AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Got it,” Kayson remarks, disconnecting the call.
Once I’ve tossed on my gym shoes, I sprint down the hallway tossing my shirt on. Hating to wake her up, but aware I don’t have any other options, I toss open her bedroom door and head toward the bed.
“Berlynn. Baby, I need you to wake up,” I say, gently shaking her shoulders.
“What’s wrong, Aris?” Concern replaces the sleepy expression on her face once she looks up at me. She sits up and cups my cheek with her palm. “Talk to me.”
Feeling torn about leaving her and Berk here, I reluctantly state, “Someone bombed the office building. I have to head that way and see what the damage is. I didn’t want to leave the house without telling you first. Kristoff and his team are going to be casing the outside perimeter with the night crew. I’m gonna lock up and set the security system, don’t leave this house no matter what.”
“I won’t,” she promises me in a soothing voice. “I’ll go crawl into bed with Berk so he doesn’t take Tracker out without understanding the situation. Be careful, Aris. If this is the work of my dad or his friends, it may be a trap.”
I take her warning to heart, but even if it is a setup, there’s not much I can do about it.
As one of the partners, it’s my duty to be there and it’ll be suspicious if I’m not.
“I’ll be careful, I swear I will. But I need you to do everything you can to keep yourself and Berk safe. I don’t see anyone getting past the guards and security system, but just in case, if you hear anything that sounds questionable, grab Berk and Tracker, then run and hide in the safe room. You remember the combination to get in, right?”
“Yes,” she answers. “It’s the four of our birth months followed by the dates we were born, then I follow it up by adding our graduation month, day, and year.”
“Correct. I’ll see you soon,” I announce, leaning over and pecking her on the lips. “Love you, sweet girl. Keep your eyes and ears open.”
“I will. Now go, Aris. The sooner you get there the sooner you can get back to me.”
It takes every ounce of strength I have within me to leave her side knowing there’s danger around the corner and lurking over the horizon. As her man, it’s my job to protect her and keep her safe, knowing that I’m leaving her alone and vulnerable has my entire body itching and being unable to scratch it has me jittery.
We share a scorching kiss before I finally pull back and walk away. Telling her once again how much I love her I head downstairs, grabbing my wallet and keys from the bowl by the garage door and get into my vehicle.
I have an eerie feeling as I pull out of my driveway. I’m on the outskirts of downtown, living more in the countryside than the city which means it’s dark and spooky as you drive down the asphalt paved road that’ll lead you to the highway.
A chill skates down my spine causing bumps to erupt across my skin as I head into the metropolis neighborhood. My gutis screaming to go back, but my mind hollers that I’m leading danger away from the ones I love most in this world.
And that thought is what pacifies me and keeps my foot on the gas pedal instead of stomping on the break and doing an illegal U-turn.
When I arrive on the scene, I’m relieved to find the building still standing.
Our windows have been shattered due to the explosion, and there’s a fire that had to be put out, but other than that, it looks like things are in good shape. It’s better than what I was expecting to find.
Spotting my dad in the midst of a huddle, I pick up the pace as I head that way to figure out what we need to do and how we should proceed. This is a first for me, my dad as well, but there’s a process that has to be followed, I’m just unsure of what that is.
“Dad!” I shout as I push my way past firefighters and police officers who are trying to contain the bystanders that've come out of the woodwork.
Nosy fuckers.
“Son.” Dad greets me, pulling me in for a back breaking hug. “Can you believe this bullshit? Kayson was fixing to play the video back from the cameras he had installed around the office. Hopefully, we’ll be able to see the culprits and identify them so we can have them arrested.”
“The blast didn’t shut them off?” I ask, turning my attention to Kayson.
“Nope,” Kayson replies, popping the P in his nope. “These bad boys are military grade cameras. They don’t shut down, even when the lens is blown out. We’ll be able to see everything from start to finish.”
“What he isn’t telling you,” Garrick, my private investigator, interrupts. “Is that they placed a multitude of them around the perimeter and not only the building itself. We have it from different angles from assorted parts of town. So not only will we be able to watch the person coming to the office itself, but we’ll be able to see what vehicles they came in and hopefully pick up their plates to identify them by if they happened to be wearing disguises at the time they set the bombs.”
“If they were smart they were,” I add.
“Desperate men don’t always think things through. It’s how they get caught,” Kayson counters. Fuck, I hope he’s right and they didn’t hide who they are from the cameras.
As we all lean in and Kayson hits the play button, my jaw drops.
The culprit I was expecting to see isn’t who sets the bomb on the lower level.
