Switched (13 page)

“That is not very comforting.”

“But it is honest.”

A fact Risa knew all too well. She’d lived that lesson and still did every time she tried to open a credit card and got denied. Even obtaining her new apartment lease had been an exhausting process. The credit catastrophe followed her everywhere.

And here she thought the worst was behind her. She’d never counted on falling into the middle of an active crime scene. This sort of thing happened on television, not to women who went about their lives trying never to bring the police to their doorstep.

She hadn’t expected her day to end this way. She hadn’t been prepared for Aaron, either.

“With my history with men, it’s a nice change to hear a little brutal truth now and then. Of course, a flowery lie might not be that bad at the moment.” She made the comment totally forgetting about his lies about his job and the false foundation beneath their relationship so far. They’d been through so much since then that it felt like a lifetime ago.

Aaron frowned at her. “Excuse me?”

The rush to apologize hit her, but she pushed it away. Sure, she’d forgiven him for the things he said and didn’t say. She would try to work her way through that and understand, but it didn’t change the fact that he’d lied and he should grovel for that.

Even without that piece, the comment meant something in terms of her past. She debated saying anything. If he had let the comment slide, she would have treated it as a throwaway and not important. But since he continued to stare, alternating between a scowl and a narrow-eyed frown, she searched for the right way to explain her pathetic past love life.

“Sorry to break this up, but we have company.” Royal stepped between them and pointed in the distance. “The good kind.”

Red-and-blue flashing lights lit up the distance. Police cars raced up the long drive to the conference center, their shrill sirens screaming in tandem with the alarm inside the building. She’d gotten so good at blocking the internal one that the police sirens sounded even louder.

Satisfaction showed on Aaron’s face. “Looks like my guys did the right thing and called in reinforcements.”

“Does that mean it’s over?” She looked at Aaron as she asked the question.

His focus had switched to the chandelier above his head. The crystal pieces jangled as the fixture shook. Light danced as it hit the fine cuts. Her first thought was earthquake, but that didn’t make sense. She still couldn’t place what was happening when the rumbling started.

“Get down.” Aaron shouted the warning as he dove on top of her. The blinding explosion came a second later.

Chapter Twelve

Aaron sensed the danger before he actually felt it. Having survived earthquakes, he knew the ground prepared to rattle.

When it bounced beneath his feet, Aaron dove for Risa. He caught her in the side, plowing her to the floor and twisting to take the brunt of the bone-shaking fall. His arms wrapped around her as he folded her underneath him and rolled. He kept going until his body hit a table in the open entry and knocked it over on top of them.

The air whooshed over their heads with a giant sucking sound. The thundering roar of a bang came next. Glass shattered all around them as the windows caved in and the walls shook.

With a crack, a piece of the far wall broke off. It smashed against the floor, breaking into tiny pieces.

Above them, the impressive lobby windows splintered and rained pieces down on them. They would have been sliced and mutilated if the safety glass hadn’t exploded into tiny cubes. The tiny pelts clicked against the floor and covered his body.

Screaming and yelling sounded all around him. He couldn’t process the noise or figure out where it was coming from or how so few people could be so loud. Ironically, the wailing alarm had shut off, but the building was anything but silent. The crackle of a fire consumed the reception desk. A series of loud crashes echoed around the room as paintings and furniture fell.

A rumble from the floor above made it sound as if the walls were about to collapse around them. Loud bangs above them indicated debris falling on upper floors. He realized that the internal structure, like plumbing and electric, was being shredded and ripped apart from the force of the blow.

Somewhere off to the right, water ran. It skated across the floor, but the origin was hard to trace.

Aaron looked up to find them lying amidst piles of debris as papers and chunks of plaster blew around them. It had the feel of a postapocalyptic nightmare with everything covered in a cloud of white dust and a haze filtering the stale air.

It was no earthquake. A bomb had gone off. It destroyed the walls and everything else in its path at the once-pristine new conference center. So much for a soft opening.

When the ceiling above him creaked and groaned, he glanced up. A hole more than fifteen feet wide had been blown through the building. He mentally calculated the placement of the blast and came up with the party room. He heard jingling right before the half-burned Christmas tree fell through the hole and crashed on the marble floor a few feet away.

Just when the clanking stopped, a new round started. The bar above dropped bottles and glasses. One by one they shattered on the floor. Liquid splashed and more glass flew into the air.

The sound had him jumping and Risa moaning beneath him. He lifted his weight and turned her over with as little shaking and jerking as possible. If she’d been injured further, he didn’t want to risk increasing the damage. But he didn’t want her just lying there, either.

Her hands fell flat against the floor by her head. He checked her for blood and cuts and flinched when he saw both. He thought he’d covered her from the worst, but he couldn’t be sure, and he worried that his body weight could have caused an unexpected injury.

He brushed his fingers over her lips. When her eyes didn’t open, panic clawed at his throat. It felt like knives cutting into his raw skin. Everything burned and festered.

“Risa?” He choked out her name as he shook her shoulder.

Her head started to move and a small whimper left her throat. Aaron had never heard a better sound.

“Aaron?” Her husky voice turned scratchy right before she broke out in a coughing fit.

“Right here, baby. We’re both fine. Can you get up? We’re going to have to move.” The walls continued to shed plaster, and debris littered the air and the floor. He had to get them out of there and to fresh air.

She shifted, balancing her upper body on her elbows. “Where’s Royal?”

A new wave of guilt knocked into Aaron. He’d been so worried about her, he’d forgotten all about the guy who’d walked through these impossible situations with him. Royal was a family man and damn good at his job. Gail needed him for everything, and despite all the joking, he was a good friend. Aaron needed him to be okay.

He crawled over Risa, relieved to see her sit up on her own. He spied Royal trapped under a part of the wall and a broken table. Blood ran from his head and he wasn’t moving.

Just as Aaron pushed whatever debris he could move off Royal without help, Risa appeared at his side. A layer of soot and dust covered her clear skin, and flecks of white clung to her hair. Ripped shirt, bloody shoulder. She’d been through one more attack and somehow survived. He worried Royal wasn’t as lucky.

“He’ll be okay.” Risa repeated the refrain as she rocked back on her heels and cradled Royal’s hand in hers.

Aaron felt for a pulse and nearly shouted in relief when he found one. Weak but there. No obvious broken bones, but the heavy debris lying on his stomach and across his thighs could mean internal bleeding and serious injuries. Royal was young and in perfect shape, but he was not invincible.

The main doors to the building broke open and a rush of frigid air rolled in. People followed right behind. Suddenly the empty room was filled with police and Aaron’s team. Partygoers gawked from behind the line the police set up to keep crowds back.

The voices swelled to the decibel of a rock concert. Everyone wanted to know what had happened and where Lowell and his team were. People asked questions and a few of the more brilliant ones complained they couldn’t take photos with their cell phones. Aaron was wondering about most of the same things, except the photo part, but he had a more pressing priority right now.

“We need an ambulance over here.” No way was Aaron letting anyone get medical attention until Royal was loaded into an ambulance and on his way to help.

Risa would go next, and Aaron was not listening to one argument about that. She wasn’t even supposed to be here. He’d introduced her to the place. He could help her make a graceful exit.

Aaron tried to stand and his left leg buckled. He slammed hard against the floor on his knees. The shock of the hit forced the air out of his lungs on a groan.

“Aaron!” Risa scrambled around Royal’s unconscious body to get to Aaron. Using her weight as support, she put her body under his arm and propped him up.

“I’m okay.” He was stunned and suddenly dizzy, but his injuries were nothing compared to what else they might find.

Besides, the show of weakness killed him. He understood the randomness of injuries, but he couldn’t afford to get pulled out of there in an ambulance. He had too many questions and a need to be on the scene. At least for now.

He also didn’t think it was serious. Possibly more of a temporary issue than a long-term one. He’d had a knee problem on and off for years. It would be just his luck for it to kick up and make itself known now.

Two policemen, clearly the guys in charge, pressed in on them. Aaron didn’t need to show his credentials because he knew his guys had taken care of the introductions.

“What happened here?” the one officer asked as he helped Risa get Aaron off the floor. The other jumped as a chair from the second story fell through the hole and landed on the floor next to him.

This time Aaron’s leg held when he put weight on it. “You’ve got at least six people trapped in a small conference room on the floor above and three more on the fifth floor. You’ll also find casualties unrelated to this bombing, which we can walk through as soon as we get the victims out. You’ll be seeing gunshot wounds on those.”

He wanted to say more, but his gaze went to Royal. Three guys had lifted the piece of the ceiling off his midsection. The emergency crew rolled in a gurney with oxygen and an IV at the ready.

Royal still hadn’t moved.

Risa followed his gaze and her hand flew to her mouth. That’s who she was. She’d known Royal for hours—tense and intimate hours but still only hours—and she’d already formed a bond with him. She talked about not trusting men, but Aaron found she trusted fast and deep.

A man could get used to that level of loyalty and commitment. Heaven knew he’d never experienced it before.

“He’ll be fine.” Aaron tightened his arm around her, finding comfort in the feel and closeness of her. “He has to be.”

The EMTs shifted Royal onto the gurney and wheeled his still body out of the debris field and through the shattered doors and into the dark night. Firefighters rushed up the emergency stairwell with a medical team right behind them. The police fanned out as the Elan manager assessed the obvious damage in the lobby and peeked through the floor above.

When Aaron’s head finally started to clear, his security expertise clicked back on. “We need to get everyone out of here. We could have a second bomb.”

The officer directed personnel as he cleared out the space directly under the gaping hole. “You sure that’s what this was? I mean, it sure looks like it, but according to the report from your men when they called us, it sounds like you’ve been having a tough time with recon for the last few hours.”

“That’s a bigger understatement than you can imagine, but yes. I can’t see what else could cause this much damage.” The only question for Aaron was the identity of the triggerman…or woman.

“And make that sound.” Risa slipped her hand into his.

Her gentle touch in the midst of all this chaos and destruction fueled him. It felt right. He’d never been one to need comfort, but he now understood why Royal talked about finding it with Gail.

“My ears are still ringing.” As a result, everything sounded muffled.

Risa shook her head. “I’ve never heard anything like that. It kept roaring. I thought something was coming for the building and would trample it. I guess a tornado or hurricane feels like that.”

“Any idea who did this?” the officer asked.

Aaron had a short list. It included six names, some more obvious and logical than others. He had the puzzle pieces, but they didn’t fit together in any meaningful way. This operation had the earmarks of skill and planning as well as signs of amateur fumbling.

The explosion didn’t match with the fake kidnapping. There could be more than one thing going on, but it didn’t matter how many there were. He would take it all apart and figure it out. The kid upstairs would turn. Someone in that room would talk. He’d untie this mess somehow.

“Someone in that room upstairs should know,” he told the officer.

And very soon, so would Aaron.

* * *

A
NGIE TRIED TO OPEN HER
eyes, but she couldn’t see anything. She blinked again and tied to lift herself off the floor. Something crunched underneath her, and her wrist thumped with a pain that ran from her arm straight to the headache pounding in her temples.

She had no idea what had happened. One second Lowell was counting and next the world crashed in on them. She searched her memory for an explanation, but none came to her. She hadn’t passed out, at least she didn’t think so. But the world was definitely not the same as it had been even five minutes ago.

After a few more tries and a bout of eye rubbing, she opened them. A gray haze had fallen over the room. The air looked like the sky the minute before a storm blew in. But they were inside, so the sudden darkness made no sense.

Using her uninjured hand, she pushed up to a sitting position. The world swayed and bobbed, but then it settled again.

Mark lay next to her with wide-open eyes. She started to talk to him until she realized his neck was cocked at an odd angle.