Jax leaned in and blew out. “Grey—shit. This is beyond bad.”
Grey leaned over her other shoulder, surrounding her with the scent of male and the sense of a whole lot of testosterone. “Holy shit,” he said.
Sami partially turned. “Jax?”
The Vanguard leader leaned back, his eyes hardening. “That’ll take out the entire city block. If we want to get clear, we have to do it right now.” He winced. “Not sure we’ll make it even if we go now. We’ll have to evacuate everyone.”
Tace reached for her shoulder.
“Wait,” Sami said, looking back at the computer. “If the bomb was activated here via computer, why can’t I deactivate it the same way?”
“No,” Tace said, pulling on her chair so she rolled away from the keyboard.
Sami struggled against the move. “There’s a chance we have a cure for Scorpius in this facility. Or a concoction so a patient’s body can make its own vitamin B, removing the need for injections. Or even a way to protect pregnant women and ensure full-term pregnancies. If there’s a possibility, we have to try, right?”
Tace shook his head, his jaw set rock-hard. “If you fail to deactivate it, there won’t be enough time to get free of the blast area. I don’t have Jax or Greyson’s experience with explosives, but even I know that. Right?”
“Yeah,” Jax said. “To get clear, we have to go now. Even then, it ain’t gonna be pretty.”
Sami dug deep and breathed out. “Get all the civilians and soldiers out that you can. I’m staying.” She jerked the chair free and rolled back to the keyboard.
Chapter Thirty-One
My daddy, his daddy, and his daddy were all TexasRangers. That means somethin’.
—Tace Justice
“Have you fucking lost your mind?” Tace bellowed, reaching for his woman again. Here he was being all understanding and supportive of her career choices, and now she wanted to hang out where a bomb was about to go off? “We are running hard and fast for Vanguard.”
She turned and slapped his hand—actually fuckingslappedhim.
He lost his shit. Letting loose with a snarl that sounded too much like Marvin the lion, he reached down and yanked her ass from the chair, his temper nearly blowing off the top of his head. Which was exactly why he didn’t see her punch to the throat coming. She nailed him and hard. He dropped to his ass like a sack of bricks, still holding her against his chest. His throat seized and his eyes stung. “What?” he wheezed.
Her elbow impacted his cheekbone, and she spun around to straddle him, smacking both hands to his ears.
Pain smashed through his skull. Oh, hell no. He shot his arms up between hers, grabbed the back of her head, and turned to flatten her ass to the concrete. He’d learned his lesson well last time, so he used his groin to press her into the floor and his bigger hands to clasp her wrists above her head. She wiggled beneath him, bucking hard, using a string of swear words that had certainly never been thrown together so colorfully before. At about the third “fuck,” she lapsed into rapid Spanish.
Finally, shooting poisonous darts from her dark eyes, she subsided beneath him.
Jax leaned over one side. “You guys about done?”
“Get the fucking trucks ready,” Tace snapped. “We’re going.”
“No, we aren’t,” Sami countered, struggling again, her breasts rubbing against his chest. “I’m the only chance we have to stop the bomb, and you’re wasting time. Get off me.”
Greyson bent down at the other side. “Not for nothin’, but if there’s a chance to diffuse the bomb, how about we try it?”
Tace looked up and pinned the Merc leader with a hard stare.
Greyson held up both hands and backed away. “Your woman, your decision. I’ll go have my men start clearing out the Bunker folks.”
“Get my brother out of here,” Jax ordered. “If you have to take that Bunker doctor, that Penelope woman, in order to motivate him, do it.”
“Copy that,” Greyson said, striding from the room.
Tace leaned down into Sami’s face. “Here’s what’s going to happen, little hacker. We’re going to get up and run like hell. Got it?”
Her bottom lip trembled. “You don’t think I can do it?”
