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 evenknow 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.
