Allie willed her mind to focus. She was so angry with herself for allowing Kendall to grab her, but she couldn't spiral, not now. She needed to use her head. She remembered what the guard said earlier about Kendall sending them to Room 336 to grab her. He must have thought she'd be easy to take. The two guards he'd sent were hardly special forces commandos. One had been completely taken out by Rowan's Iron Man mug.
He underestimated her. And now, he had an injured leg. She still couldn't fathom how that happened, but she was thankful he wasn't at his best. He was still stronger than she was, evenwiththe wounded leg.
And she could use his underestimation of her against him. Though, she shouldn't push her luck until she was sure the bomb was disarmed. She'd play the damsel in distress until then. But the moment she saw an opportunity, she'd take advantage of his overconfidence. And his injured leg.
Fear still thrummed down her spine, but she refused to doubt herself like she did in the hallway earlier. She refused to spiral out of control and not be able to function because of her fear. Knox was right. God put her here for a reason, and whether or not she survived today, she was going to do everything she could to keep Knox, Jason, Rowan, and the people at The Mandeville safe.
Dear God, please use me today. Use me to help keep Knox and the others safe. Thank you for being with me. I'm scared, but I know I'm not alone. Please protect us.
Kendall pushed her through another set of doors, then the doorway to a stairwell.
"Up the stairs," he said. He let go of her so he could hold on to the handrail with one hand and keep his gun pointed at her with the other. She turned and looked at him for the first time since he'd grabbed her. He was sweating. And the bleeding hadn't stopped. By the way he gripped the handrail, she figured his leg was really hurting.
Her mind raced for options. Even with his bum leg, she couldn't fight the sweaty behemoth for his gun. But she could outrun him. She was sure of that.
Kendall seemed to read her mind. "My leg can't outrun you, but my bullets can. Don't even think about it. Just walk. At a steady pace. Up the stairs, all the way to the roof. Go on."
He was right. As long as she was breathing, he could still use her—wounded or not—and she preferrednot.
Chapter 20
Knox followed Fernando down to the basement level of The Mandeville. He didn't worry about him running off—Fernando was clearly scared. And determined to disarm the bomb. Apparently, he'd planned to be long gone if this bomb was ever to detonate.
Which raised a question. "Fernando, if you're so scared of this bomb, why shorten the countdown? What happened to the timeline texted to Drakos?"
The nervous bomb maker spun around, frustration and anger warring on his face. "This isn't . . .it's just . . . You think you're so smart? You try to build all these devices and . . . and . . . and link them, and adhere to my brother's timing."
Brother?
Fernando's eyes bulged.
Oh yeah, fearful Fernando did not intend to let that little nugget slip out. They still didn't know who ran Byron but passing along the boss's brother to the FBI—if all went smoothly today—would be a huge help.
Knox was dying to press him about his brother, but there wasn't time. He needed to keep the man focused, because the other fact he confirmed from Fernando's outburst was that this guy wasn't an expert bomb maker. As if that wasn't obvious already.
He'd do his best to get Fernando to disengage the countdown, but the next few minutes held no promises for their survival. The beads of nervous sweat on the flustered bomb maker's brow clawed at Knox's confidence in the man.
An unbidden image of Allie floated in his mind.
He loved her.
He didn't know why that feeling—that fact—solidified in his heart and his mind in that moment, but it did. He wanted a life with her. They were created for each other. He was certain of it. His chest constricted. It sent white-hot terror through his veins to know that the fidgety, mediocre explosives enthusiast held Allie's life in his hands.
If Fernando didn't come through, he'd have no future with Allie. Because no one in this building would have a future at all.
Yeah, he needed to keep Fernando focused. For so many reasons. "Don't worry about any of that now, buddy. Just concentrate on disarming the bomb. You can be a hero today. You've got this."
Knox hoped that wasn't a lie.
Fernando bobbed his sweaty head and led Knox to the end of a short hallway.
"It's in here," he said. He pushed open a heavy metal door with a screech worthy of a horror movie. Fernando flipped on the lights, but the sudden dim glow from the scant number of fixtures did nothing to lessen the creepy factor.
Knox scanned the room. Fernando wasn't bluffing. A bomb, similar to the ones he saw in the warehouse, sat on a table in the middle of the room—a room filled with ominous canisters.If those canisters were filled with diesel fuel like Fernando claimed, then he was right about the bomb being able to burn down the whole resort.
Knox glanced at the countdown display on the device. Only nine minutes and fifty-four seconds remained.
"Okay, Fernando, get to work. How long should this take?"
