“But this is a family affair,” Sybil pointed out. “Are you introducing her to us?”
Hank cleared his throat. “C’mon now, let’s leave Jason alone. And we need to get going.”
Jason shot his father a grateful look and followed the rest of his family as they filed out of Matthew’s bedroom and out of the castle.
With spring just around the corner and the weather finally getting milder, Matthew and Catherine decided to have an outdoor ceremony on the back lawn, though the reception would be in the Grand Ballroom since it was still cold in the evenings.
The ceremony area was cordoned off with swathes of white cloth, interspersed with pastel colors. There were rows of chairs and an aisle down the middle decorated with flowers and cloth in the same spring color theme. At the front was a raised dais with an arch made of flowers. Judge Cornelius Atherton was waiting there, dressed in his black robes.
Matthew took his place in front with Jason beside him as his best man. Hank and Riva took their seats on the groom’s side.
The orchestra began to play and everyone sat down. The bridesmaids and groomsmen came out first, Sybil and Luke, Nate and Kate, and Amelia and Ben. When Jason saw a flash of blonde hair turn the corner, he held his breath.
Christina walked down the aisle by herself. She was wearing a light-blue dress with delicate straps. The fabric around the torso clung to the curves of her firm breasts, and exposed just a hint of cleavage. Her long, golden hair shone as it tumbled past her creamy shoulders. He’d never seen anyone look as stunning as she did in that moment. They locked eyes and she quickly turned away, a blush staining her cheeks.
Last night had given him hope as he swore he could not only see the wanting in her eyes when she looked at him, but smell her arousal. As she came closer, she glanced at him one more time then took her position opposite him on the dais. Behind her, Cordy, as second maid of honor, finished her walk. Jason gave her a wink and she beamed a smile at him.
The music changed and a hush went over the crowd. Soon, the bride and her father were walking down the aisle. Catherine looked radiant in her white gown and he heard Matthew’s breath hitch. She was a beautiful bride, but Jason couldn’t help but be drawn to Christina, who was staring at her sister as tears glistened down her heart-shaped face. Soon, the ceremony was on its way, with the bride and groom up front and their attendants beside them.
“Jason,” Luke whispered from his left, his voice barely perceptible.
“What?” he asked, glancing at his brother.
“Do you hear that?” Luke asked, his thick blond brows drawing into a frown.
“Huh? Hear what?”
Matthew glared at them then turned back to Judge Atherton. That quickly shut them up. But a few seconds later, Luke called his attention again.
“Jason—”
“Shut up,” he hissed. From the bride’s side, Sybil shot them a warning look.
“I swear, I hear something. Like a buzzing sound,” Luke said. “Don’t you hear it?”
“No, dude,” Jason said. “Now pipe down.” God, what the hell was wrong with Luke?
“And so,” Judge Atherton continued, “should anyone here present know of any reason that this couple should not be joined in marriage, speak now or forever hold your peace.”
Luke’s voice cut through the reverent silence. “Everyone get away! Now!”
“What the hell?” Matthew exclaimed. A murmur rushed through the crowd. In the front row, Hank was getting to his feet, while Catherine’s family looked at each other with puzzled expressions.
Jason whipped around, ready to face Luke and take him down if it came to that. He expected to see a crazed expression on his brother’s face, but all he saw was clear determination. Something was up. “What’s wrong?”
Luke growled at the Judge, Matthew, and Catherine. “Leave. Get off this stage! You’re all in danger.”
The determination in his voice struck Jason like hammer. “Do as he says. Now!”
Matthew rushed everyone off, with Ben and Nathan helping. Meanwhile, Luke was already bending down, his hands digging under the wooden boards, before he lifted the entire dais off. He flipped it over with one motion.
“Fuck!” Jason cursed when he saw what was underneath. There was a suitcase-sized package wrapped in duct tape. Attached to it was a large, red digital display that ticked down every passing second. Three minutes and five seconds.
He heard Matthew swear loudly before turning to the guests. “Everyone, please go back into the castle. It’s not safe here.”
A buzz rang through the crowd, and a few people rushed to get up. Matthew put an arm around Catherine and whispered to her. Together, they gathered the groomsmen and bridesmaids then dispersed, helping people off the lawn and into the castle.
“What’s going on?” Christina rushed over and then her gaze landed on the bomb. “Oh, my God.”
Jason grabbed her by the arms. “Get out of here, Christina. Go back inside with everyone.”
“No!” she protested. “We need to diffuse it. What are you doing?”
Jason was taking off his jacket. “I’m going to fly it away,” he said. He checked the dial. Two minutes and thirty seconds. He could clear the mountain in that time.
“You can’t!” she said, wrapping her fists around the collar of his jacket.
“I have to,” he said. “It’ll be okay. There’s a lake a few miles from here. I can drop it there.”
“And if you don’t make it?” Blue eyes searched his. “No. Nikos!” she called to her brother.
The youngest Stavros brother ran toward them, and as soon as he saw the bomb, he nodded to Christina. “I’m on it.”
“On it?” Jason asked, confused. “What do you mean, on it?”
Nikos knelt down next to the bomb, and took out a small pouch from his pocket. Xander and Kostas followed, speaking rapidly in Greek as they approached Nikos.
“What the hell is going on?” Jason asked Christina.
She hesitated. “Nikos trained with the Greek Special Forces. He’s done this before.”
Jason’s gut told him that wasn’t the entire truth, but that wasn’t important. “You have to go, Christina. Go somewhere safe.”
“I won’t leave you,” she said, desperation in her voice as she clung to him. “Don’t make me go, please.”
Her words struck something in him, and while he didn’t want to be away from her, he knew he had to get her to safety. He looked back at the Stavros brothers who were now examining the bomb. “What are they saying?”
“They’re working on it. Nikos keeps saying something about the timer and fuse … a couple of kilos of C-4 … enough to level the castle.” Her face grew pale.
“Dammit!” He looked around and saw Nate a few feet away. “Nate! Get everyone back to town! Now!” Nate nodded and ran toward the castle.
“How much longer?” he asked.
“Less than one minute,” Kostas called.
“He won’t be able to diffuse it in time,” Jason said. And he wouldn’t have much time to get away now. But if he flew as high as he could … “Christina, please let go. I need to do this.”
“You can’t. You won’t make it.”
“But everyone else will,” he said in a quiet voice. You will.
“Jason…” she reached down to take his hands, lacing her fingers through his. She closed her eyes. “I—”
“It’s done!” Nikos said and whooped. “Yes!” He jumped up and raised his fist in the air. “Opa!” His brothers slapped him on the back.
Christina’s eyes flew open, her pink lips parted. She looked up at him and her shoulders sank with relief. “I…” She turned red, dropped his hands, and trudged toward her brothers. Jason stood there for a moment, his heart slowing down as he realized how close they had been in that moment. He took a deep breath and followed her.
“How did you know?” Jason turned to Luke as he stood next to the three brothers who were now examining the bomb.
Jason shook his head. “No, couldn’t hear a thing.”
“You’re a lion shifter, right?” Kostas asked. Luke nodded. “Cat hearing. You can hear higher frequencies than most animals. Even wolves.”
“I’ll be damned,” Luke said, shaking his head.
“Are you sure it’s diffused?” Jason asked. Nikos nodded in the affirmative. “We should call Blackstone P.D., just in case.”
“And we need to find out who did this,” Matthew said as he approached them from behind.
“Where’s Catherine? And Cordy?” Christina asked. “Papa? Are they okay?”
“They’re safe,” he said. “I saw them off in the limo with Mom, Dad, and the rest of the girls.”
Christina released a breath, her shoulders sagging in relief. “Thank God.”
“Don’t call anyone back yet,” Xander said. “There may still be other bombs around.”
The thought made Jason clench his fists in anger. “We need to sweep the place. The rangers might be able to help,” he said, referring to the Blackstone Rangers who were in charge of protecting the mountains. “They have a few big cat shifters on their team too.”
“Can’t hear anything else around here, but I’ll start looking around,” Luke said, as he began to take off his jacket. “I’ll be faster on four feet.” He stalked off into the distance, discarding his clothes as he disappeared into the tree line.
The sounds of approaching sirens broke the silence in the air. “That’ll be Meacham,” Matthew said. “We should go talk to him. Get everything sorted out.”
Jason glanced over at Christina and her brothers, who were quietly talking amongst themselves. The feeling that something was not quite right kept nagging at him. Christina turned her head and locked eyes with him, but quickly looked away. Something was definitely going on.
“Jason,” Matthew called. “Are you coming?”
“Yeah. Right behind you.”
Chapter 12
“What can you tell us about the bomb?” Xander asked in a low voice as soon as Jason and Matthew disappeared into the house.
“Nothing much right now,” Nikos said with a shake of his head. “Standard timer and C-4 explosives. Probably timed to go off sometime during the ceremony. We were extremely lucky they used a clock that emitted a frequency the lion shifter could hear.”
“Where did it come from? And who made it?”
“I’ll have to take it apart in the lab back at Headquarters to find a signature, if there is one,” Nikos explained. “Think anyone will notice if we sneak it off?”
“Their police department will surely want to take it into their custody,” Kostas said. “And anything else they find.”
Xander turned to Christina. “What’s your plan for getting more information from the cops?”
“Still working on it,” she answered. She chewed her lip, deep in thought. Frankly, she really couldn’t get her head together at the moment. The thought of losing Jason tore at her insides. Her hands still shook, even though it hadn’t come to that.
“Let’s keep an eye on things,” Xander said. “Try to lay low, but gather as much intelligence as we can. This must be SPHK, DARSA, or one of the other groups.”
“But how did they get this in here?” Nikos asked, gesturing to the diffused bomb. The numbers on the display read ‘00:23’, and thinking of how close they came to death shot ice through Christina’s veins.
“Caterers, flower arrangers, decorators, the band…” Xander shook his head. “There were dozens of people going in and out here during the last twenty-four hours. It could have been any of them, or someone who was paid to take it in.”
“Why go through all this trouble?” Kostas asked. “What was their plan?”
“To kill as many shifters as they could in one place, of course,” Xander said, his voice edgy.
“But, did they target us or the Lennoxes?” Kostas posed.
“There’s no way anyone within five feet of that bomb would have survived,” Nikos said. “Not even shifters.”
“That makes sense,” Kostas said. “It was probably the first major event where all four of them were present and guaranteed to be next to each other. Same with us, if we were the target.”
Hot anger poured through Christina’s veins. “Those bastards,” she said through gritted teeth.
“We’ll get them,” Xander said. “And then they will pay. For everything.”
She nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat. “I should go check on what’s going on. Catherine will be distraught.”
“Take care of her,” Xander said. “She will need you.”
Christina picked up her skirts and marched toward the direction of the castle. When she got inside, there were dozens of police officers roaming about. Matthew, Jason, and Hank were in the corner, talking to an older man in uniform who must have been the chief.
An idea popped into her head. “Excuse me,” she said, stopping a young officer as she passed by. “Would you by any chance … I mean, is Deputy Carson around?”
The officer nodded. “Over there, ma’am.” She pointed to the tall, uniformed man who was directing a few of the cops.
“Thank you,” she said before sauntering over to Carson. “Deputy,” she called in a breathy voice. She nearly gagged thinking about how it made her sound like a bimbo, but men seemed to like it. “Deputy Carson, do you remember me?”
The handsome deputy turned around, his face lighting up with recognition as he saw her. “Yes, ma’am,” he said, “Ms. Stavros.”
“Yes,” she said. “Please, call me Christina.”
“All right, then you should call me Cole,” he said with a grin. “What can I do for you?”
“Oh you must be busy, but…” She shuddered. “This whole thing, terrible, right?” She reached out and placed a hand on his bicep and squeezed. “I’m just glad you— all of you—are here now.”
“We’re just doing our job, ma’am, er, I mean, Christina.”
“Yes, and great job, too.” She looked up at him through lowered lashes. “You haven’t found any other bombs or anything else?”
“Not yet, but our guys are working on it. If we find anything, we’ll have our bomb squad ready.”
She clapped her hands together. “Oh good. Is there a chance that bomb can go off? What will happen to it?”
“Your brother did a good job diffusing it. It was such good luck that he’d been trained as a bomb expert. But, yes, it won’t go off. We’ll be taking it to our forensic lab down at the police station to examine it and anything else we find.”
“Oh thank God,” she exclaimed.
“Christina!”
She turned around. Sybil was running toward her, her face pale. The young woman barreled into her and engulfed her in a hug. “Thank God you’re okay.”
Kate wasn’t too far behind. “Chrissy! You survived!” She slapped her on the shoulder. “I’d hate to have lost you. We still have so many nights of tequila shots ahead of us.”
She disentangled herself from Sybil. “I’m fine. Everything’s going to be fine.” She could have lost them too, her new friends. Anger raged inside her. “Where’s Catherine? Cordy? Are they all right?”
“In your room. They’re good. Catherine’s sad. Angry. Depressed.”
“She’s going through the stages of grief mighty quick,” Kate quipped.
“Sybil. Kate.” Cole greeted them. “You girls okay?”
“Yeah, we’re good,” Kate said, then shot Christina a look. “What are you—”
“Excuse me, Deputy.” Another officer came up from behind them. “Chief Meacham wants to talk to you.”
“Right.” He turned to Christina. “If you’ll excuse me…”
“Of course.” She said and then patted him on the arm. “Thank you again.” He gave her a nod before walking off with the other officer.
Wheels bega
n to turn in her mind. They had to get the bomb back to The Agency headquarters. Or at least, get a copy of the forensic report. If The Agency were an official entity it would have been easy to work with the P.D., but since there weren’t, they had to resort to less than legal tactics. If she could only get more information somehow.
Kate let out a whistle. “Woohoo. You go, girl.” She fanned herself. “Look at that man’s ass in those tight khakis. I swear, I love a man in uniform.”
“You hate cops,” Sybil pointed out. “But,” she turned to Christina, “what were you talking about?”
“Uhm, nothing. We were just getting reacquainted. We met the last time I was here.”
“That man is ffffiiiiiiiiine,” Kate exclaimed. She raised her hand for a high-five and Sybil rolled her eyes.
“Well, I should go check on Catherine.”
Christina made her way toward the grand staircase that led to the upper level. As she walked up the steps, she felt eyes on her and she whipped around. From across the room, Jason stared at her, an inscrutable look on his face, his jaw tense. Did he suspect anything about her brothers? About her? It had been a close call, and they had no choice but to have Nikos diffuse the bomb. But then again, that might have raised too many suspicions. She only hoped that they could come up with a better explanation next time.
* * *
Despite what happened, they managed to salvage what was left of the day. Once Blackstone P.D. and the Rangers declared that the whole town and mountains were clear, almost everyone came back to the castle. Judge Atherton married Matthew and Catherine in the library in front of the family and close friends, and the reception continued in the Grand Ballroom as planned.
Spirits were surprisingly high at the party as the band played and the champagne flowed, the events of that morning seemingly forgotten. Christina had not seen Jason since the ceremony. She didn’t know why, but she wanted to see him, not just to check if he had any suspicions, but also because she wanted to see if he was okay. Emotions and tensions had been high, and he didn’t even acknowledge or look at her during the ceremony. At first, she thought it might have been because he had been preoccupied, but now, she wasn’t sure. There was this tightness in her stomach that hadn’t been there before, and now, worry nagged at her.
The Blackstone Bad Dragon Page 9
