“Any chance it was an accident?”
“My gut says no.”
He’d pretty much expected that answer, and he believed her. He trusted few people’s instincts as much as his own, but she was one of them. Josie was a darn good soldier. He’d implied otherwise on their last mission, and maybe he owed her an apology.
From what she’d said before, she hadn’t forgotten his frustration-induced words, but the apology would have to come later.
“Any ideas on who did it?” he asked.
“No, but I’m going to find out.”
“I’m going to help.”
“It’s not your problem.”
“It is. I’m half owner of the school now.”
She sighed. “I’d forgotten. I’m sure Dad will understand if you want your investment back.”
“I don’t. I want to help you find out who tried to kill you and your dad and who blew up my new business venture.”
“No one knew I was at the compound.”
“I knew.”
“You didn’t set the bombs.”
“Of course not.”
“What I meant was, if no one knew I was there, then whoever did set the bombs weren’t trying to harm me.”
“Just Tyler.”
“Right. We can’t overlook the fact it happened during a hiatus between training camps.”
“Meaning?”
“Whoever it was didn’t want unnecessary deaths on their conscience.”
“Or the chance of having witnesses.”
“It could be antiwar protestors, but the fact Dad was so clearly targeted pretty much rules that out.”
“You think they’d blow up some buildings, but stop at killing?”
“Yes.”
“With a few exceptions, I think you’re right.”
“Since it happened when no one else was at camp, I also don’t think it was targeted at the school in general.”
“It’s got a personal feel to it.”
“Exactly.”
“So, you think it’s linked directly to your dad?”
“I do, which makes his disappearance all the more worrisome.”
“Josie, if you can’t find him, you can bet his enemies can’t either.”
“But how will I know?”
“You’ll just have to trust.”
It was early light by the time they reached the compound.
It had been a quiet drive. Nitro didn’t talk much anyway, and Josie got tongue-tied around him. The kiss hadn’t helped any. Why had he done it?
He’d said he was glad she wasn’t hurt. Was it like a kiss of relief? Whatever his motives, he’d turned her inside out and hadn’t even seemed to notice. He must be used to kissing lots of women, only that didn’t ring true. Nitro was too private to sleep around indiscriminately, but even if he’d been with only one woman, and that scenario was more unlikely than the first one, he was ahead of her in experience.
However, despite that lack of experience and all that had happened in the last few hours, her first reaction to him—before he’d ever kissed her—had been violent physical need. Being next to him in the close confines of the SUV for over an hour had her senses on complete overload. It wasn’t a good situation.
She was tired and likely to betray her feelings to a man who despised her.
She wished she could think of some way to get him to let her conduct the investigation alone, but he took his responsibilities seriously. And the minute her dad had become Nitro’s partner, the Mercenary Training School and Tyler McCall had become two more things Nitro took responsibility for.
She climbed out of the car, the lack of sleep making itself known in the stiffness of her limbs. She wasn’t tempted to stretch out the kinks, though, not after the way she’d reacted to Nitro watching her do it before. She could swear he had been looking at her chest, but there wasn’t a whole lot there for him to see. At least there hadn’t been until her nipples got hard.
She didn’t want to know what he’d thought when he’d seen that, but his expression alone had burned through to the core of her.
Trying to forget the peculiar things Nitro made her feel, she turned toward the decimated compound.
The fire service had been and gone. She could see signs of their obviously successful efforts to put out the fire, but she was glad no one was there to question her. The FBI, and probably the ATF too, were probably already on their way, but she hoped she and Nitro would get out of there before the authorities arrived. There would come a reckoning, but she would avoid it as long as she could.
She started toward the wreckage, her senses on full alert. Of its own volition, her hand reached out to touch a piece of charred wood, and her mind went to that place it did when she focused on a bomb, trying to feel its composition.
Daniel watched Josie go into her woo-woo mode, and damned if it didn’t turn him on.
Everything about her excited him, and it made him mad. He didn’t like being out of control, and when he was around Josie McCall, his hard-won control was under a constant state of siege. Bent over, her sweet little bottom was outlined by the fatigues she wore, and she touched the burned debris with the sensual caress of a lover. He wanted that caress on his body.
Get your mind on the task at hand, boy-o. You don’t have time to focus on that heart-shaped ass right now or the way she touches some burned-up piece of wood.
With a grimace of self-disgust, he obeyed his inner urgings to focus on the destroyed compound.
Whatever had been used, it had been effective. No walls were left standing, and the fire had destroyed pretty much everything before the fire service had been able to contain it. At least the woods surrounding the compound had not been affected. The fifty-foot expanse of dirt around the perimeter had made an effective fire barrier.
Tyler McCall was a man who prepared for every eventuality. Even someone trying to blow him up apparently. He’d been sleeping in a secret bedroom that students and faculty alike knew nothing about.
Daniel understood that kind of caution. All soldiers for hire did. Few men could be trusted in a world where money bought a soldier’s allegiance. He’d been damn lucky to hook up with Wolf and Hotwire, but they were getting out of the business, setting up some kind of security consultant firm. He wasn’t ready for that kind of stability yet. Maybe he never would be.
He picked his way across the wreckage to where partially destroyed file cabinets indicated her dad’s office had been. What had once been a computer was a melted mass of metal to one side, and the file cabinets he knew to be fire retardant had nevertheless been unable to completely withstand the temperatures of the blaze.
They were almost completely destroyed, too, but something interested him about them. The files, or whatever might have been left of them, were gone. No charred bits of paper or manila folders remained.
“It was a standard weapon of mass destruction augmented by cylinders of a highly volatile substance, probably petroleum based.” Josie’s voice came from right behind him.
He turned to face her, not even tempted to question her verdict. “Whoever did this was serious about getting rid of the compound as well as your father.”
“Yes.”
Maybe the bomb had been about the school after all, but Josie’s instincts had said not, and even in the face of evidence to the contrary, his agreed.
“They’ve been back.”
She stared at him, her expression not registering understanding. She had to be exhausted.
“Since the blast…They came and emptied out whatever was left of your dad’s file cabinets.”
Josie’s moss green eyes widened, and she spun to look at where he pointed.
“But we didn’t see anyone on the road.”