You Only Love Twice (Masters and Mercenaries #8)(72)

She sagged in his arms, staring down at the street below.

“I’m going to take you over to that lounge chair and f*ck you in the sunshine,” Jesse vowed as he pulled his hands back.

She dragged air into her lungs and braced herself against the wall when Jesse let her go.

That was when she saw it. The van. The same van that had been driving by every couple of minutes was slowing in front of the building.

It was wrong. There was no work to be done here. Taggart wouldn’t have anyone in the building he hadn’t thoroughly vetted, and he wouldn’t have anyone at all who didn’t have to be here. Even Kori, Ferguson’s assistant, was escorted in and out of the building every day while she gathered messages and files and watered the plants.

Something was wrong with that van.

“Jesse?”

The van stopped in front of the locked gate. Maybe it was turning around. Across the street, she could see the door to Jake Dean’s vehicle open and he stepped out, already talking on his cell.

“Who the hell is that?” The sexy growl was gone from Jesse’s voice, though there was still a hard edge there.

“Maybe he’s turning around.”

A SIG appeared in Jesse’s hand and he started to pull her away. “We’re going inside.”

A loud rev split the air and then a crash as the gate gave way to the big van. It smashed its way through, tore through the parking lot and then stopped right in front of the building. She saw another car, this one a massive truck, race toward the building from the street.

Even Jesse watched as the driver’s side door to the van opened and then closed. A man in a ski mask stepped out, leveled his gun, and started firing toward Dean.

But it wasn’t the gun that terrified Phoebe. It was the fact that he had a small black box in his hand. She heard tires squealing as the truck rammed into the van, but her eyes were on that little box in the tall man’s hand.

“Shit, he’s got a bomb.” Jesse started pulling her away from the side as the world exploded around them.





CHAPTER TWELVE





Jesse felt the heat and tackled Phoebe just as the first blast hit them. It forced him forward, but he was fairly certain he’d taken the majority of the explosion. Pain flared in his shoulder, but it didn’t matter because he was far more worried about getting her off this damn building than he was any piece of shrapnel he might have lodged in his body.

The ground beneath him quaked and he felt the f*cking building move and shake.

The sound of gunfire split the air again. Someone was having a firefight. He had to think it was Dean and the traitor, though the last thing he’d seen was another vehicle joining the apparent fray. He’d heard a crash and now the sound of gunfire made him think there were more than two people in that firefight. He heard the sound of several weapons firing. Was there more than one damn traitor? It was a scenario they hadn’t paid attention to.

“We have to get out of here,” he said, rolling off her. He prayed the damn roof held. “Are you all right? I didn’t mean to hit you quite so hard. I panicked a little.”

She turned over and got to her knees, blood on her palms and her clothes twisted and torn. Still, when he reached his hand out, she slid hers in and allowed herself to be pulled up. “You panicked when the crazy person tried to blow up the building we’re currently standing on. That’s totally unreasonable, Murdoch.”

At least she was staying calm. He ran his hands over her. “You sure you’re all right? I didn’t break anything?”

She stopped him, forcing him to look into her eyes. “I’m fine, Jesse. I’m good. A little scraped, but alive. Get your gun. We’re going to need it.”

He nodded. Now that he was sure she was good, he could calm down. Freaking out wouldn’t get them anywhere. There would be plenty of time for panic later. For now he let his training take over. He picked up the SIG and checked it out, flicking the safety off. “We have to get to the ground.”

“How bad is it?” She looked back toward the edge of the roof.

“You are not going over there to look.” He caught her hand again. It was too dangerous. He had no idea what kind of structural damage had been done.

“Ten and Ian were in the conference room. Oh, god, it’s toward the front of the building.” Her breath caught. “What happened to my brother?”

“He’s alive.” There was no other acceptable outcome. Before the bomb had gone off, he’d seen Dean on his phone. Dean was as smart and instinctive as an operative could be. He’d known something was up the minute that van moved in, and Tag would have hustled everyone to safety. He was fairly certain the front of Sanctum was blown all to hell, but he had to believe that Tag and Ten and Kai were safe. He couldn’t think anything less. Still, when he turned, the wall he’d just been standing at was gone, and about three feet that was formerly Sanctum now was a hole that led down to the street.

Their bedroom had to be gone. He could see rebar and smoldering ruins where their roof used to be.

He tugged her close, wrapping his arms around her. He could have lost her. They’d been standing right there. He’d been holding her and talking to her, trying to seduce her, and then someone was trying to kill him and about to take out her while they did it.

“We have to move.” The SIG was a happy weight in his free hand. It was going to be used for what it was meant for this afternoon. He would defend them with it and he would take down anyone who got in his way. “Stay close to me. You’re not carrying, are you?”