Page 111 of Fatal Betrayal

"Six minutes, eight seconds."

"Do you see a yellow wire on the left side?"

"I do."

"And a silver one behind that?"

"It looks like two silver ones, or maybe one is gold. I don't know."

"Let's concentrate on the yellow. It should be connected to what looks like a bracket."

"Got it." He gave it a pull and was met with the same relieving silence. "That's done."

"Last one," Flynn said. "But it has to be the silver, not the gold."

"The light is bad in here," he said.

"Take your time."

"I don't have time." The clock had ticked down to four minutes.

"You have to go, Cooper, please," Andi begged, trying to look over her shoulder at him. "I cannot be the reason your mother loses another son."

Her words made him sad, but he knew one truth, and he spoke it. "I'm not leaving you, Andi."

"Bradford," Flynn said. "Silver wire. You have to do it now. No one will get there in time to help you."

"I know. I'm going to do it." Before he moved, he looked back at Andi and met her gaze.

A tear fell from her eyes. "If it doesn't work, Cooper," she said. "I'm sorry for what happened to Kyle, for my part in it. I never wanted to hurt you or your family. I love you. I always have."

"It's going to work. Our story doesn't end here, not now, not like this." He turned back to the bomb and put his fingers on what he desperately hoped was the silver wire…

CHAPTERTWENTY-SIX

Andi's bloodraced through her veins as she waited for the end of the world. A million thoughts ran through her mind, all starting and ending with Cooper, with this man who she had loved and hated and everything in between. She didn't want him to die with her. But he wasn't leaving, and that fierce determination to save her life made her want to cry.

She couldn't see what he was about to do, but she could feel the tension emanating off him. He was trying to be confident, and she needed him to know that she believed in him, too.

"You can do it, Cooper," she said. "I trust you."

"I hope I don't let you down, Andi. Here goes."

She tensed for whatever was about to come, but there was one, two, three more clicks of the clock, and then there was silence.

"Oh, my God! It worked," Cooper said with massive relief. "It worked," he said again more loudly, more confidently. "The clock stopped."

She heard Flynn say something else, but it didn't even register. Her gaze was on Cooper as he came around the bed and wrapped his arms around her.

"I did it," he said.

"I knew you would."

He kissed her with all the pent-up emotion of the last few minutes: the fear, the relief, and the gratitude. It was all there and so much more. She felt overwhelmed by her feelings for him, and she savored each kiss, made so much hotter by the knowledge that they'd almost lost each other forever.

It was only the pounding of feet and shouts from people entering the building that broke them apart. Cooper ran through the thickening smoke to the doorway, flashing his light as he yelled, "We're here. We're here."

Several minutes later, firefighters entered the room. It took a few minutes to free her, and when she was finally released, pain shot down her arms and into her fingers, but it was a great feeling, because she was alive, and this could have been so much worse. They were rushed out of the building as more firefighters attacked the flames.