I looked closer. “Is that a chess piece?” A pawn was half-hanging out of Marc’s shirt pocket.
Aiden stiffened. He grabbed my arm. “Run.”
I turned and retreated, hitting the door and running outside into the soft light, leaping across the grass and barreling across the quiet roadway toward the businesses on the other side.
“Keep going,” Aiden bellowed, right behind me.
The air thickened and paused. Then an explosion rocked the building behind us. Aiden tucked both arms around me and tumbled us behind a large oak tree in the grass. Debris rained down, and several projectiles smashed into the two-story gray house in front of us that served as a day spa. Glass shattered inward and fell onto a row of bushes outside.
His body jolted as something must’ve hit him, and he groaned.
I spit grass out of my mouth.
Aiden stayed over me. “Hold still. Make sure there isn’t another bomb.”
The soft ground hurt my hips. “You’re smushing me.”
He levered up, flipped me over, and covered me. “Better?”
“Yeah.” My hands were trapped between us. “Are you okay?” The shadow on his jaw scratched my nose. Debris rained down, and fire crackled gleefully.
“No. I’m pissed.” He waited a minute and then rolled over, coming up with his phone already at his ear, where he gave the details of the explosion. Must’ve been 9-1-1. Then he pressed a button. “All roll call. Now. Aiden in.”
I jumped up and ran over to smash a flame off his shirt.
A series of different voices came over the line, and after seven made it, his shoulders finally went down. “Okay. All accounted for. We’ve had a breach and an explosion.”
Sirens already came from the distance.
He took out his gun and scouted the area. Several people emerged from different buildings, watching the fire and broiling smoke.
I idled next to him. “Barensky?”
“Yeah.” The local police arrived. “Wait here and watch for debris.” He moved toward the first officer, flashed his badge, and then they talked for a while.
Saber and Drag roared up in an Escalade, both jumping out and flanking Aiden. Then Saber caught eye of me and hustled over. “You okay?”
“Yes.” I was unable to look away from the flames. The entire house was engulfed, and two of the trees out front lit on fire. The firetruck arrived, and the fighters went to work, trying to protect the home/businesses on either side of the rapidly falling building. “It happened so fast.”
“It always does,” Saber said, feeling solid next to me.
“Those two Barensky men were inside dead,” I whispered.
Saber nodded. “The other businesses were closed and the rest of our team was out, thank goodness.” His phone buzzed and he answered it. “Hi, Kurt. Just making sure you weren’t back at the office. Barensky got to it.” He listened for a few seconds. “Yeah. We’re all safe. Good luck in LA.” He ended the call.
Aiden made his way back to us with Drag at his side. “Well, that answers that,” Aiden said.
“What?” I asked.
“Barensky knows we’re ATF now for sure,” Aiden said.
We all watched as the building burned and then fell.
Chapter 35
It was almost midnight by the time we made it back to Aiden’s place after being interviewed repeatedly, first by the local police, then the state police, and finally the FBI. Then Aiden had taken back roads and backtracked before driving to his cabin. He and Saber had also run some weird wand thing over the entire truck before we’d left Spokane, checking for explosives as well as trackers. Apparently, the truck was clean.
He pulled into his garage and shut the door with the automatic button.
