Adverse Possession (The Anna Albertini Files #3) - Rebecca Zanetti Page 0,109

meticulously cut the bottom of the pocket.

“Wh-what about the coppery colored wires?” I whispered.

“The added pocket isn’t secure enough to have the wires throughout,” he murmured, cutting up both sides. Then he removed the cloth and tossed it over his shoulder.

I looked down at a round metal cylinder with a multitude of wires connecting it to the other side of the brace. “I don’t suppose you could cut those wires?”

“No,” Aiden said, angling his head down to see better. “Flash the light on the right quadrant.”

Saber moved his position.

“That’s good,” Aiden murmured.

“How much time is left?” I asked.

Aiden reached in his pack and drew out another light, but this one shone a red beam. “Approximately two minutes.”

I shut my eyes and swallowed. “You guys have to go. Get out of here.” The last act of my life wasn’t going to be watching Aiden Devlin die. “Tell my family I love them. But go.”

“I’m not leaving you, Angel.” He didn’t look up at me. “Be quiet for a second, would you?”

Saber leaned closer to the bomb. “Talk it out as we go.”

“Affirmative,” Aiden said, his voice a calm thread through the chaotic day. “The size of this is big enough to include enhancements. Based on a study of Barensky, it’d be colored glass fragments, most likely genuine depression ware glass.”

I didn’t care about glass. “If it blows, is there a chance I’ll survive? Maybe lose a leg?”

“No,” Aiden said. “We have a silver container housing the initiator, switch, and main charge.”

Saber nodded. “Can we get into it?”

Aiden stretched out flat on the ground with his face eye-level to the bomb. “I smell gunpowder and peroxide. The man does like a good fire.” He looked up, his blue eyes intense. “Hold still, Angel. We’re getting out of this.”

I couldn’t breathe. We probably had less than a minute left. “Please go, Aiden.”

He reached in his pack. “You ready, Saber?”

“Yep.” Saber set the flashlight on the ground. “Twenty seconds left. I pull, you cut?”

“Affirmative.” Aiden gently twisted the bottom of the cylinder.

Saber reached out and let Aiden set the metal barely on his hands. “I see the timer. Fifteen seconds.”

Aiden pulled something silver out of his bag. “Need to cut off the igniter. That’ll give us time.” He moved steadily, his hands sure.

“Seven seconds,” Saber said calmly.

Tension roiled around us, but they seemed so serene. I shut my eyes and tried not to breathe. Was this what they did for their jobs? Diffused deadly explosives while talking it out? Who were these guys?

“See it,” Aiden said. “Hold steady.”

“Three seconds,” Saber said.

I inhaled Aiden’s scent. Man, motor oil, and leather with just a hint of an Irish storm. The scent I’d take with me forever.

Something clicked.

My eyes shot open.

“Move, now,” Aiden said, unzipping the brace and gingerly setting it to the side. Then he stood and caught me up in his arms before I could move. “Run, Saber.”

Saber was already ahead of us, opening the door. We ran into the storm and rain lambasted us. The emergency vehicles and personnel were visible at the far end of the runway, blue and red lights slicing through the storm. Aiden turned and ran into the forest with Saber at his side.

The world stilled. A moment of silence, pure and calm, descended. Then the wind roared through the trees, pulling us toward the building.

The explosion rocked the storm. Pieces of debris flew between the trees, and smoke billowed into the sky. The force knocked Aiden off his feet, and he turned mid-air, landing on his back with me on his front. We landed with a hard thud, and he groaned. He immediately rolled over me, holding me to the wet and dirty ground.

Mini-explosions rocketed out from the bigger one, and even the earth moved beneath me.

I turned my head and coughed out dirt. But I lay still, totally spent beneath Aiden. So long as we were both in one piece, I didn’t care how heavy he was.

The rain hit the fire with a mutinous hiss of steam. I shivered.

Aiden lifted up and set me with my back against a tree. He wiped rain and dirt off my face. Mud covered the side of his jaw. “You okay?”

I couldn’t move. Every bone in my body turned to liquid. Tears leaked down my face. I’d never, in my entire life, been that terrified.

He lifted me right onto his lap and held me close. Heat, male, and strength surrounded me and helped ground me. Kind of. “You’re okay,” he murmured. He

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