Instead, angry fingers curled deep into the back of her hair, hard fingernails scraping the skin of her scalp. With one thrust from her assailant’s arm, Allie’s forehead beat against the carpet, effectively stopping her flight.
Blood pooled in her mouth. Her tongue and lip throbbed, one bitten, the other busted as her face connected with the floor.
“Shhh,” her assailant whispered into her ear. His heavy knee pressed against her spine, crushing her stomach into the rug beside her bed. “You don’t want to do that,” he warned. Hot tears fell from her eyes. His dank breath clung to her cheek as he spoke. “No fighting. No running. I have your family.”
Allie sucked in a shallow, ragged breath. Her sobs instantly silenced. She waited, biting back the cries, desperate to know what he would say next, and prepared to comply.
“Attagirl,” he said, easing his weight off her. “I’ve attached a bomb to your parents’ little station wagon. They’re taking your boy out for ice cream. You wouldn’t want to see them all go boom, now, would you?”
Allie pressed her lips against the building sob. She shook her head. She would do as he said. Anything he said.
“Give me any trouble at all, and I’ll dial the number that detonates that bomb,” he promised. “Their safety depends on you. Understand?”
She nodded hard and fast, tears blurring her vision and the taste of blood turning her stomach.
He yanked her up by her hair, and she cried out unintentionally, shocked by the fresh jolt of pain and struggling to get her feet beneath her. “Move,” he growled. “Now.”
She stumbled forward as he shoved her into the hall, through the kitchen, then out into the snow.
He didn’t have to tell her who he was. Allie already knew.
This was Fritz O’Lear. The Grand Rapids bomber. And he was going to kill her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Max breathed easier when he and the TCD arrived at Great Lakes Mall, the shopping center where Allie leased a kiosk, and found she wasn’t there. It had only taken a few minutes of speaking with Emilio West, the Coffee Coven manager, to erase any doubt from Max’s mind that he was the bomber’s fourth target. Emilio had answered the phone when Max called, then ranted, complained and guffawed through a half dozen stories about how much he hated Fritz O’Lear.
According to Emilio, O’Lear had been a loner in school and a stalker of Pamela, before they dated and afterward. He claimed that O’Lear lurked on the outside of groups, often lingering near attractive women, attempting to flirt, but always failing. And allegedly visited the mall several times a week.
Emilio said O’Lear had a bad habit of coming into Coffee Coven to bother the young girls behind the counter. He made the baristas uncomfortable and held up the lines, so Emilio had told him to leave, loudly and often. And the last time O’Lear had been in for coffee, Emilio had incited the workers to laugh at him. He hadn’t been back since.
Max dialed Allie once more as he walked the still escalator, back to the food court for a rendezvous with Axel. The squeak of gym shoes on tile floors told him another wave of exiting employees and shoppers was on the way out. Local PD had coordinated with mall security to evacuate the building. Meanwhile, Sergeant Sims was rounding up the bomb squad to help Max search.
Max’s call, like all the others before it, went to voice mail.
Axel met him at the base of the unmoving steps, brows furrowed in concern. “Any luck?”
“No, but at least she isn’t here.”
“True.” Axel bobbed his head, looking a bit relieved, as well. “The place is nearly emptied,” Axel said. “We’ll get started soon and be done before you know it. Then you can swing by and check on Allie yourself.”
“It’s a big mall,” Max said, pulling his attention back to the job at hand. He liked the idea of checking on Allie in person, but it would take time to do a thorough job in a building this size. “It’s a lot of ground to cover.”
Fire and Rescue was on the way, along with multiple ambulances, in preparation for a worst-case scenario.
Max could only pray they were as lucky as the last time.
“Good news,” Axel said. “When I expressed the same concern to Chief Drees, he suggested we reach out to a local training center for search-and-rescue dogs. Grand Rapids PD has used their services to find missing people and locate bodies. There’s also a team trained to find accelerants.”
Max felt his mood lighten. “Nice.” He’d worked with bomb-sniffing canines overseas, and their abilities were astounding. Nearly unbelievable.
“Rihanna gave the training center a call, and they’re rallying a set of handlers and canines as we speak.”
“That’s good. The dogs will make short work of the search.” Max pressed his fists to his hips and scanned the strangely off-putting scene. The bright neon signs and colorful food-court decor seemed unnatural in their silence. The tables and counters were empty. The individual eateries dark. Only the faint, peppy notes of music on a mall-wide sound system remained. Forgotten by whoever had been in charge. Leaving an eerie abandoned-carnival vibe to rival any childhood nightmare.
Axel’s phone screen lit, and he turned it over to check the message. “We’ve got about twenty minutes on the canines,” Axel said. “Looks like they’re on their way. We can brief the handlers while they suit up before heading in.”
“That works. Emilio said this was his afternoon to do payroll in the office instead of helping at the counter. My best guess is that O’Lear would try to hit him then, when he would be predictably immobile for a long period. Stuck at his desk pushing papers.” Max angled away from Axel, discreetly checking his phone for messages.
“Have you tried Allie’s parents?” Axel asked, knowing exactly what Max was up to. “They live right next door. If she isn’t with them, they can at least run over and check on her to put your mind at ease. They can probably get it done while you’re on the phone.”
Max had considered the idea already but hadn’t followed through with making the call. Allie would say he was overreacting, which she hated.
“Hey,” Carly called, moving toward Max and Axel in long, determined strides.
Aria and Selena were on her heels.
“Media has arrived,” Aria announced. “Local PD created a perimeter and are pushing evacuees to leave the lot. Most are dragging their feet. Wanting answers. Everyone’s making calls. The whole city probably knows what’s happening by now.”
“City Planning delivered the most recent set of blueprints,” Carly said. “We spread them out in the surveillance transport that Chief Drees arrived in. His men are taking a look now. I told him you’d be there soon to mark the search route.”
“Thank you,” Max said. “Let’s take a look.”
Axel lifted a finger on one hand, then pulled the cell phone from his pocket and frowned. “It’s Chief Drees now.” He swiped the screen. “Morrow.”
Selena moved to Max’s side, crossing her arms as she looked across the cavernous space. “Any ideas how you’re going to tackle a place this size?”
“Some.” He widened his stance and waited as Aria and Carly moved closer. “We’ll break it into quadrants for efficiency and clear them one by one. Starting at Coffee Coven, then spreading out in an arch. We’ll use two teams. One on each floor, both covering the same quadrant, then sweeping out. We want to make sure O’Lear didn’t plant the device above his target, with the intent of collapsing a section of the building onto the shop.”
“And we won’t have to search the entire place,” Aria said, casting a look at Max for an affirmative nod. “There wouldn’t be a reason to plant a bomb in a maternity store or nail salon.”
“True,” Max said. “Knowing Emilio is the target and Coffee Coven is the scene of the perceived offense, we have a place to start. If we don’t find the device there, we’ll move to other key locations in Emilio
’s typical workday. Places O’Lear might have expected him to be at a specific time. Where he took breaks. Ate meals. Used the restroom. Shopped.” Max would add those locations to the search plan when they went out to review the blueprints. “Same protocol for each area, searching both floors as we go. Honestly, I’ll be surprised if O’Lear hadn’t planned to go for him at the Coffee Coven office. So far, he’s been very direct in his attacks.”
“How big a blast are we talking?” Aria asked.
Max rolled his shoulders, attempting to relieve the building tension. “The devices O’Lear builds will create a fireball twenty feet wide. The projectiles packed inside with the Tannerite will move like shrapnel, through walls, through flesh and bone, traveling faster than the speed of sound and for more than a hundred yards. If you’re nearby when the device detonates, you’ll be injured before you’ve even heard the explosion, and the resulting shock wave will reach the buildings across the road, potentially to the end of the next block.” He glanced back and forth as if he could find O’Lear lurking in a corner. “We have to move fast. If he’s tipped off by news reports, he might pull the trigger sooner rather than later.”
Aria rocked back on her heels, appropriately speechless.
“We’ve got a problem.” Axel’s projected voice turned the foursome around once more. His expression stole the oxygen from Max’s lungs.
“What is it?” Carly asked.
Axel gripped the phone in one lowered hand, his knuckles nearly as white as his cheeks.
“The woman you spoke to earlier, Pamela Berry, is a leak,” Axel said. “The team had her call Fritz and leave a voice mail, asking for him to call her back. We started tracking her cell-phone activity this morning after Opaline provided her information as a potential contact. Chief Drees says she didn’t wait for O’Lear to call her back, but phoned him again and tipped him off.”
Max cursed. “How the hell did that happen? Didn’t they take her phone after she left the voice mail?”
“Apparently not fast enough,” Aria said.
Selena frowned. “Why would she do that, tip him off?”
Axel rubbed his tired eyes, looking more agitated by the moment. “I don’t know, but she apparently asked him point-blank if he was the Grand Rapids bomber. When he didn’t answer, she started crying and begging him not to hurt anyone else. She mentioned you and Max by name. Also the mall, Coffee Coven and Emilio West. Then she begged O’Lear’s forgiveness for whatever happened between them and told him not to bother trying to hurt her, because the FBI was sending her to a safe house. I guess she went on and on, telling him everything we absolutely didn’t want him to know, until he hung up. Then she called her parents. Her sister. Her friends.” Axel stopped to draw in a long, aggravated breath before releasing it with a fresh scowl.
“Well, that explains how the media got here before the building was even empty,” Aria said.
Axel groaned. “She’s either a truly emotional wreck, too far gone to realize the damage she’s doing, or she’s a drama junkie seeking a spotlight. Either way, she’s blown the whistle.”
Max scrubbed a hand over his face. “I did not see that coming.” He laced his fingers on top of his head and paced. O’Lear had a heads-up. So what was his next move? “The bomb is either already here, or it isn’t. If it isn’t, he’s not getting in here now.”
Aria inched toward the massive two-story windows along the front entrance. “He’s going to be mad we’ve interfered again. If the bomb’s here, he could detonate early, like you said. Wait until he thinks you’re near, then press the button. Is it even safe to search now?”
Selena joined Aria at the glass. “What if we reach out to one of the news channels?” she suggested. “We could ask them to quietly pan the crowds for him or the Toyota. Maybe he’s here, and we can get him into custody before the search.”
Max considered the option. “That could help. Without O’Lear, our chances of a safe search and seizure increase. I don’t like the thought of him out there, waiting. Luring us close enough for maximum damage.”
“On it,” Carly said. “I’ll call Rihanna to place the request.”
Selena nodded. “Thanks.”
Max let the plan settle in. They’d already decided O’Lear liked to watch, so it was reasonable to think he might be nearby. “Until Pamela called him, he probably assumed he still had some measure of invincibility. He knew we had his name, image and address, but not his whereabouts. It probably seemed to him like he still had the upper hand. After Pamela called, things changed. He knew he’d been caught and we were closing in.”
“Which is an emotional rush in itself,” Carly said. “There’s a freedom in being this close to arrested. He’ll feel as if he can do anything because the worst has already happened. He’s been found out, and he will go to jail. He’s got nothing left to lose.”
Axel’s phone lit, and he lifted it to check the new notification. “Opaline.”
Max checked his watch while Axel read the text. With a little luck, the canines and handlers would be ready to work soon. Max was eager to get over to Allie’s place.
“Max.” The word was hard on Axel’s tongue.
“What?” Max froze, certain something terrible had happened.
Had another bomb gone off? Was Max wrong about the final target?
“Traffic cams got a hit on that Camry,” Axel said. “And a clear shot of O’Lear behind the wheel.”
Max’s gaze snapped back to the windows. “Is he here?”
“The footage is from last night,” Axel warned. “Outside our hotel.”
Max narrowed his eyes. “Damn it!” They’d evacuated the wrong building. “Call Rihanna. We need a team over there to get those people out. Can we redirect the canines and handlers?”
There were hundreds of rooms at the hotel. A wedding party had checked in last night as Max had headed out. Families. Children. The potential casualties were at least double that of the apartment building.
“Max,” Axel warned. “The Camry followed you to a bakery, then a shop on Main Street. We lost track of both vehicles when you reached the residential area east of downtown.”
Max’s vision tunneled and his ears rang. O’Lear hadn’t targeted the hotel. “He followed me to Allie’s.”
“Give her another call,” Axel suggested, lifting his phone to his ear. “He followed you last night, but you’ve spoken with Allie a few times today, and she’s been fine. I’m going to send a cruiser to check on things. I’ll ask the officer to report back, then stay out front until we can wrap this up and get over there.”
Max nodded, torn between leaving the mall to check on Allie immediately and beginning the search on his own, to save some time, so he could get to Allie’s as soon as possible. He was leaning toward the former when his phone rang. “It’s Allie’s mom.”
“Hello? Mrs. Fedder?” he asked. “Is everything okay?”
“No,” his former mother-in-law cried. “She’s gone. I called the police. They said someone is on the way, but I don’t know what to do.”
“What do you mean she’s gone?” Max demanded. “When? How?”
Axel pried Max’s hand and phone away from his ear, then tapped the speaker option on the screen. “You’re now with the TCD, Mrs. Fedder. What details can you give us about the situation?”
Panic raced in Max’s heart and limbs. “Max Jr.?” he asked, suddenly realizing he wasn’t sure when his ex-wife went missing or if their son was with her.
“He’s with us,” she answered, regaining herself slightly. “We took him out so Allie could work. The back door was open when we brought him home. There’s snow in the kitchen. There’s blood on the bedroom carpet.”
The team’s phones buzzed and dinged around Max as rage and remorse circled in his gut. His worst nightmare had come true. He’d brought danger into Allie’s life. O’Lear wanted to hurt h
im, and he’d known exactly how to get the job done.
“Max,” Axel said, turning his phone to show the message just received.
You took something important to me. Now I’m taking something important from you.
Beneath the horrific words was a photo of Allie. With a bomb around her neck.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Allie opened her eyes slowly, fighting the pain in her head and the blur of her vision. Her muddled thoughts scrambled to process an unusual scent. The hard, cold slab beneath her and the unfamiliar touch against her throat.
Slowly, the strange smell registered. Disinfectant. And her eyes, open as far as she could manage, came into focus, along with the memories of her predicament. She was on the floor, not her bed, in what seemed to be a janitor’s closet. A large yellow wheeled bucket stood across from her in the small space, a mop handle sprouting from within.
Allie moaned, and her eyelids fluttered open once more, though she hadn’t recalled closing them. And Fritz O’Lear came into view.
She gasped at the rush of memories, now plowing through her like a freight train.
She’d been abducted by the Grand Rapids bomber. He’d taken her from her home. She’d gone willingly to protect her family from a bomb he’d somehow left with them. Then he’d hit her from behind as she slid onto the back seat of his car. “Where are we?” she croaked, her throat dry and tight. “What are you doing?”
O’Lear moved closer, lowering to her side, then setting cold hands on her neck. “Be still,” he warned coldly. “You’ll blow us both up.”
Allie’s heart spluttered as the full realization of her situation took shape. Her attacker had fastened something large and heavy around her neck. Cold and hard like metal, the device forced her chin into an uncomfortable angle at the front.
He’d fitted her with a bomb collar.
Allie’s chest tightened and her stomach rolled. She’d learned all about bombs like these while married to Max. Had read about the victims but couldn’t recall any survivors. “Why are you doing this?” she whispered. “Please, just let me go.”
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