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“Yes,” Jesep verified. He took her by the shoulders and had her face him. “Did you steal the diamonds?”
“No,” Olivia repeated, still volleying uncertain glances at Joe and Victoria.
Jesep seemed to study the woman a moment as if trying to figure out if she was lying before he finally nodded. “All right. Get in your car and go home. I’ll deal with this when we’re all back at the estate.”
Ari huffed. “You’re just going to let her leave?”
Jesep gave his son a look that could have frozen the hottest level of hell. “Yes, and you’ll leave, too.Now,” he tacked onto that, and there was no mistaking that it was an order.
Ari gave another of those huffs, but he eventually started walking toward his Porche. Jesep went in the direction of his vehicle, too. Olivia stood there for a couple of moments, watching them walk away before she finally started to move toward her Mercedes. However, she didn’t make it to her car.
Because the blast tore through the air.
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Chapter Nineteen
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At the sound of the explosion, Presley had a déjà vu moment. Because that was the exact sound he’d heard when the door to the fire station had been blown off its hinges.
First there was the deafening noise followed by the sensation of being propelled backward. This time though, he didn’t actually fall but instead was pushed against the front door.
Billie was right next to him, hitting hard against the reinforced steel frame. Angel, too, on the other side. Joe and Victoria staggered back into the foyer. Not for long though. Victoria bolted out, her attention fixed on what was left of Olivia’s car. Most of the front end was now a fireball.
It was hard to see through the billowing, black smoke, but he spotted Olivia. She was on her knees, and she was seemingly in shock as she looked at her car. Ari was a few yards to her right.
But Jesep was nowhere in sight, though his car was still there.
It was possible he’d been knocked to the ground. Or even been killed if he hit something hard. But Presley didn’t like that he didn’t have eyes on one of their top suspects.
“I’ll call it in,” Angel said. “And get the fire department and bomb squad out here.”
Yeah, because there could be other explosives just as there’d been at the fire station.
“Olivia!” Victoria shouted.
Victoria scrambled out of the foyer, and she bolted past Presley before he could stop her. Joe was right on her heels, calling out to Victoria as she was calling out for Olivia.
Presley had no choice but to go after them.
And he knew he wouldn’t be doing this solo. Billie and Angel were right on his heels as he jumped down off the porch and into the yard. He took hold of Victoria, pulling her back from what was left of the Mercedes. It was rare for a gas tank to explode in a fire—there wasn’t enough oxygen in the tank for that—but it could happen, and that’s why he wanted Victoria away from it.
“Get back,” Presley shouted to the others, still firing glances around, looking for Jesep.
Hell.
Still, no sign of him. Where was he?
“Olivia,” Victoria called out again, but this time, Joe was able to hold her back from running to her daughter.
The blasted smoke prevented Presley from getting more than mere glimpses of Olivia and Ari. Not enough for him to tell if they were genuinely stunned by what had just happened or if they’d expected it.
“Damon,” Presley heard Joe say.
With his gun still gripped in his hand, Presley whirled around to see Joe. He wasn’t looking at the flaming car but rather just way up the driveway by the road, where Presley saw the bulky man wearing a Kevlar vest duck out of sight behind a tree.
“I’m pretty sure that’s my stepson, Damon,” Joe said.
