Explosive Attraction - By Lena Diaz Page 0,50
came out. Detective Morgan is still inside, defusing the bomb.” He gestured to some men dressed in heavy-looking, thick dark suits. “The bomb techs are going in now. Why don’t you sit—”
An explosion sounded from inside the fort. Everyone dove to the ground. One of the officers dragged Darby down with him, covering her with his body. Everything went silent. No one moved.
Then suddenly everyone was shouting and moving at the same time.
The officer jumped to his feet and helped Darby up.
“Dr. Steele, are you okay?”
She couldn’t answer. She was too horrified to speak. Black, angry smoke rose over the top of the stone walls of the fort. And Rafe was nowhere to be seen.
She slumped to the grass, hugging her middle, numbly staring at the fort. She shook off the officer’s hands when he tried to help her up again. He mumbled something to one of the other men and they stepped a few feet away, giving her space.
The smoke quickly cleared, and a group of policemen and bomb techs moved as one across the drawbridge. Their faces were drawn and sober, telling Darby what she already knew. They’d just lost one of their own—no, two. Rafe and Jake had both been killed.
Hot tears splashed down onto her hands, and it was then that she realized she was crying. She covered her face and gave in to the deep, racking sobs welling up inside her. She should have been weeping for both men, but she knew that was a lie. She was crying for Rafe because she’d just now realized she cared about him. He was the bravest man she’d ever met, risking his life every day to protect people he barely knew.
To protect her.
Damn him for working his way into her heart, for making her care.
Somewhere behind her a radio crackled to life. Someone calling for a gurney. The police must have reached the bodies.
The squeak of wheels rolling across the grass had her opening her eyes. Two EMTs ran across the lawn, then across the drawbridge, rolling a gurney between them. One of them had a red box sitting on top of the gurney and he held on to it as he and the other EMT raced into the fort.
Darby brushed the tears out of her eyes and climbed to her feet. EMTs wouldn’t run like that to retrieve a dead body, would they?
Hope uncurled inside her. She rushed forward, but a policeman grabbed her and held her back.
“Sorry, ma’am. You have to wait out here.”
“Can you tell me what’s going on? Is there a survivor?”
“I’m not sure yet, ma’am, but I need you to back up.”
Buresh was suddenly beside her, looking pale and exhausted, but dressed in a suit and obviously determined to be a part of what was going on. “Dr. Steele, you shouldn’t be out here where the bomber could find you.” He motioned another officer over. “Officer Watkins will take you back to the station.”
A commotion had them all looking toward the fort. The EMTs raced across the drawbridge again with a body strapped to the gurney and a contingent of police officers clearing a path through the crowd.
Darby tried to see who was on the gurney, but there were too many people in the way.
“What are you waiting for, Watkins? Get her out of here,” Buresh yelled.
“No,” Darby cried. “I need to wait and see—”
“Go on,” Buresh interrupted her. “Get out of here. You’re just putting more people in danger by hanging around. Go.”
Darby stiffened at his words, but this time she didn’t resist when Watkins pulled her toward the street.
* * *
NO MATTER WHERE Darby stood, or where she sat at the police station, she seemed to be in the way. The squad room was in chaos. People ran in and out. Phones rang constantly.
Watkins finally shoved her into Buresh’s office with strict instructions not to call anyone and not to leave. Going home wasn’t an option. Telling her what was going on apparently wasn’t an option, either, because so far no one had told her anything.
She curled into the only comfortable chair in Buresh’s tiny office, the leather chair behind his desk, and rested her head on her drawn-up knees. Her nerves were strung so tight she felt ready to snap. Who had been on the gurney? Was it Rafe, or Jake? Whoever it was, was he alive? What had happened after she ran out of the fort? Why hadn’t Rafe followed her?
The answer had her heart pounding in her