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A loud ringing in his ears signaled the return of sound. He patted crimson fingers over his body until he located his phone.Thank Christ.Other than a cracked screen, it was still in one piece.He blinked to clear his vision and pulled up Nathan’s number.
“You’re interrupting my siesta.” The former SEAL sounded a thousand miles away.
Pain threatened to tow him under.Don’t bloody pass out.He blinked some more, trying to clear the rivulets of blood. His knees gave out, and he dropped on his arse behind a concrete wall with a groan.
“Need help.” Someone had sandblasted his tonsils. He couldn’t suck in enough air to get out a sentence. “Car exploded.”
“What the fuck? As in caught fire or hit an IED? Where are you?”
“What?” He shifted to peer around the wall. A crowd was forming. A security guard tried to use a fire extinguisher on the wreckage. The heat and flames drove him back. Lachlan’s muddled hearing picked up the faint blare of sirens in the distance. He sank back behind his cover.
“Lachlan, are you there?” Nathan’s voice grew louder, more strident. “Are you hurt?”
“Took some shrapnel.” He drew in measured breaths, focused on staying lucid.Jeremy, poor bastard. Lachlan was supposed to be the one in the car. “I’m at the construction lot next to my office building. Hurry.”
“Be there soon. Sit tight, brother.”
Lachlan glanced at the sky and sent up a brief prayer for Jeremy’s soul. There was nothing to be done for the lad now except avenge him.
Lachlan.
Sophia made a course correction away from her office as sirens blared outside, her trot slowed by her form-fitting skirt and heels.
Lachlan’s office was empty, the lights off. Had he left without saying goodbye? Her shoulders slumped at the thought.
The blaring sirens and flashing strobes jangled her nerves, making her twitchy. She needed to get out. Lachlan wasn’t here.
“What’s going on?” Jared appeared at the end of the hall.
“Did you hear that sound? The building shook.” She had to raise her voice to be heard. The muffled wail of multiple sirens from emergency vehicles added to the jarring symphony.
“You go. I’ll make sure everyone has left.” Jared jogged past her and began pounding on doors, calling for everyone to evacuate.
She hurried to her office and grabbed her things. Someone had propped open the exit stairwell door. She stepped into a sea of bodies and tried to descend as quickly as possible in her heels without stumbling.
Screw it.Kicking off her pumps at the next landing, she barefooted it the rest of the way, clinging to the handrail so she wouldn’t get knocked over by someone in a panic and trampled to death.
In the lobby, she jammed her feet back into her heels as people schooled around her like fish, all on their cell phones, their voices combining into indistinct babble.
Two security guards directed the crowd through the lobby doors, away from the surface lot. She ignored them, a strange feeling of dread pulling her toward the chaos.
There were two fire engines, their rooftop lights still flashing though, thankfully, the sirens no longer blared. Firefighters unfurled hoses and shouted orders.
Acrid smoke stung her eyes. Burnt rubber, plastic, and oil coated her throat. She covered her mouth and nose with a tissue from her purse.
Angry flames wrapped in thick, black smoke devoured what was left of a car, licking the pavement beneath the twisted metal. Debris littered the area as if a belligerent toddler had flung them in a tantrum.
A mangled piece of dark blue metal lay no more than ten feet from where she stood.
Her feet moved.It’s not his.
“Ma’am.” A firefighter intercepted her. “You need to stay back.”
“The car, what kind of car was it?” She raised her voice over the din, but no one responded. She plunged shaking hands into her purse, fumbled for her phone.
Please, please answer.
Lachlan’s soft burr was music to her ears. “You’ve reached Lachlan Mackay—”