Explosive Force. Lynette Eason
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him and the building as possible.
Foreboding filled her just as a side door to the training center opened. A young man stood there, his uniform identifying him as one of the trainers. His eyes met hers, just like the hooded man’s had only seconds earlier. But this time, she knew who the eyes belonged to. Bobby Stevens, a young airman who’d recently finished his tech training. He hesitated, glanced at her, then over his shoulder.
Her gut churned with a distinctly bad feeling. With everything that had happened on the base in the last few months, there was only one reason that the man in the hoodie would be so anxious to run when it looked like he would rather do her bodily harm.
She started backing away, her feet pedaling quickly. “Run, Bobby! Get away from the building. Something weird is going on!”
Bobby hesitated a fraction of a second, then took off toward her, looking determined to catch up with her. Her footsteps pounded as she put distance between her and the building and the man behind her.
Then an explosion rocked the ground beneath her and she fell to her knees, her palms scraping the concrete as she tried to catch herself.
Rolling, Heidi held on to her screams and looked back to see part of the building missing and fire spurting from the cavernous area.
And Bobby Stevens lying sprawled on the ground.
People spilled from the buildings close to her, many on their phones. No doubt calling for help.
Heidi managed to get her feet beneath her and scrambled to stand. She raced back to Bobby and dropped beside him, wincing as her knees hit the concrete.
Already, she could hear the sirens.
Calling on her past first aid training, Heidi pressed her fingers against his neck and felt a steady, if slow, pulse. He had a laceration on his forehead and his wrist hung at an odd angle.
His lids fluttered, then opened. His brows dipped and he winced.
“It’s all right, Bobby,” she said. “Help is on the way.”
“What happened?”
“The building exploded, but you’re going to be okay.”
“Exploded? Why?” His eyelids fluttered. “Hurts.” He tried to roll and groaned.
Heidi pressed her hands to his shoulders. “I know. Just be still.”
“Hold my hand, please,” he whispered. “I’m...cold.”
She slid her fingers gently around his uninjured hand. “I’m here,” she whispered. “Just hold on.” Bobby’s eyes closed, but he continued to breathe shallow, labored breaths. “You’re going to be all right. Just hang in there.”
In seconds, she felt hands pulling her away. First responders had arrived. Heidi backed up, keeping her eyes on the now-unconscious man who’d reached out to her as though she could save him.
“Are you all right?” the paramedic asked her.
She focused in on the figure in front of her. “Um...yes. I was farther away from the blast. It knocked me off my feet, but nothing else. I just ran back to check on Bobby.”
“Your knees are bleeding.”
She blinked and looked down. “Oh.” Blood seeped through her slacks. And now that her attention had been brought to them, her knees throbbed.
The paramedic led her to one of the four ambulances now lining the street. “Let me just check you out and get these knees bandaged for you.”
“Yes, okay. Thank you.” She drew in a deep breath and let her gaze wander past the crowd that had gathered.
Was the bomber watching the building burn? Could he see the firefighters fight against the raging flames?
She had a bad feeling about this. A feeling that this was only the beginning of something that might be bigger than any story she’d ever worked on.
And she had a feeling that the man who’d done this would be back.
Because she’d seen him.
* * *
First Lieutenant Nick Donovan itched to get his hands on the person who’d just blown up part of the training center. Thankfully, it was an area of the building that wasn’t being used at the moment and no animals had been harmed. Airman Bobby Stevens was reported to be in stable condition and was expected to make a full recovery. That was the only reason Nick’s anger wasn’t boiling over, even though his patience levels were maxed out.
Unfortunately, he and his bloodhound, Annie, would have to wait a little longer to do their part in figuring out exactly what had caused the explosion. Annie was trained in explosives detection, but right now, she couldn’t get near the training center, even wearing the protective booties. The area was still too hot, and firefighters were still fighting the blaze. However, Annie and he could examine parts of the building that had landed yards away.
Office of Special Investigations, OSI, had arrived and would be taking lead on the case under the supervision of Ian Steffen. Nick also spotted FBI special agent Oliver Davison, who’d been a frequent visitor to the base—not only because of his search for the Red Rose Killer, but also to see his fiancée, Senior Airman Ava Esposito.
Of course, he would show up. At this point, anything bad that happened on the base was suspected of being caused by Boyd Sullivan. And Oliver was one of the most determined people on the elite investigative team formed especially to hunt Sullivan down and bring him to justice. Truth was, they all wanted the killer caught and were working overtime in order to do that.
Nick belonged to the Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit and had gotten the call shortly after the explosion happened. He’d raced from his home and arrived to find the organized chaos he was now in the middle of. If the EOD unit had been called, then someone thought the damage to the building had been caused by a bomb—and they wanted to make sure there weren’t any more explosives waiting to go off. Which he would be happy to do just as soon as he could get close enough.
Security Forces with assault rifles flooded the area and stood ready should there be another attempt to attack, although Nick figured whoever was responsible was long gone. But Canyon Air Force Base had an action plan for this kind of thing and it had been put into place immediately.
From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Heidi Jenks, one of the base reporters, talking to an OSI investigator.
He scoffed. Boy, she didn’t waste a second, did she? He sure hoped the investigator knew how to keep his mouth shut. The last thing they needed was for her to write a story before the facts were even determined.
She ran a hand over her wavy blond hair and rubbed her eyes. He frowned. Where was her ever-present notebook? And why did she look so disheveled?
Annie pulled on the leash and Nick let her lead him over to a large block of concrete. She sat. And he stiffened at her signal, which indicated a bomb. While he didn’t think the piece of concrete itself was going to explode, it obviously had explosives residue on it. She looked at him expectantly. “Good girl, Annie, good girl.” He took a treat from his pocket and she wolfed it down.
He set his backpack on the ground and pulled out the items he needed to take a sample of the cement. Once that was done, he placed the evidence back in his pack and scratched Annie’s ears.
“What was that?” a voice asked. A voice he recognized and sometimes heard in his dreams. Against his will.
He looked up and found himself staring at a pair of bandaged knees. The blood on the torn pants had a story to tell. Nick stood and looked down into Heidi Jenks’s blue eyes. Eyes he could drown in if he’d let himself. But she was so off-limits in the romance department that he banished the thought from his mind as soon as it popped in.
“No comment.”
“Come on, Nick.”
“Just