Chapter 9
Apparently, the boy genius found something.
"What's up?" Knox asked.
Jason pointed to Rowan's monitor. "Plenty. But I'll let Rowan explain. He's been busy."
Rowan beamed, and he held up a finger. "Just a sec." His fingers danced on his keyboard at lightning speed.
Knox glanced at Allie standing next to him.
He'd expected her to insist on changing back into those pants before running over to Room 336.
But she hadn't. She was standing in front of Jason and Rowan wearing shorts.
Though, no one seemed to notice yet. Maybe he shouldn't have been surprised at her courage, but he really was. And proud of her.
"Okay, check this out." Rowan pointed to his monitor. "The guy on the moped who tossed the explosive device is one of the guards from the warehouse. No question."
Knox leaned on Rowan's desk with both hands, studying the images on his screen. "That connects the attack to Rafael."
"Yes," Jason said. "And there's more." He gestured to Rowan to continue.
"Rafael, and that flashy gold chain of his, sat in on the meeting with Mr. Drakos and Mr. Kendall when Mr. Kendall offered to buy The Mandeville."
Jason raked a hand through his hair. "I know these connections are what we suspected, but having proof is huge."
Knox straightened and placed his hands on his hips. "Yeah. So, Byron wants to buy The Mandeville, and they threw an explosive device at us tonight. What does that say?"
Jason walked to the conference table. A white hotel towel was spread across the table, covered with bomb fragments. He picked up a pencil and tapped one of the scorched components of the deadly device. "This thing was dangerous—I'm not downplaying that . . . "
"But?" Allie asked.
Jason pursed his lips. "It was powerful, but small—limiting its destruction to a narrow impact zone.
And if it had simply landed where he tossed it, it would've only given us a disturbing scare.
But the grassy ground between the sidewalk and the sand at that point is sloped, so it rolled.
" He looked at Allie. "Again, I'm not downplaying what happened.
Because it rolled all the way to your chair, if Knox hadn't seen it and reacted—"
"I could have died," she said.
Jason nodded. And exchanged a look with Knox. Knox knew what he was thinking. The whole mission just escalated. Allie could've died. Which meant any of them could've died, had things played out differently. Including Tayla.
And if anything had happened to Tayla, Jason would've lost his mind. Yep, that thought had occurred to him—Knox could see it all over his friend's face.
"Hey, man, we know you're taking this seriously," Knox said. "But what were you going to say about the device being small? You think it was just supposed to be a warning?"
"A serious and oddly specific warning, but yes. If someone wanted us dead, they could have accomplished that with a gun. Which honestly would've been much simpler. But someone went to the trouble to build this thing." He tapped a piece of the bomb with his pencil again.
Allie narrowed her gaze at the collection of debris on the table and cocked her head. Her features contorted into that adorable concentration expression again. He wondered what she'd say if she had any idea what that expression did to him.
Then he remembered he'd promised Jason he'd keep his head in the game. Which he absolutely needed to do. So he cleared his throat and shifted his focus to the contents on the table.
"You said, 'oddly specific.'" She continued to stare at the bomb fragments. "You could be right. Are they flexing? Saying, 'Hey look out. We know how to make bombs.'"
Jason scratched his jaw. "The thought crossed my mind. Feels like there's a reason to use a bomb when something else would have been much easier. But they're also making their threat more serious. They didn't slash our tires or leave a threatening note."
"Well," Knox said, "their first 'note' was the blood on Drakos's suit. And that didn't work."
Allie folded her arms across her chest. "True.
But how confident are they that we would make the connection between the bomb, the warehouse, Rafael, and Kendall?
" She looked at Rowan. "No offense, Rowan.
We know you're a genius. But how easy was this?
Could they have expected us to make these connections with all the security footage? "
Rowan shrugged. "Sure. Anything's possible. They had to know most of the security footage existed. They might even know about Henrik's cameras." He shrugged again. "It's not like I had to hack into anything. I just searched the footage quickly with face recognition software."
Jason pointed to Knox. "And you thought the fishing trip was a distraction. Maybe it was." He massaged his temples with a groan. "We're missing something. If they need a bomb to scare us off, they definitely have something serious in the works and we have no idea what it is."
Jason and Allie looked as frustrated as Knox felt. But Rowan . . . was staring. At Allie's leg.
Knox felt his anger spike. But he didn't stop himself. "Hey!" He may have yelled. Okay, he did yell. And it may have sounded kinda like a growl. And it may have been a little too loud—because it scared the kid so much he spilled the drink in his Iron Man mug all over the desk.
Rowan jumped out of his chair, grabbed some napkins left over from his lunch, and attacked the puddle creeping toward his keyboard like it was a fire that needed dousing.
Jason and Allie stepped over to help. Knox did not.
When the spillage crisis concluded, Knox made certain Rowan caught his glare.
The kid looked guilty. And confused. He stared at Knox. "I uh . . . what? I was just . . ." He pivoted to Allie. "I just . . . Jason said you hurt your leg tonight. Are you okay?"
"Yes. Just a couple of cuts. I'm fine, thanks." She gave him a sweet, everything-is-fine smile. Then she turned to Knox, one eyebrow raised, with a look that promised he would regret yelling at Rowan.
Jason tossed the soggy napkins in the trash. "Everything okay, Rowan?"
The kid studied his keyboard. "Yeah, it didn't touch anything. Sorry about that. But he—" He pointed at Knox.
"I what?"
"Knox," Jason interrupted. "We need to talk to Drakos about the breakfast meeting with Kendall."
"Now?"
"It's getting late, but yeah." He turned to Rowan. "Thanks, man. Good work tonight. Go get some rest. We'll need you to monitor the meeting tomorrow."
To his credit, the kid knew he was being dismissed. "Um, yeah. Okay." He pointed to his computer. "I'm going to leave all this up and running. In case I need to jump on."
"Good thinking," Jason said.
Rowan nodded, grabbed his phone from the desk, and walked to the door. "Okay. Night."
After the door shut behind him Allie and Jason both turned on Knox.
Knox studied Jason's expression. "I can't tell if you're mad or if you thought that was funny."
"Both." Jason glared at him, but there was an almost-smile on his lips. "Seriously, though. Don't yell at the kid like that."
"I thought we weren't supposed to call him a kid?"
"Well, not in front of him." Jason turned to Allie. "Sorry. I know he was staring. He didn't mean anything by it. I'll talk to him."
"No," she said. "It's okay. Really. Actually, I should talk to him. I can explain the bullet wound. No more than he needs to know, though."
Knox spun to face her. "You don't have to do that. You—"
She threw her hands up. "I know." Her irritation disappeared. "Knox, it's okay." The gentleness in her voice knocked the anger out of him. Was she really okay? That quickly? She wasn't okay about her bullet wound less than an hour ago when he walked into her room.
He was confused. And he wanted to ask her about it. But not in front of Jason.
Knox scratched the back of his head and looked at his best friend. "We really need to talk to Drakos right now?"
"I need to let him know about the connection between Kendall, Rafael, and the bomber. But I'll just give him a call. I want him to have all the facts before that meeting tomorrow morning. But no, we don't need to drag him out of bed tonight. I was just trying to get you to shut up."
"Fine," Knox said. "I'm going to get some sleep." He glanced at Allie, wondering if she would walk out with him.
Her eyes lingered on him like she wanted to say something. "I um . . . could I talk to you for a minute?"
Jason shooed them away with both hands. "I think that's a great idea. You two go talk."
Allie nodded. "We will. But Jason, please tell Tayla I hope she's okay. I enjoyed meeting her today. We discussed going out for coffee. Tomorrow might get busy, but tell her I definitely want to get together with her soon."
That elicited a genuine goofy smile on Jason's face. "I'll tell her. I'm glad you two hit it off so well."
"Me too." She took a step toward the door with a small wave. "Goodnight, Jason." She glanced at Knox. Time to go.
Knox threw Jason a chin lift and followed Allie out the door.
He was a little nervous about what she wanted to say. She didn't have an almost-smile on her face like Jason a minute ago. Her agitation with him had been solitary. He prayed he hadn't screwed things up.
Allie slid her keycard in the door and watched for the green light.
She could feel Knox's nerves from two feet away and tried not to laugh. She wasn't really mad. She just needed to make some things clear.
Knox followed her into her room and shut the door. When she faced him he really did look nervous, and she couldn't help thinking it was kinda cute. But she wasn't going to torture him. She let herself smile. "Knox, don't look so miserable. I'm not mad."
His muscles relaxed a fraction. "You looked mad."
"I was mad." She sighed. "Because you yelled at poor, defenseless Rowan. But . . ." Okay, he was grinning now. Good. But she hoped he was still listening.
"But?"
"But I realized why you yelled at him." And there was the emotion she'd hoped wouldn't clog her throat.
He stepped within a foot of her and brushed her cheek with his thumb. "I didn't want him staring at your leg like that. I thought it would bother you."
His simple touch triggered the warmth she felt blooming on her face and down her neck. Sometimes it was impossible to concentrate around this handsome man. But she had to try. "I know. And I appreciate that. It's okay, Knox."
He lowered his hand and planted both hands on his hips. Clearly perplexed. "A few minutes ago you were freaked out about me seeing your leg. And then Boy Wonder ogles it and you're okay?"
She couldn't fault his confusion. It didn't quite make sense to her yet either.
But she prayed Knox would begin to understand.
"You underestimate what happened when you kissed my scar.
" She shook her head and glanced around—as if the room could provide an articulate explanation.
"All this time, the past three months, I didn't let myself believe you would react this way.
I convinced myself you wouldn't trust me, that the scar would disgust you, that your feelings for me evaporated .
. . I just . . . Honestly, I'm still grappling with it.
The guilt isn't gone, and I don't know what to do with it.
" Tears stung her eyes. "But when you . .
. the look on your face when you kissed my scar .
. . I'm starting to see things differently. "
She wasn't sure her rambling made sense.
The peace Knox's gesture elicited had stunned her.
Which sounded like an oxymoron. Can peace stun a person?
She'd always associated peace with calm.
But this peace stirred her soul. And there was that whisper again—a whisper she desperately wanted to understand.
All she knew, for now, was that God was saying I've got you.
For one breath, raw emotion glistened in Knox's eyes before he tugged her to him and held her against his chest. He placed his chin on top of her head.
She breathed in the musky essence that was uniquely Knox—mixed with scents of sand and ocean from their roll on the beach. She gripped the back of his shirt and buried her head into his strong chest. His embrace made her feel safe—safer than she'd felt in a long, long time.
She still didn't know if she could uproot the guilt planted deep in her soul. But she knew she could trust Knox. And God. And for tonight, that was enough.