Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 58752 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 294(@200wpm)___ 235(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58752 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 294(@200wpm)___ 235(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
Tamsin studied my face, her breathing slowly easing as she recognized the expression I had put back on for her. Some of the fear left her eyes as they searched mine. Then it was replaced by wary suspicion. “You’re smiling again.”
“Immediate danger’s over,” I pointed out, leaving my hand at her waist to keep her anchored in front of me.
“And now you’re going to annoy me?” Her brows drew together, but one corner of her mouth threatened to lift.
“I like to stay useful.”
Her mouth twitched before she caught it. My grin deepened when her almost smile became harder to hide. The color began returning to her face, and I considered it a significant victory.
3
GHOST
Stryker approached from the crowd side. He glanced at the clipboard in my hand, the damaged rack, and Tamsin tucked against my side before focusing on me. There was a flicker of amusement that was gone so fast, I wasn’t sure I’d seen it before his expression was once again in its customary scowl. The brothers around us continued working without waiting for instruction, but I could feel the attention shift when our president reached the inner perimeter.
“What’ve you got, Ghost?”
The easy expression I used to keep everyone around me from borrowing trouble disappeared. My focus narrowed to the field, the displaced cases, and the trailer sitting beyond the damaged rack. Tamsin noticed the change before I uttered a word, angling her face toward mine as the anger in her eyes receded beneath understanding.
“This was planned,” I explained.
For a second, relief softened the tight line of her mouth. The guilt she’d been carrying since the rack moved eased just enough for me to see how heavily it had been sitting on her, but the reprieve didn’t last. Her gaze shifted past me toward the meadow, where parents held children and brothers moved families behind the farther perimeter, and the color drained from her face again. An equipment failure could destroy Bellamy Pyrotechnics. Deliberate sabotage meant someone had knowingly aimed that danger at hundreds of people.
“Someone used our equipment to do this.”
I turned her slightly toward me, keeping my hand firm at the small of her back. Her body came willingly beneath my palm, though her attention remained fixed on the field. I waited until she looked at me before correcting the blame she was heaping on herself.
“Someone used access to your equipment.”
Her eyes lifted to mine, searching my face as if the distinction mattered more because I had made it. I wanted to replace the fear hollowing her expression with something hotter and easier to handle. But that would have to wait until I’d cleared every inch of this field and found the person who had turned her work into a weapon.
I angled the diagram so Stryker could see the right-side battery without taking my attention off the staging area.
“Rack didn’t fail on its own. Somebody altered the support so the recoil would turn the tubes toward the meadow, bridged the firing sequence, and defeated the shutdown long enough to keep that second fuse alive.” I tipped my chin toward the trailer. “Then they planted a secondary device beside enough stock to turn this whole field into a crater.”
Stryker’s gaze followed mine, his jaw hardening as he took in the distance between the trailer and the nearest families still being pushed back. Tamsin’s shoulder pressed more firmly into my side, and I felt the exact moment she understood that the damaged rack had only been the opening move. Her breath shortened, but she stayed focused on the equipment instead of letting fear drag her under.
“Whoever set it knew Bellamy’s layout, knew the cue sequence, and how the crew would respond when the rack turned,” I continued. “Also exactly when the crowd would be largest. That wasn’t some asshole improvising after they got here.”
“Purpose?” Stryker asked.
“First launch forces an evacuation and drags every eye toward the meadow. Away from very expensive equipment. Could be the whole objective, or it could be cover for something else. Anyone who knew enough to build this failure may have left another surprise in the staging area.”
Stryker didn't waste time asking for certainty. The safety of every person there wasn’t something we would ever risk. He keyed his comm and ordered the remaining spectators cleared beyond the northern access road, then directed our guys to expand the equipment perimeter and hold every Bellamy employee outside it.
The response moved through the grounds immediately, black cuts and dark shirts shifting between families, vehicles, and the launch field with practiced purpose. Whoever had planned this had counted on confused mayhem. They’d seriously underestimated the Black Crowns. We’d quickly controlled the chaos.
Devastation sat plainly in the set of Tamsin’s mouth and the darkening of her eyes, but she kept her shoulders squared. Her family’s name was printed across the equipment, and she was being forced to see each familiar piece as a place someone might have hidden another threat.