“What’s going on?”
He ended the call and shoved the phone into his pocket. The serious way he turned and gripped my shoulder had me holding my breath. “We got word yer office was hit.” He raised his eyebrows and his mouth thinned into a serious line. Nearby, kids tore past us, kicking up sand and screaming as they played some sort of game.
“Oh no, wrecked like my apartment?” I frowned. “That’s terrible. Lor will help me straighten it up.”
He let out a shaky breath. “No, it’s beenhit, not tossed. Bombed—the building is on fire. It’s even on the news. Manhattan Central is swarmed with fire fighters and the bomb squad.” He tugged on my hand but let me go to grab our towels. My phone was buzzing where I’d laid it across my borrowed sandals and I picked it up. He bent and shoved the sandals at my feet, so I put them on.
“Oh no, my office is in the building with the whole history library.” My blood went cold. “That’s awful! All those books!”
My phone stopped ringing and started again. “Hello?” I answered absently, watching as Rowen stuffed the sunscreen into the bundle he’d made of the beach towels.
“Oh my God, sir. You’re alive.” The relief in Lor’s voice had me feeling wobbly.
“Lor, are you okay? You sound... bad.”
He coughed and someone on his end asked him if he needed help and he said no. Concern ate at me. “I was on my way to your office when there was an explosion. I ran all the way across campus. Thank everything you weren’t in there. I tried to check, but by the time I got there it was all smoke. Fuck, fuck, oh my God. I told you more than once you should stop your research.”
“Are you okay?” My heart tried to beat out of my chest, and Rowen stood staring at me.
“No! I’m not! I understand I’m just a student, an undergrad, and you’re the doctor, but I told you, and you wouldn’t listen to me. I said it over and over again. Dr. Atmeyer doesn’t have your best interests in mind if he’s still pushing you to do that fucking book. There are—”
“Dangerous people, I know. There was an explosion?”
Rowen closed his eyes and let out a long, low sound that was halfway between a moan and a growl.
“Yes,” Lor replied, fury making the word curt.
“Maybe it was just a gas line or—”
“I’m sending you a video. I’m being asked to move back.” There was a loud boom in the background and some screams. “I have to go. The police are telling us to move. Wherever you are, stay safe. Keep away from campus.” The line went dead and I blinked at my phone.
“What—”
“An explosion that seems to have something to do with my office,” I said faintly. “Would that be the hit you mentioned?”
“Aye,” Rowen said and opened his eyes. His jaw hardened, and I felt like I was lost in a bizarre dream. A video from Lor popped up in my texts and I clicked on it. Rowen and I turned until the sun wasn’t making my screen unusable, and he finally dumped the bundle on the ground to cup his hands around it so we could watch a shaky video, potentially shot by Lor. The library was ablaze. All of the glass on the building seemed to have shattered. My heart almost stopped as I thought about my favorite librarian, Jenna. Was she working today? I swayed, and Rowen slipped his arm around me. I stared up at him and didn’t know what to say.
“I’ve got ye.”
“Okay, now I’m scared,” I whispered.
“Cillian was losing his mind because he got home and we weren’t there. This is why he was so worried. Feck, we’ll get ye back to the house. My guess is they got no clue where ye’re staying, for now anyway. They’d have to have balls the size of the moon to hit ye there.”
We grabbed our things and ran to Rowen’s gray Lexus together. Other beachgoers were looking at us like we might have something contagious, but I was used to that reaction from people, and Rowen didn’t seem to care. He started the engine almost the second his ass hit his seat, and I barely had my door closed before he backed the Lexus out of the parking spot, narrowly avoiding slamming into the bumper of an impatient Impala. We were honked at, but Rowen didn’t waste the time to flip the person off, simply pulled out and took off as fast as he could navigate through the busy lot. He swore at the bottlenecked exit and pointed us toward the edge of the lot instead. He bumped over the grass and curb onto the street, getting more honks from people who had to brake to let us out, and I braced myself on the dash.
“Seat belt,” he barked, and I hurried to buckle up. I picked my phone up from the floor where it had slipped from my lap and watched the video of the library burning again. The last traces of my research that were in the material world were going up in smoke. I slapped the dashboard. I had my book backed up, of course, and I had some things saved to the cloud, but every piece of cold, hard research material I’d had was gone. I groaned and rested my head back, staring at the ceiling of the car, when an even worse idea struck me.
“Rowen, if you were going to get rid of all traces of someone, and you destroyed their home and work, would you say it would be typical of most mobs to go after the family next?” I felt oddly detached from what I was asking, like a robot had replaced me.
“Fairly standard,” he said, then winced. “Uh, makes sense.” He glanced at me and did a double take. “What’s wrong?”
“My parents’ house. Mom isn’t there. She’s a physicist, and she only comes home twice a month during the school year because she works in California right now. I don’t think she’s scheduled to be home. My dad usually hangs out at home on the weekends.” My throat felt like it was going to close up. “Can we make sure he’s okay?”
“We can’t go there. No. Don’t ask. I won’t do it.” The car lurched forward and he passed a slow driver in front of us on the right to the tune of yet more honking.
Sunshine cut through the windshield and made me squint. I lowered the visor and sat back again. “I need to make sure he’s safe. This is all my fault. I really didn’t think—”
“Call. Just call, angel. He’ll pick up, ye’ll tell him to vacate the premises and go stay with a friend.” Rowen sounded shaken and that had my stomach vanishing.
