Man, the coincidences were piling up. “Do we know what they were lookin’ for?”
“Checking now,” Jack replied. “They downloaded several files onto a flash drive, including a bill of lading for…shit. It was for the ship with the cargo that sank.”
Joker straightened. “Okay, we need to get out of here.” He gave Chip the command. Ryden left the desktop exactly how he’d found it, then powered down the laptop. He closed it and quickly followed Joker. They met Jack in the hall and headed for the door they’d come in from when Chip stopped. Everyone froze.
Sniffing the air, Chip moved to the door. He stuck his nose against the base of the door and then sat. Ryden’s blood turned to ice.
Oh fuck.
“Move, move, move!” Joker grabbed Ryden, spun him, and shoved him. The four of them hauled ass through the building toward the main entrance, with Chip leading the way. They’d just burst through the front doors when an explosion rocked theworld around them, a cloud of heat and smoke enveloping them. The next thing Ryden knew, he was soaring through the air.
Ryden hit the ground hard and sucked in a sharp breath at the pain in his jaw when it scraped against the gravel. With a groan, he rolled onto his side, looking up to see Chip standing several feet away on the grass. When Ryden’s ears stopped ringing, he heard Chip bark. It was only then that he spotted the half-charred body on the ground.
“No, no, no.” He scrambled to his feet and ran over, his heart in his throat. With a shaky hand, he turned the body over, relief flooding through him. Wait…
“Martin?” What the hell was he doing here? Turning, he met Chip’s gaze. “Where’s daddy?”
Chip took off, and Ryden found Joker on his back in the grass, with Jack close by, groaning as they slowly stirred.
“What the fuck?” Joker grumbled, sitting up.
Ryden motioned behind them. “It’s Martin.”
“What?” Joker let Ryden help him to his feet, and together, they helped Jack up. They looked like they had been through hell, but from what Ryden could see, there were no major injuries.
“We need to get out of here,” Jack said.
They hurried back to the surveillance van and got in. A few minutes later, they were on the road, sirens filling the air. Several police cars with flashing lights flew by, followed by a couple of fire trucks.
“What a clusterfuck,” Joker moaned, hissing when he touched his brow and the bloody scrape. “What the hell happened?”
Jack shook his head. “I don’t know, but I was in the security office. Even if I hadn’t caught someone approaching the building on camera, Chip would have alerted you.”
“The device was at the back entrance,” Joker said. He moved his gaze to Ryden. “But you found Martin out front.”
“Chip found Martin. But I think Martin was dead before the explosion. There was also no sign of any detonator in his hand or anywhere around him. I didn’t have time to check the area, but like I said, I think Martin was long dead before the explosion.” And because they’d snuck in through the back, they wouldn’t have known he was there.
“This is fucked,” Jack growled. “So, either someone dumped the body before we got there or while we were in there.”
“Do you think whoever dumped Martin knew we were there?” Ryden asked.
Joker sighed. “It’s hard to tell what the hell their plan was other than dumping Martin’s body and blowing up the building. But they couldn’t have known we were there.” He pulled out his phone and tapped the screen.
“Who’re you callin’?” Ryden asked, though he had a pretty good idea.
“King. He needs to know what happened and that we’re okay before he sees or hears about this from someone else. Hey, King. Yeah, uh, things went a little sideways. Before you say anything, it wasn’t us. Someone tried to blow up Gibson Global with us in it. I don’t know if we were the targets. Ryden found Martin dead on the property near the building. Wherever they dumped him, he got caught in the explosion. Ryden thinks Martin had been dead long before the explosion. Yeah, I think so too.”
This was messed up. Things were getting complicated. While Joker spoke with King, Ryden removed the first aid kit from the wall bracket and cleaned the scrape on his jaw. It wasn’t bad, but it stung like hell. It could have been so much worse. If Chip hadn’t been with them…
No sense in dwelling over what could have happened. When Ryden was done, he removed some extra disinfectant wipes andgot to work on Joker’s brow. He got an arched eyebrow from Joker, but thankfully, he didn’t get ornery about it. The guy was about as predictable as a tornado.
“Okay. Thanks. Yes, we’ll do that.” Joker hung up and sighed. “King doesn’t want us to go to our homes tonight. He’s worried about us being followed.”
It wasn’t a big concern for Ryden because he lived alone and only had himself to protect, but Joker and Jack had family waiting for them at home. Ryden wouldn’t want them anywhere near this, which gave him an idea.
“Y’all can crash at mine. I have a spare bedroom and a comfy couch.”
“Yay, a sleepover,” Joker squealed.
