Page 26 of Ghost

I spotted two guys from the corner of my eye, heading toward their cars with their keys in their hands.

“Stop,” I yelled. “Back inside now. It’s not safe out here.”

“Shit,” one of them mumbled, pulling the other back into the building.

“That’s everyone,” she told me a moment later.

“Good job, Beth.”

I hung up and put all of my attention on Gavin. He returned to my truck, tension clear in his muscular body. He checked the ground around it, then dropped to a crouch. As much as I wanted this to be over soon, nothing about what he was doing looked rushed. Which was important if he was dealing with an explosive device, but I felt like it took forever while he worked.

He went down on one knee first, then flat on his side so he could see under the running board. He fiddled with his phone again, and a small beam of light clicked on, crawling along the frame before it stopped.

He studied whatever he’d found long enough that I wanted to yell at him to get away from my truck. He didn’t reach under it right away. The light held in one place, then it shifted an inch and stayed there. His boot scraped on the pavement as he adjusted, getting lower, and every Black Crown in the lot went still with him.

I counted to twenty. Then I lost where I was and started over.

When he finally stretched his arm under the truck, he moved slower than I thought possible. His shoulder blocked what little I could see, but the muscles in his back stood out hard under the shirt.

He froze like that long enough that I bit down on my lip so I wouldn’t make a sound that could startle him. He finally pulled out something dark and compact, setting it on the pavement a long way from the gas tank. When nothing happened, he sat back on his heels and looked at me.

The smile that he aimed my way was smaller than usual. “Device is neutralized.”

He got to his feet and crossed the lot before I could make it to him. I stroked my hands up his chest with a sigh of relief. “That was scary.”

“Would’ve been a fuck of a lot worse if I hadn’t noticed it.” Pure fury shone from his eyes as he gripped my hips. “Damn thing was built with stock from your warehouse. Wired to go when the engine turned over.”

My gaze darted toward my truck. “They knew what I drove.”

“And that you were working today.”

There was only one possible conclusion. “Someone wanted to kill me.”

My legs almost went out from beneath me, but Gavin kept me standing. Then he pulled me against his chest, burying his face in my hair for a moment before he regained control.

“I listened,” I mumbled against his shirt, trying to lighten the mood now that the danger had passed.

“You did.”

I tilted my head back to look up at him. “Because you stopped smiling.”

“My pretty girl is so damn smart.”

His hand settled at the back of my neck, but none of his earlier humor had made it back to his eyes.

I wrapped my fingers around his wrist. “I’m here.”

“You’re gonna stay that way.”

I dug my keys out of my pocket and put them in his palm. “I think you won the driving argument.”

Shaking his head, he chuckled and pocketed them.

My parents and Len came running across the parking lot. Mom reached for me first, stifling a sob as she hugged me.

Dad’s gaze went to the device sitting on the pavement, then to Gavin. “Is it⁠—”

“Handled,” Gavin promised.