I was narrowing down my dress and heels choices when I felt his hand tighten in mine and he pulled us both to a dead stop.
I looked up and tensed when I saw The Kevster running our way down the hall.
“Bomb! Bomb! Bomb! Bo—!” he was shouting.
But he didn’t get the last one out.
This was because my apartment exploded. The Kevster was taken clean off his feet and was blown our way. Ren and I rocked backward, Ren tugging my arm and curling me into him so when he landed on his back, I landed partly on his front but my left side slammed into the floor.
Instantly, he rolled me so I was on bottom and he tucked me low so he fully covered me.
Oh man.
Here we go.
Shit.
Chapter Nine
Sixteen to Me
I was pacing Lee’s office.
The Kevster, healthy and all in one piece (thank God), was sitting in one of the chairs in front of Lee’s desk.
For some reason, the police cruiser we were loaded into took us to Lee’s offices in lower downtown Denver (known as LoDo) instead of the station. We were escorted into Lee’s office and locked in.
Yes.
Locked in.
When we left my place, the entirety of the Hot Bunch were milling about with police and firefighters.
And when we left, looking out my window with a totally freaked out Kevster at my side, Ren and Lee were nose to nose, and neither of them looked happy.
I was not either, being carted off like a girl (or a pothead) who needed to be protected.
What was that all about it?
I also wanted to know why Lee and Ren were in each other’s faces, but neither of them were answering their phones. Sadly, before I could try to get to either by proxy, as in calling Indy to call Lee, my phone ran out of juice.
The Kevster didn’t have one.
And Mace had destroyed Lee’s office phone in a fit of (justifiable) rage during his and Stella’s drama and Lee elected not to replace it. This meant Shirleen couldn’t transfer annoying phone calls from clients that he didn’t want to handle and therefore he could spend more of his time “in the field.”
It also meant, since we were locked in (again, locked in), I was incommunicado.
And I was steaming.
My apartment had exploded!
What the fuck was that?
And here I was, pacing in an office across town, not knowing anything, and worse, not able to do anything, all because the macho alphas in my life deemed it fit I should be carted away.
I had been, at the time, semi-flipped out, seeing as my apartment had exploded, so I didn’t argue.
I made a mental note to delay flip outs in future so I would not give the macho alphas in my life the opportunity to treat me like a girl.
After making this mental note, I eyed Kevin and decided I’d given him enough time to control his freak out, or get it together enough to converse with me (insofar as The Kevster could do either, even when things weren’t exploding) so I moved to Lee’s desk. I rested my hips against it and looked down at Kevin.
His wide eyes looked up at me.
Okay, maybe I hadn’t given it enough time.
Still, I had to do something.
“Kevin, do you feel like talking?” I asked carefully.
“I nearly exploded,” he told me instead of answering.
“I know. You may have saved Ren’s and my life, and dude, I don’t know how to thank you for that. That was way cool. I’ll try to figure out a way to express my gratitude, but now we need to talk. I gotta know how you knew—”
The door opened before I could finish and my eyes went there.
Lee was prowling in, but looking behind him, arm raised, finger pointing at something or someone.
I watched him order angrily, “Keep the Rock Chicks back and I don’t give a fuck what it takes to do it.”
Then his eyes came to me and coming in behind him were first Ren then Hank, Eddie, Luke and Mace.
“What’s—?” I started but Lee jerked his finger toward my face and interrupted me.
“You. Shut it,” he growled then turned his attention to The Kevster and jerked his finger in Kevin’s face. “You, tell us how you knew there was a bomb.”
I clenched my teeth and my eyes flew to Ren.
He was looking at me and he looked even less happy than me. But he jerked his head in a negative shake once and looked to Kevin.
I did too and saw that The Kevster was fidgeting, his eyes darting from me to Lee to different men in the room then to Lee again and he said, “I, uh… dude, I—”
Lee leaned into him and roared, “Tell me how you knew there was a bomb planted in my sister’s apartment!”
I pushed away from the desk. “Lee,” I started cautiously. “He’s freaked. Give him a minute.”
Lee turned blazing brown eyes to me. “Your best bet right now, Ally, is to keep your mouth shut. I’ll get to you.”
He’d get to me?
I felt my eyes get big. “Excuse me?”
Lee turned fully to me and planted his hands on his hips. “One day, my sister gets up in the business of every dirty power broker in a hundred mile radius of Aspen. The next day her apartment explodes. You puttin’ these pieces together or do I gotta do it for you?”
Oh I did not think so!