his arm.
His breath putrid, Kyle laughed. “Oh, you don’t like me calling you that? Should I wait until I’m fucking you before I use that little pet name he gave you?”
Movement caught my eye at the doorway and the barrel of a gun appeared a split second before Ronan came into view.
Aiming at Kyle’s head, Ronan blocked the doorway. “Let her go,” he ordered, in a lethally calm tone.
“Ah, the boyfriend. Or maybe I should ask which one you are since you’re so fucking interchangeable now. The murderer or the one who pays off the cops—not that it matters, because it looks like you’re both still fucking her.”
“This is between you and me, Abernathy,” Ronan warned.
“Right,” Kyle spit vicious sarcasm. “Because she didn’t fuck me over ten years ago to work directly with Amherst when I was the one sticking my neck out to sign her inexperienced ass. Yeah, sure, she has no part in ruining my entire fucking life.”
“Release her,” Ronan commanded.
“Do I look that fucking stupid?” Kyle challenged.
His glare deadly, Ronan didn’t answer.
Kyle snorted. “Sure, go ahead and think I’m the stupid one when I got past all your security losers by getting a nose job and wearing a dress.” He laughed manically. “Keep underestimating me, Conlon. Go ahead and shoot me, or take another shot at beating me up. See what happens if my thumb releases this pressure trigger.”
“Let. Her. Go.”
“Well, now you have a choice,” Kyle gloated, ignoring Ronan’s lethal tone. “What are you going to do, lover boy? Watch us walk away or kill us all?” With his fingers firmly around the device in his hand, he used the back of his knuckles to stroke my cheek. “If my thumb slips even a millimeter…” He made a soft explosion sound. “It’s lights out, for all of us.”
“With the sole purpose of not spilling your blood on Sanaa when I shoot you, I’m giving you one last chance. The device is disabled. You’re not detonating anything. Let her go and you won’t die.”
Kyle laughed hard. “If you’d disabled the bomb, you would’ve shot me on sight.”
My stomach dropped.
Ronan’s jaw ticked. “Last chance.”
Kyle was right. If Ronan had found the bomb and disabled it in the minutes he was gone, then he would’ve shot Kyle already. Kyle didn’t have a gun. He only had the detonation device in his hand.
“Go ahead,” Kyle taunted. “Shoot.”
“Ronan, don’t.” I didn’t think for one second that Kyle was bluffing about another bomb. “He’ll blow us all up.”
“Walk toward me, Sanaa,” Ronan ordered without taking his eyes off Kyle.
“Yes, by all means, Sanaa, do that.” Kyle’s hold on my neck loosened. “Walk toward lover boy and let’s see what happens.”
“He said he has another bomb planted.” I silently pleaded for Ronan to give me a sign that he’d found the bomb.
“Last chance,” Ronan warned, still not looking at me.
Kyle smirked, and his grip on me tightened again. “Sure.” He started to move right toward Ronan, forcing me to walk with him. “Keep up the bluff, lover boy. But for the record, it sucks compared to your right hook.”
Gun aimed, stance wide, Ronan didn’t budge. “You know what the fundamental problem with C4 and a single detonation device is, Abernathy?”
Kyle paused, but he didn’t say anything.
“Do I have your attention now? Should I continue?” Ronan asked in the same lethally calm tone.
“Sure, keep bluffing.” Kyle laughed, but this time it was strained.
“Anyone can disarm it.” With the briefest of glances, Ronan’s eyes met mine and he gave me a single command. “Knees.”
I dropped my weight.
Without a single second of hesitation, Ronan pulled the trigger.
Harm had said he needed ninety seconds.
It’d been double that.
Praying like fuck he’d reached the device like he’d said he could, I glanced at my Songbird and issued a single command. “Knees.”
Submissive and beautiful, she didn’t even blink. She dropped to her knees, and I pulled the trigger.
Abernathy’s head snapped back with the force of the close range shot and his head fucking exploded a fraction of a second before a detonation boomed through the suite and shook the floor.
“Ronan!” Sanaa screamed, her hands going to her ears as she cowered on the floor.
Grabbing her by the front of the sweater, I yanked her to me and holstered my weapon before putting my arms over her head. “Easy, easy. Stay with me.” Glancing up, I pulled us under the doorframe. Then I scanned the bedroom and the suite. “Give it a second to settle.” More debris fell, the floor shifted,