Dark Warrior Untamed (12 page)

All of them felt the draw of the blackened circle of grass a short distance away. It could have been so much worse. He would work day and night to keep it from happening again.

“Thank you, Kerry. Now let’s get started on finding the culprit behind this attack. Once we’ve read what’s left of the scene, I’ll go to work on Piper’s computer again. Has anyone checked to see if she’s gotten another e-mail today?”

Kerry moved closer to her husband. “Sandor looked earlier and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.”

“Good.” Grey backed down the steps. “We’ll let you know if we find anything useful out here. Lena, would you care to join us?”

“Sure. You might want my help.”

Ranulf kissed his wife and fell into step beside Grey. “I tried to get a reading out here yesterday, but
couldn’t get close enough. The police and bomb squad hung around until we were all ready to go ballistic. I doubt there’s much left untainted.”

“That’s pretty much what I expected, but even a hint or two would be helpful.”

Grey quickly looked up and down the street to make sure the reporters were gone before he knelt down at the edge of the burned area. He rested his hand over the damaged grass and opened himself up to the trace energy. A slight increase in the buzz told him Ranulf had joined in the hunt.

Grey let the rush of sensation flow through him unfettered. Gradually, he identified and then eliminated the various components: fertilizer, weed killer, the burned carbon scent of the grass, the distinct smell of the multiple humans who had worked the area.

Underlying it all was the sharp tang of the explosive, yet it was impossible to tell what kind it was. Perhaps Ranulf would know, but it didn’t matter. Grey would recognize it if he were to ever smell it again.

When Ranulf finally broke his concentration, the Viking looked frustrated. “Nothing definitive. Just that something exploded and burned.”

“It was worth trying. Lena, you want to give it a shot?”

“Okay, give me a minute.” She stepped to the edge of the circle and closed her eyes for several seconds. When she opened them, she slowly walked around the damaged grass and then headed across the lawn to the gate.

What was she sensing? Grey shot Ranulf a questioning
look, but the Viking just shrugged. Neither said a word, not wanting to disturb her process. Finally, she shuddered and reached out to the gate for support. They hurried to her side.

“Are you all right?”

She slowly nodded. “Sorry, it always takes me a minute to get back to normal.”

After a long breath, she frowned. “I’m afraid I can’t be of much help. My gift allows me to see bits and pieces of an event as if it’s a movie playing out in real time. I saw Hughes and the vague impression of another man—possibly the delivery truck driver. Then I saw you running toward the rose garden, the bomb exploding, and you flying through the air.”

She shuddered. “God, Grey, it’s a miracle you’re alive, but then we already knew that. Nothing on the bomber, though. I
can
tell you that there was a powerful mix of emotions built into the bomb. He’ll strike again, and sooner rather than later.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.” Grey thought over what she’d said. “But you got a definite impression that the bomber is male?”

Lena nodded slowly. “Yeah, I did. I wish I could tell you more.”

“So, we’re back at square one.” Ranulf sounded disgusted.

“Maybe not. We have one more thing to check out. The hospital staff threw out most of my clothes after the explosion, but they hung on to the leather jacket I was wearing. It should have some bomb residue on it.”

He retrieved the bag from his car and pulled the jacket out. He unrolled it and offered it to Ranulf first, who held it up to his face and took a deep breath before handing it to Lena. After she checked it out, Grey followed suit, drawing in the mixed scents of smoke, hospital, and the explosive.

“I’d know it again, but right now I don’t recognize this particular mix. How about you?”

Lena ran her fingers over the leather. “I only get more of what I already told you. A mix of hate and excitement. Maybe a sense he’s trying to impress someone. I’ve mostly dealt with arsonists, and this feels much the same. Whoever he is, he gets off on playing with this stuff.”

She closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. “This always gives me such a headache.”

Kerry must have been watching from the porch because she hurried across to take her friend’s arm. “Lena, if you’re done here, let’s go inside. I have a pot of tea waiting for us.”

“That sounds wonderful. Grey, let me know if I can do anything else.”

“I will. Thanks.” He and Ranulf watched as the two women disappeared into the house. Obviously Lena’s gift took a lot out of her. He regretted having to put her through it, but they needed to use every resource at their disposal.

Fury glowed in Ranulf’s eyes. Grey understood just how he felt. Talions knew they might face death in battle, but mailing a bomb was a coward’s way to fight.

Both men instinctively reached for the symbol of their bond with their Dame and their people. Ranulf clasped the centuries old Thor’s Hammer he wore at his throat while Grey placed his hand over the brand burned deep into the skin on his chest.

“This will end.”

“This will end.”

Two pairs of blue eyes met and held, each alight with the burning anger of a battle-ready warrior. “This we vow.”

The moment passed. Time to get back to business. Grey considered the options.

“I want to have the jacket tested by our people, but technically speaking, we should offer it to the police on the case.”

Ranulf studied the jacket. “There’s no reason not to cover all the bases in case they pick up something our guys don’t. The jacket is already in bad shape, so the police won’t notice if another piece or two is missing.”

“That’s what I was thinking.” Grey assessed the damage to the jacket. “Should be easy enough to remove a swatch without it being too obvious. I’ll have Sandor see how much the lab will need before I turn the rest over to the authorities.”

He folded up the jacket. “If possible, I’ll do it when Piper and I give our statements. It will look like an act of good faith on our part. But if Sandor needs more time,
I’ll turn it over later and tell them that the jacket slipped my mind in all the confusion. The detective might not like it, but he won’t be able to prove otherwise.”

Ranulf nodded. “Speaking of which, Detective Byrne called again, wanting to talk to you and Piper today. We told him that we’d call with a time when you’d both be available.”

Grey had been expecting it. “Piper’s going to stop by after class. We can go over our stories and then call the detective. We need to agree on the major points, but not sound rehearsed. Nothing triggers suspicion faster than a group of witnesses singing the same chorus in perfect harmony.”

“True enough.”

Ranulf studied the blackened circle on the ground for a while before looking toward the house. The explosion had cracked a couple of windows, another indication of how close the bomber had come to the Dame herself. Ranulf’s barely controlled rage was a mix of a Talion’s warrior training and that of a man whose woman had been threatened.

Grey knew how he felt. At least Kerry had been safely behind thick walls. Piper had been standing out in the open, with only Grey between her and destruction. Energy burned under his skin, seeking a target to lash out against. That time would come, but not today.

He carefully banked the fire. He always hunted better when his emotions ran cold.

The detective spoke slowly, but it was impossible to miss the sharp intelligence in his dark eyes. Piper wondered if he knew how carefully this meeting had been staged. Ranulf sat in his wife’s chair with Kerry perched on the arm beside him. Sandor and Lena had taken the three kids over to their house for the evening to give them privacy.

Detective Byrne had checked in with Hughes first to make sure he hadn’t remembered anything else now that he’d had time to calm down. The butler had assured him that he hadn’t and then retired to his quarters. That left only Piper and Grey to give their statements.

The detective had preferred to come to the house so they could walk through the events of the previous day.

“Miss Ryan, if you would go first. Why did you think there was something wrong with the package being delivered?”

Sandor and Grey had already decided that there was no getting around telling the authorities about the warning e-mail. However, they weren’t going to bring up the first one unless they had no choice.

She chose her words carefully. “Grey and I share an office, so he was there when I received a strange e-mail. We both read it the same way—as a threat. When the bell at the gate rang, Grey ran out to intercept the package in case we were right.”

She swallowed hard. “Which we were.”

Her voice quivered, but there was nothing she could do except lay it all out on the table for the detective. “Hughes had already gotten to the gate, but Grey took the package away from him and ran to the rose garden.”

Her eyes sought out Grey, needing a reminder that he was okay. “Before he could get away from the box, it blew up. He’d warned me to get back, so all I ended up with was a ringing in my ears. But Grey hit the side of the house and was taken to the hospital. Luckily, it turned out that all he got was a few bruises and a slight concussion.”

She avoided looking at Grey. It was hard to lie to the detective about the severity of Grey’s injuries. He was sitting right there in the same room, yet even so, the memories of those moments when he wasn’t moving were too fresh to be forgotten.

The detective asked a few more questions before moving on to Grey’s version of the events. It was pretty much the same but varied a bit on the details. He described what the bomb had looked like, or at least what he could remember before being knocked unconscious. Then the detective patiently backed each of them up and went over it again and again, taking notes and asking questions when he wanted clarification.

It was exhausting work, and Piper was relieved when at last he stood up to leave.

“We’ll be in touch.” He pulled out several of his business cards. “Here’s my number. Call if you think of something or if you get another one of those e-mails, Miss Ryan.”

Kerry walked the detective out. As soon as the door shut behind him, Piper sagged back in the chair and closed her eyes.

“Piper, are you all right?” Kerry asked when she returned.

She nodded and mustered up a small smile for the Dame. “What is it about talking to the police that makes you feel guilty even when you’re innocent? Like you should confess something—anything—just to make them quit looking at you like that.”

Kerry stood beside her. “And don’t they know it? But then their perspective is a bit skewed considering how many people lie to them day in and day out. We all have secrets.”

Although she knew Kerry was talking about her role as Dame, it didn’t keep Piper’s stomach from knotting up. She didn’t know about the rest of them, but she definitely had secrets she didn’t want to get out.

It was time for her to leave. “Well, unless you need me for something else, I’m going to head on home. I’m pretty much wiped out.”

She stood up and stretched, all too aware that Grey was watching her every move. The man had definitely perfected the skill of masking his thoughts. Right now she’d give anything to know what was going on behind his stoic expression.

When she realized Kerry was talking to her, she tore her eyes away from Grey.

“I’m sorry you had to come in today after I told you could have the day off, Piper. Take tomorrow for sure. We could all use some downtime.”

“I may take you up on that, Kerry, but I’ll definitely be in on Friday.”

Piper made it all the way to the porch only to remember that Sandor had taken the sedan because his
other car was a two seater. He’d planned on returning it to her when he brought the kids back to the house.

“Now what?” she muttered to herself.

She really needed to get away from a certain individual, and the sooner the better. Between class and the detective, she hadn’t had more than a handful of minutes to call her own since she’d bolted from Grey’s hospital room. She needed to stop thinking about that kiss, but so far that wasn’t happening.

“Is something wrong?”

She jumped about a foot. She’d been so intent on getting away from Grey that she hadn’t noticed he’d followed her outside. She smacked him on the arm.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that!”

By the gleam in his eye, she could tell he found her reaction amusing rather than painful.

“I didn’t mean to scare you, but I wasn’t exactly sneaking. I’m leaving, too. You’re not the only one who is ready for … bed.”

Light blue sparks flickered briefly in his gaze, making her suspect he wasn’t talking about sleep. And now that he’d put that thought in her head, she wasn’t either. She wanted to believe their kiss had been a reaction to the stress of the past twenty-four hours. But she’d be lying to herself if she thought that was all it was.

Back to the matter at hand. If he was leaving, she’d be all right waiting for Sandor to come back.

“I forgot Sandor took the sedan, so I’ll have to wait for him to return.”

“Let me take you home. I was going to drive by there anyway.”

How did he know where she lived? What was he up to? He answered the question before she asked it.

“I assure you my motives for looking up your address were not sinister. After everything that’s happened, I want to make sure you get home safely.”

“I’m a big girl, Grey.”

“It’s my job to make sure our people are safe, nothing more.”

She didn’t know why that made her even madder. She stared up at the night sky, caught between the need to get away from Grey and the desire to get a whole lot closer. That would be absolute insanity; at the moment she was definitely feeling a bit on edge.

“What’s it going to be? Are you going to let me take you home or are you going to keep Kerry and Ranulf up, not to mention me, while you wait for Sandor to show up?”