Chapter Sixteen #2
“Stop,” Jake said, grabbing her wrist before she made contact with anything. “It could be rigged,” he said almost to himself.
Cass’s head jerked up, her eyes wide. “What?”
“It may be rigged to blow,” he said, gripping her waist and turning her toward the door. “Otherwise, why would he leave all this? And there’s a bomb. We need to get out.”
“Wait. How do you—” she protested as he all but shoved her out of the camper.
“Max.”
The single word was both a call and an explanation. Holding Cass’s hand, he stalked to the front of the RV and saw his partner standing at attention, staring intently on the vehicle’s grill.
“Max. Come.” He took off in the direction of the entrance to the lot, breaking into a jog after a few steps, and tugging her along with him.
“Jake—”
He shouted back to her, “We have to get as far away as possible.”
“But Max,” she huffed, tugging hard on his hand. “He’s hurt. Remember?”
Releasing her hand, he whirled to find his partner trying to run on three legs and lagging well behind. “Max,” he gasped. He sprinted back to the dog and scooped him into his arms.
“Hang on,” she shouted.
He froze in place when Cassidy ran past him. “Don’t!” He stood by, watching in horror as she dashed straight back in the direction of the RV.
To his relief, she ran past it and hopped onto the golf cart.
Heart pounding in his chest, he cradled Max close as she swung the cart in a wide arc away from the vehicle.
Her blond hair blew into her eyes. She pushed it back with the same impatient brush of her hand as he’d seen her use a dozen times throughout the day.
“Look at her.” His breath ruffled the dog’s fur as she sped to their rescue. “Isn’t she great?”
Cassidy jerked to a halt beside them. “Hop on.”
He didn’t bother with the flatbed. Instead, he dropped heavily into the passenger seat, holding the large dog. “Go.”
Cass hit the pedal and the rear tires kicked up gravel as they took off. Craning his neck, he tried to keep the RV in sight as they sped away. Max’s breath was hot and stale. The dog let out a disgruntled growl when they hit a bump hard enough to make their teeth clack together.
“Sorry!”
“Keep going.” They jolted over uneven ground; he tried to shift Max’s girth enough to reach his radio. Cass let up on the accelerator when they approached the gate. “Why are you stopping?”
“Slowing. Hang on.” He tightened his grip on the dog as the cart bumped onto the asphalt. She darted a glance at him. “You good?”
“Yeah. All good.”
She let off the gas, but did not use the brake, allowing the cart to slow its roll.
Jake pulled the radio from his belt and pressed the button. “Colonel Aronson?” The hum of the cart filled the seconds before the commander’s reply came.
“Copy.”
“Keep going,” he urged Cass, then lifted the radio to his mouth again. “Sir, we have another live one.”
“Where?”
“I believe he wired the RV as a trap.”
“Return to base,” the colonel barked.
“On our way.” He turned to Cass and said, “Thirteen.”
She nodded, but rather than commenting, she pressed her lips together.
“Baker said a dozen, right?” he reminded her. “He said he planted a dozen explosive devices on the fairgrounds.”
She shook her head as they rounded the curve of the arena. “I can’t… I don’t remember exactly.”
He clenched his jaw, hating the shaky self-doubt creeping into her voice.
He didn’t want her to question her memory or distrust her instincts.
She was in this guy’s crosshairs precisely because she’d trusted her gut one afternoon long ago, and she had not been wrong.
Baker was wrong if he thought he could terrorize her without repercussion.
He didn’t need to worry about the full force of the Arkansas State Police coming down on him, though they definitely would. Baker needed to be more concerned about Cassidy Walker snapping out of her shock and setting after him.
“Cass,” he said as she let the cart slow to a stop near the arena doors.
She didn’t answer him, but stared straight ahead, gripping the wheel so hard her knuckles glowed white.
“Cassidy,” he said, injecting a note of command into his voice as he slid Max off his lap to the ground.
“I don’t know what he said.”
“Cass, we have a record,” he reminded her gently. She turned to look at him, a line of puzzlement bisecting her brows. “We have the phone.”
She blinked at him, uncomprehending. Then the haze of panic cleared. “The phone?”
“Where is it?”
And almost instantly, the panic was back. “I don’t know,” she huffed as she groped around on the seat of the golf cart. She squeezed her jacket pockets. Her head whipped around. “It’s not here.”
“Check your back pocket,” he prompted.
Her hands flew to her backside and her shoulders dropped with relief. “Here,” she managed to say as she wrestled the device from the pocket of her pants.
But rather than take it from her, Jake caught hold of her arms, prompting her to look up into his eyes. “This is good, Cass. We’re safe. Everyone is safe,” he said, speaking in a firm tone. “We’re safe and we’ve figured it out because of you. We’re going to get him because you figured it out.”
“We figured it out.”
She looked up into his eyes and, for an instant, he was sixteen and standing on her front porch, gathering the courage to kiss her for the first time. Could he be brave now?
But before he could ponder the possibility a moment longer, Colonel Aronson came through the tinted-glass doors, the team leads from various agencies working the scene following close behind.
“What do you mean ‘wired’?” he demanded.