Explosive Alliance

by Susan Sleeman

  “No,” he said, the concern in his voice apparent in the single word. “It’s the same vehicle as the one outside your house this morning.”

  “Are you sure?”

  He nodded. “Same license plate. We have to assume this person is here because of you. Is there any reason someone other than the bomber would be watching you?”

  She shook her head, but then her mind traveled to Toby, and she felt sick to her stomach. She’d been focused on the bomber, but what if detectives from Toby’s case were in that car? Since Portland had a low homicide rate and little turnover in detectives, she suspected the detectives were still employed and wouldn’t forget Toby’s unsolved case.

  It wasn’t a far-fetched idea that they’d want to talk to her again now that she was back in town. It wasn’t even a long shot after this morning’s news report that they’d recognized her and decided to tail her. Or it could be one of the people Toby scammed. They’d been very vocal about getting back at her for the loss of their money.

  And, if it truly was the same car from this morning, Cash could have figured out who owned the vehicle. Maybe this was a test to see if she would tell the truth.

  “Krista.” Cash rubbed a hand over his jaw. “Did you think of someone?”

  She couldn’t share her thoughts, but she also couldn’t lie. “I haven’t interacted with anyone but Opa and his medical team since I’ve been back. Oh, and Erwin, too. Plus my coworkers and my students’ parents, of course.” She looked away as guilt over sidestepping his question ate at her.

  She felt Cash appraising her, but she refused to look at him.

  “Then I guess I’d better go have a talk with the man.”

  “Be careful.” She glanced at him and, for a second, she considered telling him everything. Only for a second. “I’d better get inside to my class.”

  “I’ll let you know what I find.” He left her standing there and crossed the road. He was all restrained power and hard muscle as he moved toward the SUV. She wouldn’t want to be the person sitting in the car when he caught up to them. He’d reached the middle of the street when the driver gunned the engine and screeched from the curb.

  She saw Cash dig out his phone. She suspected he was reporting the car and asking for an ID on the license plate, if he hadn’t already asked this morning. If the man in the vehicle was indeed a detective, Cash was about to learn her secret.

  With a heavy heart, Krista went inside and threw herself into her work to avoid thinking about the pending discovery. She succeeded well enough to fool the children—and even to fool herself a little. But the minute she opened the door at the end of the day and caught Cash waiting nearby, the worry returned. After the last child departed, Cash joined her at the door. She held her breath, waiting to see what he’d say.

  He glanced at his watch. “I’m surprised to see the kids go home this early. I thought you worked until four.”

  “I do, but that includes an hour for cleanup and prep for tomorrow.”

  “Anything I can do to help?”

  Good. He hadn’t mentioned the car. “You could clean and disinfect tables if you wouldn’t mind.”

  “Just tell me what to do.”

  She grabbed a spray bottle with a weak bleach-and-water mixture along with paper towels and handed them to him. Their fingers brushed, and she felt a warm rush of emotions. Surprised, she stepped back, earning a lift of his eyebrow.

  “Spray all the surfaces and let the solution sit for two minutes,” she said quickly. “Then dry with the towels.”

  “Two minutes, huh? Do I have to time it and be that precise?” He grinned at her, his teasing tone giving her hope that he hadn’t learned her secret.

  She gave a mock serious nod. “To the nanosecond.”

  He laughed, and her heart clutched at the carefree sound. Before she did or said anything she’d regret, she grabbed the list of items needed for tomorrow’s lesson plans and started for the door.

  On the way to the supply cabinet, she glanced at him. The child-size furnishings always looked small, but they appeared minuscule when he hunkered over the table. She watched the muscles in his forearm ripple as he sprayed and the larger ones in his shoulders roll as he wiped.

  He suddenly stood back and caught her watching. She expected another flirtatious smile, but he was solemn. Maybe he’d simply delayed telling her what he’d discovered.

  “So the two minutes,” he said, looking confused. “Did the person who came up with this actually time it? I mean, do germs still live at a minute fifty-nine seconds or something?”

  She let out a breath and shrugged. “My degree’s in education, not biology. We follow the health department’s guidelines.”

  “Ah,” he frowned. “Someone probably blew hours and hours studying this and wasted tons of tax money funding the study.”

  “I guess so, but it wasn’t a waste of money in my book. I want the children to be in the best and safest environment possible.”

  “So do I, but honestly...” He shook his head. “I wish some of that money could go to the military to keep soldiers safer.”

  She heard immeasurable pain in his voice. “Sounds like you saw some action.”

  He gave her a mock salute. “Delta Force at your service, ma’am. We deployed all over the world but most recently in Afghanistan.”

  His tone was joking, but there was more that he wasn’t saying. It was there in the dejected angle of his head and the sadness of his eyes. She couldn’t imagine being at war. Seeing the ugly things he must have seen. With his honorable personality, he surely wanted to correct the injustices he encountered.

  And Delta Force, wow! They were an elite group. Highly trained. That was the extent of her military knowledge, and she’d learned that little bit from a video game Toby used to play. She started to comment on the game, then clamped her hand over her mouth. Mentioning Toby would open the door for Cash to ask questions about her marriage. Questions she couldn’t answer.

  Cash arched a brow. “Don’t tell me you’re one of those people who don’t support the military.”

  “No,” the word shot out. “I respect the men and women who protect us.”

  “Then what were you going to say?”

  “Nothing important.”

  He watched her intently for a moment before lifting a shoulder in a whatever shrug. “We should get back to work so I can get you and Otto home.”

  Krista felt let down for some reason. As if Cash thought cleaning the tables was more important than trying to find out what she was hiding. She didn’t want him to be interested in her or learn her secret. So why was she disappointed?

  Because he’d distracted her from her crazy, out-of-control life, or because talking with him as a woman might do when interested in a man felt normal? Which meant for the briefest of moments she could entertain the thought that she might someday have everything she’d once hoped for with Toby.

  A pipe dream.

  She had no reason even to think about a man. Any man. Not with her poor judgment and the murder accusation hanging over her head. Not to mention a bomber stalking her.

  This attraction to Cash Dixon was crazy. Totally crazy. And pointless—nothing could come of it.

  She needed to get away from him.

  “Be right back,” she said and hurried to get supplies from the hallway cabinet. By the time she’d returned to the classroom, he’d finished all the tables and was perched on the corner of her desk with his phone in his hand.

  How wonderful it would be if a man was waiting for her like this. Waiting to take her home. To share a life.

  He looked up and smiled at her. Her heart constricted and without thinking, she returned his smile. Their eyes met. Held. The air between them turned electric. He sucked in a breath and blew it out.

  That was all sh
e needed to come back down to reality. “Let me set out these supplies and we can go.”

  She worked quickly to distribute the items to the tables, and they were soon on the road to pick up Opa. They didn’t speak on the drive. A good thing, because she wasn’t ready to talk about what had transpired between them. The more time she spent with him, the more she was forgetting one of the most valuable lessons she’d learned—trust no one except Opa.

  They picked Opa up and, thankfully, he chatted all the way to his house, keeping Cash laughing with stories of his day. Krista usually loved Opa’s stories but couldn’t join in the laughter today. She watched out the window for the rest of the drive.

  Cash parked at the foot of the stairs and climbed out. “If you want to get the front door open, Krista, I’ll help Otto up the stairs.”

  She didn’t argue but climbed the steps while digging her key ring from the deep recesses of her purse. Cash soon stepped up beside her and took her keys. For a time she was distracted by watching his hands turn the lock, but then she caught sight of the paper she’d tucked in the doorjamb lying near the railing. She jumped back before realizing such a move would draw Cash’s attention.

  She turned to her grandfather to avoid Cash’s intent gaze. “Did you come home at all today, Opa?”

  “No, why?”

  Not the answer she’d hoped for. Someone had been here. Today. While they were gone.

  Fear iced her heart.

  She looked around, searching for how to handle this. She couldn’t tell Cash that she knew how to set traps for potential intruders. He’d grill her for details of her past. She also couldn’t let them walk into the house unprepared.

  “What is wrong, Liebchen?” Opa asked.

  Opa was counting on her to make sure he was safe. She had to pick up the paper. “I put paper in the doorjamb before leaving home so I’d know if anyone went into the house while we were gone.”

  “Back to the car,” Cash demanded without asking for further explanation. “Both of you. Now.”

  Opa scurried ahead, but Krista couldn’t seem to move. Cash grabbed her arm and rushed her down the steps and into the car.

  “Is all of this really necessary?” she asked as he settled into the driver’s seat.

  “With a bomber after you? Absolutely.” He revved the engine and whipped the vehicle down the driveway. He mounted his cell phone in a dash holder and punched a number.

  “Cash.” Jake’s voice came over the speaker.

  “I need the squad at Krista’s house now.” He explained the paper. “May be nothing, but I’m not taking any chances.”

  “Where are you now?”

  “In the car. Putting some distance between us and the house.”

  “If it’s our bomber, he could’ve left behind a package, and we’ll need you to clear the house.”

  Krista gasped. She hadn’t even considered a bomb could’ve been waiting for them.

  Cash glanced at her. “I’m not leaving Krista and Otto alone. Assign someone to their protection duty and then I’ll check out the house.” He pulled to the curb at the entrance of a park and gave Jake their location before hanging up.

  “Do you really think it’s the bomber?” Opa asked from the backseat.

  “So far neither one of you has come up with another threat to Krista.” Cash swiveled to look at Opa, then back at Krista. “Has that changed?’

  Krista shook her head and gave Opa a pointed look to stop him from saying anything about her past.

  “Then, yeah, Otto,” Cash said. “To answer your question, I think it’s the bomber.”

  ELEVEN

  Krista’s little paper in the door finally cemented Cash’s certainty. She was hiding something. An average person didn’t think to take such evasive measures. Skyler would say that ongoing red flags like this one indicated Krista was involved with the bomber, but Cash still didn’t buy it. He was a good judge of character, and after seeing her love and tenderness with her students and Otto, Cash couldn’t reconcile that behavior with a person who would plot to kill innocent people with a bomb.

  He would, however, concede that there was something more going on here, and he needed answers. Truthful ones.

  “The paper in the door thing,” he said, keeping his tone casual in hopes that Krista would quit staring out the car window and look at him. “How’d you know to do that?”

  She glanced at him but quickly looked away. “I saw it on television.”

  Short and sweet her voice rang true, but he was starting to realize she looked away when she didn’t want to talk to him. Not an uncommon action for someone with a secret to hide or someone who was outright lying.

  “And you thought of it this morning, just like that?” he continued, hoping to draw her out.

  She shrugged, not giving him the peace of mind he sought. He’d try the straightforward approach. “Krista, is there something you’re not telling me?”

  “I’ve told you everything I know about the bomb and bomber.” She continued to gaze out the window.

  Great. A perfect way to answer his question without really answering his question. He wanted to ask about her marriage, too, and the fact that Skyler couldn’t find any record of it to see if she’d also sidestep that, but he had to respect Skyler’s decision to keep that bit of research from Krista. If Skyler wasn’t pulling up to the curb, he’d have a go at asking additional questions until Krista broke and told him the truth.

  “Both of you wait here while I bring Skyler up-to-date.” He issued a warning look that brooked no argument before climbing out and joining Skyler.

  “I’d like to take your car so we don’t have to move Otto,” he said.

  Skyler traded keys with him and held on to his hand. “Don’t let this thing you’ve got going on with Ms. Curry distract you.”

  “Are you ever planning to stop calling her Ms. Curry?”

  “Not as long as she’s on my suspect list. Helps to keep a professional distance.” Surprisingly, her voice didn’t hold any censure. She squeezed his hand and let go. “Be careful. Okay?”

  “I’m always careful.” He smiled to ease her mind, then jogged to her car and pushed the speed limit all the way to Otto’s house, where the team truck was parked at the end of the driveway. The robot they’d affectionately named Wally after the WALL-E movie sat on the sidewalk. It held a camera and X-ray machine for taking a first look at a suspicious package. Brady had likely wheeled it out to keep busy and now stood over it.

  He looked up at Cash. “Two bomb scares in two days. That’s a record for us.”

  “I’m not expecting to find anything here. This is just a precaution.” Cash climbed into the truck. He passed Darcie sitting in the medical bay and spotted Jake in the communications suite up front. Cash dropped into a seat by the robot controls in the middle of the vehicle. Someone had already unpacked his protective bomb disposal suit and set it on a bench. Likely Brady, who trailed Cash inside and took the seat next to him. This incident didn’t require a negotiator, so Archer wasn’t present.

  “Let me get going on the initial sweep.” Cash logged his password into the computer and started Wally crawling toward the house. When the robot’s caterpillar tracks clicked up the steps and stopped at the front door, Cash used the camera to scan for a booby trap. If someone set a bomb in the house, rigging the door would be an obvious choice that would also be quick and deadly for the person who stepped inside.

  “Preparing to breach the door,” Cash called out. He didn’t see obvious signs of a booby trap, but it could be hidden and there was always the potential for an explosion.

  Maneuvering Wally’s arms to turn a doorknob took skill, but Cash’s movements were precise. He’d used robotic tools in Afghanistan, but in addition, he, like every other bomb tech on an accredited squad in the country, had go
ne through the FBI’s rigorous bomb tech training school in Alabama.

  He held his breath, turned the knob and pushed the door open. Nothing.

  Everyone in the truck let out a breath, but the search for a possible bomb wasn’t over yet.

  “Going in.” He guided Wally over the threshold.

  Inch by inch he crawled the place, looking for any obvious devices, boxes or bags. He checked doorways and windows, then double-checked kitchen cabinets, bathrooms, closets and under beds in the master and guest bedrooms. The only space he hadn’t cleared was Krista’s room. He had mixed emotions about looking at her personal things, but he was here to save lives not worry about his feelings.

  He sent Wally rumbling forward and panned the camera under the bed.

  What in the world?

  He squinted at the screen and blinked hard, but the pistol tucked underneath her bed remained.

  Krista had a gun. A gun! Unbelievable.

  “Dude,” Brady whispered. “Did you know about this?”

  Cash was thankful for Brady’s hushed tone. “No. Maybe it belongs to the intruder.”

  Brady rolled his eyes. “Yeah right. Why would he leave a gun behind? If he ditched it, he wouldn’t do it in the house, where we could find the gun and trace it. And he’s not dumb enough to want the woman he’s tried to abduct to be armed.”

  “Regardless, keep it quiet until I can confirm if the stupid thing is even real. No sense in adding to the stress level without confirmation.” Right, that’s the only reason you’re not telling Jake about this.

  Fortunately, Brady nodded, and Cash finished his search.

  “Initial sweep done. We’re clear.” He sat back and rolled his shoulders. “I’ll go in and give it a once-over, but nothing looks problematic.”

  “Let’s get you suited up.” Brady grabbed the Explosive Ordinance Disposal suit and held it out.

  The suit weighed around ninety pounds and had zippers and Velcro straps on the back and sides, making Brady’s help a necessity.