“I don’t know. He’s obsessed with her. He might be willing to die rather than have her live without him.”
Whitaker nodded. “Then we go back to plan A. Storm the castle.”
Tanner nodded and they moved to the door. “I’ll kick it in. You go low, I’ll go high.”
Whitaker crouched and Tanner was counting down when they heard Jeter yell from the inside.
“No!”
Whitaker’s eyes looked up at Tanner in confusion.
Then everything blew to hell.
THEEXPLOSIONKNOCKEDboth Tanner and Whitaker half a dozen feet away from the door. If they’d been over next to the explosives, it would’ve killed them instantly.
As it was, half the office was gone.
And Bree was still in there.
“Bree!”
It was almost impossible to see any details in the smoke, but the fire was lighting half the space.
Tanner crawled toward the office. To the side he heard Whitaker coughing and moaning like he was in pain, but Tanner couldn’t stop—the man was breathing and that was more than Tanner knew for sure about Bree.
He grabbed Whitaker’s phone, dialed 9-1-1 and left it on the ground. Hopefully emergency services would send first responders immediately since they’d be able to track the call.
He continued to crawl toward the office, keeping low to attempt to stay out of the smoke.
“Bree!” He made it to the door. “Bree! Talk to me, freckles.”
God, please talk to him. Please be alive.
The smoke got even thicker as he moved inside the door. The far half of the office, where all the explosives had been stored was now completely gone. Computer equipment lay in pieces on the ground and burning on a table.
A leg bent at an awkward angle near one of the computers caught Tanner’s attention and his heart began to throw itself against his ribs. Was that Bree?
He crawled over, the smell of scorched flesh becoming stronger as he did. He prayed with all his might it wasn’t Bree.
It wasn’t. As soon as Tanner got to the shoe he realized it was too large to belong to Bree. This was Jeter.
Tanner didn’t waste any more time on him. Alive or dead, he’d have to wait.
A bang against a table that had fallen caught his attention. “Bree!”
A cough.
“Bree, I’m coming.” He got to his feet, still keeping as low as he could, and ran behind the table.
Bree was there. She was alive. She was moving her hands all over the ground, crying and coughing.
“Bree.”
She couldn’t hear him between her frantic movements and crying. He touched her ankle and she screamed, kicking at him.
“Freckles, it’s me!”
“Tanner?”
