Tiny couldn’t even start to understand. Her fingers were pounding the keys as she muttered under her breath.
“Oh no you don’t,” she mumbled as she hit the return key extra hard. “That hole’s closed, find another way in, assjack.”
In any other situation, Tiny would’ve smiled at her ferocity. But not now. Every time she swore, he held his breath. Praying she’d be able to get the better of her father.
“Shit, what now?”
He saw another message had popped up on her screen. It was another time and date.
“This can’t be my dad,” Ryleigh mumbled with a small shake of her head.
To Tiny’s amazement, the lines of undistinguishable code disappeared when she brought up the camera views again.
“What are you doing?” he asked quietly.
“Someone’s feeding me intel, and it’s not my dad. There’s no way he would’ve told me exactly what time and camera to look at to figure out that the camera feeds were looped. Whoever it is wants me to see whatever is on this specific time and date. While Dad’s working to get through the latest hole I plugged, I have a minute or two to check out this video,” she told him.
Tiny was in awe all over again. She was multitasking. Fucking multitasking . She was amazing. No, scarily amazing.
She went back and forth a few times, from the camera to the game. Then she swore. “I just sent you a video,” she said, going back to the code scrolling by. “See if you recognize the guys in it.”
Tiny’s phone vibrated in his pocket. Clicking on the link she sent, he squinted and enlarged the video. There were two men dressed in camouflage walking through the woods. Try as he might, he had no idea who they were. He didn’t recognize them at all.
“Their names are Archer and Arthur Anderson. And yes, those really are their names. It looks like they were kicked out of the Army. Dishonorably discharged. My dad found them by hacking into government files. He probably looked for the most assholey guys he could find. Offered them money, then killed them.”
Tiny knew he was staring at her with his mouth open, but he was completely shocked at what she was saying. He knew she was good, but this ? Finding all that out while playing a mental game of chicken with her father? It was fucking unbelievable.
“Are you surmising what he did, or telling me?” he asked her.
“Telling,” she kind of grunted. “I’m in his system. He’s more worried about winning this stupid game than protecting the back doors into his hard drive. I see where he transferred ten thousand dollars into Archer’s bank account. Then he did a search for their names three days later and hacked into the coroner’s reports. Their deaths were ruled a murder/suicide, and the day they died, that ten thousand dollars was transferred back out of the account.”
Tiny couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “And he killed them himself?”
“Probably not. I don’t know how long he’s been out of jail, but he wouldn’t get his hands dirty like that. He most likely hired someone from the dark web. Or even someone who was behind bars with him. Maybe got them released early as the form of payment. He doesn’t like loose ends. Like me. But the good thing is, at least we don’t have to worry about those two skulking around The Refuge, planting more bombs.”
Tiny couldn’t keep himself from reaching for Ryleigh. He needed to touch her. Reassure her that he wouldn’t let anyone hurt her. Ever.
Looking around, watching for the slightest threat to the woman he loved, who he’d protect with his own life if necessary, Tiny felt goose bumps pop up on his arms. He suddenly felt very exposed where he and Ryleigh were located at the front desk. The slight smell of explosives was in the air, coming from the shattered window. He could hear the wind in the trees outside, but otherwise everything was deathly silent. The click of her fingers on the keyboard the only other sound.
He didn’t miss how Ryleigh leaned into his touch. Even though she was focused on the screen in front of her, she was still allowing herself to take comfort in his presence.
Several minutes went by as Ryleigh continued to battle her father in the online game of wills. Then she gasped. “Oh no. No, no, no, no!”
“What? What’s wrong?”
Her breathing sped up until she was almost hyperventilating. “He knows! He knows about the bunkers! I swear I removed mention of them everywhere I could find, but I obviously missed something. And now he’s taunting me. Telling me that we did exactly what he wanted. That he knew we’d send everyone to the bunkers if he told us he’d planted bombs around The Refuge.”
“And? What did he do? Talk to me, Ryleigh.”
“He says the second the doors to the bunkers closed, the bombs he placed on all of them were activated.”
Tiny’s blood ran cold.
“If they open one, they’ll all go off. Every one of them. They’re connected somehow. Remotely. I don’t know how. And he has the detonator.” Ryleigh’s hands were shaking, and Tiny could see she was having a hard time typing.
“Is he bluffing?” Tiny asked, hoping against hope she’d say yes.
“I don’t know! I don’t think so. He’s telling me that if I send him the ten million dollars, he’ll disarm them and let everyone live. But Tiny— he won’t . Why would he? He killed those guys he hired to plant the bombs. He won’t hesitate to kill everyone I love. He’s always wanted to win. Wants me to know I’m incapable of loving. He’s a psychopath . And he wants me to suffer.”
Her hands suddenly dropped from the keyboard and fell to her sides. Ryleigh slumped forward and put her forehead on the desk in defeat. “What’s the point?” she said brokenly. “He’s going to win. He always wins!”
“Fuck that,” Tiny growled. He took her shoulders in his hands and pulled her upright. Then kissed her. A hard, punishing kiss. A kiss to get her attention. “He’s not going to win. No one’s going to die. And you’re going to figure out where he is, and this time he’ll be put away for good. Got it?” He wasn’t sure what he was saying, or even if he believed it himself. But he couldn’t let Ryleigh give up. Not now. She was literally everyone’s only hope of getting out of this clusterfuck alive.
She blinked. Then nodded and turned back to her laptop.
Tiny let out a small breath of relief. He wasn’t sure which of his words lit a fire under her, but he was glad something had gotten through.
Then she stopped typing again. “Tiny…I’ve locked down The Refuge’s Wi-Fi. Changed the password every week. It’s encrypted to the max, and you know as well as I do that the sixteen-character password is annoying. The guests hate it, and many don’t even bother trying to go online because it’s a pain in the ass. I didn’t change it this week, because we didn’t have any paying guests…” Her voice lowered. “He’s here , Tiny. I know it. He’s using The Refuge’s own Wi-Fi to play this stupid game. To taunt me. He wants to watch me suffer in person. Wants to see my face when he wins. Wants me to know he’s gotten the better of me.”
Tiny’s heart raced. “He’s here? On the property?”
“Yes. I’d stake my life on it.”
This was his chance. His chance to get rid of the threat to The Refuge and his friends. Just as he opened his mouth to tell her that he was going hunting, the front door to the lodge opened.
Tiny spun, making sure his body was between whoever was entering and Ryleigh. He didn’t have a gun, but he’d spent his life training for this moment. He’d do whatever it took to take down Harold Lodge, giving his life in the process if necessary.