That was where their problems began.
Because no sooner had he lowered his weight ontothe fabric than three things happened almost at the exact same time.
There was aclicksound.
Followed almost immediately by the feeling of something shifting below him.
Then, as his brain and body both processed what he was hearing and feeling, the third thing happened a breath later.
Rose Little grabbed his wrist and, despite her small size, she said something in a voice so commanding and quick that James couldn’t help but listen with every fiber of his being.
“Don’t move a muscle.”
Chapter Two
The space between a good decision and a bad one was, according to Rose’s late grandmother, only as long as the finger that wags.
“People sure aren’t as self-aware as they should be,” she’d told a younger Rose once. “Most don’t know they’re doing wrong until someone is yelling it at them. You know, wagging that finger in their faces. Especially us Little women. We’re so dang confident in ourselves that we need a good person to tut at us from time to time. To show us we might have made a choice we shouldn’t have. Or, we’re barreling toward one we should avoid.”
Grandma Little had then lovingly looked at her husband, sleeping next to her hospital bed, and smiled.
“Just make sure the finger wagging at you belongs to someone worth listening to or else it’s just some silly nilly wasting your time judging you.”
Rose was staring at James Keller’s coveralls, smelling car oil and sweat off him and the garage around them, and knew she didn’t have the time to wonder whether or not he was someone worth letting judge her choices.
Mainly because of the bomb strapped beneath the man’s hide.
“I’m going to have to ask you to elaborate on thatdon’t movecommand,” James said through a terse line of his mouth. To his credit, he moved very little while delivering the request.
Rose was careful not to move too much herself, worried that he might subconsciously mimic her, but there was no easy way to answer.
So she didn’t mince her words.
“I think there might be an explosive under the seat. One you just triggered by sitting down. That was the click I heard and, I’m guessing you felt something beneath you too?”
He didn’t nod but he did confirm.
“I felt something like a click.”
Rose looked down.
There was no easy way for her to look under the seat, even with the door open. Not without the man moving for her. Even while sitting, James was undeniably a big man. Tall, tall and taller with legs that matched his stature inch for inch. His knees almost touched the dash and, had he not sat down at an angle, there wouldn’t be any space between at all. Despite Rose being the very opposite in size, she couldn’t see a way for her to get around them to look beneath the seat. At least, not without moving him.
Andifshe was right, that could spell a big ol’boomfor both of them.
“A bomb,” James said flatly. “You’re saying I’m sitting on a bomb.”
Rose tore her eyes up from his legs and the floorboard.He kept his gaze forward, his head not moving at all.
“I can’t get a good look from here,” she said. “I’m going to try and look under the back of the seat. Hold on.”
Rose wasn’t going to let a second slip by without some kind of action tied to it, so she did as she said and opened the back door behind him as gently as possible. James’s voice carried easily to her despite his lack of movement while speaking.
“I know you’re law enforcement and all, but how familiar are you with explosives? Is that even in your list of skills?”
Rose wasn’t about to fault the man for doubting her abilities. Mainly because he wasn’t exactly wrong to be skeptical. She stepped back, kneeled outside of the car and then angled her hands and head into the empty floorboard with more care than she had ever put into peeking at anything before.
She didn’t respond until after the top of her head was lifted off the floor mat once her peeking was done.
