Explosive Attraction - By Lena Diaz Page 0,36
abandon Mindy,” she said, watching Rafe through the windshield, “but I never will.”
She eased the door open and slipped out of the car, leaving the door ajar.
She backed away, moving as quietly as she could, slowly at first, so he wouldn’t hear her shoes crunching on the shells beside the road. When she was far enough away that any noise she made wouldn’t matter, she started running.
Chapter Nine
The sound of shells crunching beneath someone’s feet had Rafe glancing over his shoulder, ready to lecture Darby for getting out of the car. Instead, he caught a glimpse of her bright pink blouse as she disappeared around the curve in the road.
“Darby! Get back here!” Every muscle in his body tensed. He took a step after her, then another. Without his direction, traffic slowed to a stop. Drivers tried to cut in on each other. Horns honked. A little girl with blond curly ringlets stared at Rafe through the window of a van that was no longer moving, no longer carrying her to safety.
Rafe’s heart slammed in his chest so hard it physically hurt. It was agony not to go after Darby, agony to turn his back on her. But he couldn’t ignore these people. He couldn’t put one person’s safety over the lives of everyone else in the park.
No matter how much he wanted to.
He ground his teeth together and banged his fist on the roof of a car to get the driver’s attention. It took a full minute, sixty precious seconds, to get the cars moving smoothly again.
He yanked his phone out of his pocket and called dispatch. “This is Detective Morgan again. Is anyone available yet to direct traffic? And where the hell is the bomb squad I asked for?”
A few moments later, lights flashed from the direction of the park entrance. A state trooper’s car raced down the shoulder. He pulled to a skidding stop just inches behind the Charger, got out and raced over to Rafe.
“I’ve got this, sir.” The trooper stepped into the lanes of traffic and began to unsnarl the bottleneck that had started as soon as rubberneckers had seen the flashing lights on his car.
Rafe clapped him on the shoulder. “Thanks, man.” He ran to his car and hopped in. The powerful car fishtailed onto the edge of the road, almost hitting another car. Rafe swore and let up on the gas. He took off at a slower pace this time, driving down the shoulder, even though it nearly killed him to go so slow.
When he rounded the curve where Darby had disappeared, there was no sign of her. There was no sign of anyone. This part of the park was deserted.
He steered the car back onto the road and rolled down his window, searching each turnoff as he crept forward, looking for the flash of her bright pink top.
There, up ahead, was the parking lot adjacent to the beach, right by the dunes.
And in the middle of the lot was a dark blue Corolla.
* * *
RAFE GRABBED HIS PHONE and reported what he’d found. He pulled his car to a stop beside Mindy’s abandoned car and jumped out. “What’s the ETA on the bomb squad?” he barked into the phone.
“Six minutes.”
He didn’t have six minutes.
Rafe had to assume Darby had found the car, too. Was the bomber there when she got here? Had he grabbed her and put her with Mindy? Without knowing what had happened, Rafe had to work with the only clue he had. The Corolla.
He shoved the phone into his pocket and looked through the driver’s window. Empty. He dropped to his knees and looked underneath. No obvious trip wires or booby traps, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any.
He jumped up and ran to the trunk.
“Darby? Mindy?” No answer. What if they were in the trunk, unconscious? In this heat, they wouldn’t last long.
He glanced at his watch.
Three minutes until the bomb would explode.
Maybe not even that. The bomber could have set the timer differently on the bomb than on the timer he’d sent in the mail. It wouldn’t be the first time a bomb maker tried to fool a bomb tech, take him out along with the bomb.
Sweat trickled between his shoulder blades. He ran back to the driver’s side window. His training told him to wait for backup. His training told him to wait for the bomb squad. His training told him not to touch the car.
To hell with his training.
He tried the driver’s door. Locked. He