He pictured Kiley waiting. Looking up, fear in her eyes. He wanted to report to her, but before that he had to go the extra mile. Look for additional booby traps while suited up. He grabbed a flashlight and swung it over the main room.
The first thing he noticed were lawn chairs serving as the only living room furniture. He stepped down a hallway, searching for any signs they’d drilled into walls or the ceiling or had run wires along carpet or through vents. He stopped to check a bathroom. Nothing,
In the bedroom at the end of the hall, he spotted a sleeping bag, prayer rug, and trash bag. The closet door stood open, revealing an empty interior. He ran the flashlight over the space to check for wires.
He crossed back through the living room and found another bedroom holding similar items. Finally he checked the kitchen and went to open the front door. But first he pushed the buttonson the side of his helmet to lift the face shield. He stepped onto the balcony and gave a thumbs-up.
Mack, Kiley, and Sean came charging across the street from the staging area and stacked at the stairs in the same order. They pounded up the concrete steps toward Evan. He moved out of their way, giving them access to the apartment and prayed their sweep produced a lead. Even more, they needed to find the whereabouts of these men. Men who’d somehow obtained and rigged enough explosives to flatten a city block.
After clearing the apartment, Kiley looked at the tall stack of C-4 bricks and shuddered. Her heart was still pounding. Had been racing, threatening to escape her chest since the second she agreed to let Evan render the bomb safe and he’d put on that suit and trudged up the stairs. Then that pause at the top, and she could swear he was looking right at her, and her heart felt like it stopped.
But he was safe now. They all were. And she never wanted to see him put on a bomb suit again. Never wanted him to face another explosive. Never wanted to see him in harm’s way of any kind. And with the extreme fear she usually kept below the surface now fighting to take her down, she knew he’d come to mean something more to her than she’d thought possible.
She couldn’t have picked a more untimely moment to realize it. She was in charge, the RED team awaiting directions. Two local squads were waiting on her too. She had to let it all go and put on her professional persona.
She marched to the balcony and gave the all-clear signal. The tough bomb and SWAT officers visibly relaxed, but she couldn’t. Not after seeing the bricks of C-4 by the door. If Evan hadn’t suggested checking for a bomb, her decision could’ve killed everyone. She’d had the intel right in front of her, yet she failed to factor it into her plan. Much like the way Olin died.And just like that, she knew she could forgive Evan. Now was not the time to tell him, but she would make time to talk to him, and soon.
Determined to resolve that issue, she stepped inside. Mack flipped on the overhead light and eased out a nearly silent breath. The op had shaken the guy who was nearly unflappable, and she had to wonder if past memories were bothering him.
He looked at her, his eyes clear of turmoil. “Let’s check this place out.”
Kiley studied a pair of old lawn chairs, a cardboard box tipped over to serve as a side table, a TV, and a PlayStation console.
“Not much here, but there are sleeping bags and prayer rugs in the bedrooms,” Mack said.
“A bag of trash in one of them too,” Evan said as he pulled down protective flaps that went around the helmet area of the bomb suit.
Sean went to the adjoining kitchen and opened the refrigerator. “Some water and Gatorade. That’s it.” He jerked open a few cupboards. “Protein bars. Chips.”
Mack looked in a trash can. “Fast-food wrappers.”
“With their personal belongings gone, they obviously skated.” Evan ripped Velcro tabs free on the bulky suit, the sound echoing through the empty apartment. “Doesn’t look like they spent much time here.”
“So why did they come here at all?” Kiley frowned. “No need for an apartment when they could’ve stayed in a motel for a night or two.”
“Which supports your theory that they rented this place for potential inquiries,” Evan said.
Kiley turned to Sean. “Get ERT out here. Mack, give the kitchen trash a thorough search.”
“Great, thanks for trash patrol.” He rolled his eyes and put on gloves as he squatted by the can.
“I’ll grab the bag from the bedroom and check out the bathrooms,” she continued while looking at Evan. “I assume you’ll want to get out of that suit.”
“You know it. It might have a fan inside, but it’s still sweltering.” As he passed toward the door, he brushed against her hand, and with the intense look he flashed her way, she thought the touch was on purpose.
She’d forgotten all about the kiss during the op, but now the memory played in her mind, and she was very aware of him. The kiss was amazing. Beyond what she could have imagined. A connection she hadn’t felt before. Ever.
Forget it.
He disappeared through the open door, and she put on gloves to search the bathroom cabinets and grab the bag from the bedroom. Task complete, she hurried past the front door before he came back inside and spoke to her. Here she was running from him as ifhewere the terrorist bent on hurting her when in fact, if his kiss said anything, it said he only wanted to love her. Now that there was no unforgiveness between them, the thought was far scarier than facing down a terrorist, as the sentiment could carry a lifetime of commitment if she let it.
She forced her attention on the bag and dumped it out onto the counter. Several candy and protein-bar wrappers lay in the pile. A couple of water bottles bounced on the Formica countertop and rolled to a stop. Underneath it all she found a wadded-up scrap of paper. She unfolded and pressed it out on the counter. A website address for a hotel reservation company was printed on the top of the page. AnLcame after the main website, but the rest of the URL was torn off.
“That for a login page?” Sean asked, looking over her shoulder, his phone to his ear.
“Maybe,” she said. “But why would these guys book a hotel when they have this apartment?”
“They’d need a place to stay if they left town,” Sean said.
