Page 73 of Cross Point

“Neither am I,” Jackson bit out. “Don’t argue, just get it done.”

Huffing out an irritated breath, she hurried into the skeleton structure of the building with the rest of them close on her heels. She was about the order them to spread out and search but didn’t have to since two of the glowing red countdowns on the timers were easy to see in the dark.

“Take that one,” Nikita told Trinity, pointing toward the closest bomb. “Finn, you take the other. Tony, help me find the last one.”

“On it.”

As they ran off, Trinity fell to her knees in front of the bomb that had been placed on the ground by one of the support columns. Max held up his phone as a flashlight so she could see what she was working with. She shot him a smile of gratitude as she pulled the barrette out of her hair. Pushing and twisting one of the diamonds, a blade popped out of one of the ends.

“Handy, that,” Maxwell murmured.

“She’s a fucking walking arsenal,” Jackson muttered. “Are you sure—”

“Jackson, honey? Go away and hold the light up for Finn,” Trinity ordered sweetly.

“On it.”

Even though Jackson would rather stay with Trinity, he wasn’t going to argue when all of their lives were on the line. As he headed over to Finn’s position, he turned to scowl at his friends who were still standing by the entrance to the building a few yards away.

“What the hell are you guys still doing here?” Holding up his phone, he pointed the flashlight at the bomb Finn was working on. “Get the hell out of here and get to cover.”

“No can do. You stay, we all stay,” Carlos said grimly.

One of the cuffed men protested, but Noah quickly hit him in the jaw, knocking him out. He shrugged. “We could do without the screaming. Too bad we can’t knock that one out.” He jerked his head over to Pamela, who was still sobbing as she sat on the ground.

Carlos sighed. “Don’t I wish…”

“Hit her,” Trinity demanded. “Put her out of my misery.”

“Can’t. I don’t hit women.”

“She’s not a woman. She’s an idiot that got hit by stupid and run over by fucking moron,” Finn called out while he worked on the second bomb. “Getting into bed with the cartel? That’s like raising your hand and asking to be killed. And blowing up the construction site to cover your tracks when we already knew you were involved? Now, that’s just an epic fail.”

“Exactly.” Trinity had enough. “Gag that bitch or something. She’s really beginning to annoy me.”

“With pleasure,” Noah said with feeling.

Much to everyone’s relief, a moment later the sounds of sobbing were muffled.

Finn glanced up. “Hey, Trin? Is this just a standard—”

“Trigger mechanism attached to the timer? Yeah,” Trinity confirmed. “Fail-safe?”

“Not that I see. You?”

“Nope.”

“What is with these damn cartels using basic shit?” Finn asked. “I mean, if you’re going to use this much C4 to blow shit up, you could at least be a little original.”

“That’s…an interesting way of putting it,” Jackson said. “Can you disarm it?”

“Yes, we can,” Trinity answered. She had already pried open the panel of the crude bomb and was working on separating the wires.

“Hey, Trin. Does this remind you of that time in Jakarta?” Finn called out conversationally.

“No.”

“Really, I thought—”

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