The Savage Grace: A Dark Divine Novel(15)

“They’re my cousins,” I said as I passed him. “Visiting from … Michigan. They’re on fall break. I’ll tell them to go somewhere else.”

Marsh looked at me with narrowed eyes. “Whatever. I’m on my lunch break,” he said, and headed back toward his car.

“Put it out,” I said to Slade as I came up to the guys. Brent dropped his sleeper hold on Ryan when he saw me.

Slade gave me a snide look.

“I said put it out!”

I grabbed the cigarette from his lips and flung it to the ground, then stomped it out with my foot. Slade growled as if he wanted to lunge at me, but the other three boys stepped in between us.

“We’ve got more important things to do than for you guys to be hanging around getting hassled by the police. That very deputy is looking to get a wolf-hunting party together—with silver bullets! That means all of you are in danger, and Daniel, too. Which means I need all of you to head over to the warehouse to help my dad look for a moonstone. Now!” I should have told Dad to take all of them in the first place, not just Marcos. But if they went quickly, they’d get there in time to help out. Dad said he and Talbot wouldn’t be able to go out there until lunchtime.

Slade gave me an indignant sneer, but Zach and Ryan bowed their heads to acknowledge the order. Brent grabbed my arm.

“The Shadow Kings’ warehouse? We can’t go back there!” he said, his voice sounding more urgent than I’d ever heard it. Not a hint of humor.

“Why?”

“Caleb’s backup plan. He always has a backup. There’s a fail-safe in case he had to abandon the building.”

“What do you mean? Is the place being watched? Are the SKs back there?”

“No. They wouldn’t go back there. Nobody should.

That building is wired to explode!”

“What?” I dropped my grocery bag. The bottle of iced tea shattered when it hit the concrete. “How do you know?”

Brent’s face went absolutely white. “Because I built the explosives myself.”





Chapter Six


FIRESTORM


TEN SECONDS LATER

My cell phone was out, and I’d dialed Dad’s number faster than I thought possible. The call went straight to voice mail.

“Ahhhh! Why do you never charge your phone?!” I shouted at the recording. But what if that wasn’t the reason his phone wasn’t working? What if…

“What’s wrong?” April asked as she bounded up to me in the parking lot with her deli purchase.

“April, I need your car! Give me your keys. This is matter of life and death.”

“Yeah, right. My mom forbids me from letting anyone else drive it because of insurance.”

“No, like, literally a matter of life and death! My dad is in danger.”

“Now see, there’s someone who knows how to use ‘literally’ the correct way,” Brent said, smacking Ryan on the back.

“Not the right time for that,” I snapped at him. I turned back to April. “The warehouse is rigged to explode. I can’t get my dad on his phone, so I’ve got to try to get there before they go inside.”

“Oh!” April grabbed her keys from her purse and threw them to me.

“Which one of you can drive the fastest?”

“Slade,” Zach said. “He used to be a street racer.”

Of course it would be Slade.

“Zach and Ryan, can you two make the run to the city?”

They nodded.

“Go as fast as you can. You might beat us there. Brent, you come with Slade and me. Tell me everything you know about that bomb.”

“What do you want me to do?” April asked.

“Go back to school,” I practically ordered. I didn’t want April coming along.

Who knows what we’d find when we got there.

IN THE CAR

The next thing I knew, we were flying down the freeway in April’s jelly bean of a hatchback. I’d dialed Dad five more times for good measure, and then thought to try the phone in his office at the parish—just in case he hadn’t left yet. Someone picked up on the seventh ring.

“Thank goodness, Dad—” I started to say, but was cut off by a voice that wasn’t his.

“Grace,” Gabriel said. “Listen. Whatever you do, do not come back to the parish or the school this afternoon.”

“Why—?”

“Your dad left his phone charging here,” Gabriel said. “If you see him, tell him not to come back here, either.” And then he hung up.

I held my phone for a second, stunned. What on earth was that all about? Should I call him back? No, I didn’t have time to waste trying to figure out why Gabriel was being so cryptic. Dad was in trouble, and that’s all that mattered. At least I knew why his phone wasn’t working, and not because it had already been blown up.

Tension mounted in my muscles, and the anxiety only increased with each moment that passed and we weren’t in the city yet—despite Slade’s insane driving.

I shifted in the passenger seat so I could look at Brent in the backseat. “Tell me about that bomb.”

Brent leaned forward. “The bomb was Caleb’s backup plan in case he had to abandon the warehouse. He wanted a way to destroy any evidence he might have had to leave behind—or take down anyone who might have overthrown him. He’s really into getting the last laugh.”