Page 63 of Wild Devil

Which doesn’t sound promising in the fucking slightest.

“We have what? Ten fucking minutes?” I ask.

“Nine,” he corrects with a dry laugh. “But don’t you worry your little head about that. I’ve got it. Just focus on your girl, and I’ll handle things on this end.”

“And what if it comes up short as well? Fuck, what if we missed something?”

My stomach sinks at the thought. This whole plan—and Frey’s wild gamble—could be for nothing.

“Don’t worry,” Damien says as if sensing my doubt. “Lex is pretty sure it has to be within the area on the map. He’s rarely wrong. It’s just taking a little longer than expected. Luckily, it seems like the party hasn’t started yet?—”

“Fuck.” Suddenly, one potential location hits me, and I feel ice wash over me. “What if I’m standing right over the first point meant to go?”

It would make sense. Take out the broadcast so that Heywood’s speech at city hall is all that remains on air. Which means that Frey could be walking right into his trap.

Or…

“If we are, how can I tell?” I spit out. “I can find the detonator myself, we can end this shit show before it ever begins. Tell me what to look for.”

“Hmmm. I’ll put on Lex.”

There’s a rush of air, and a new voice comes through the receiver. “Okay. You’re going to look for a small device,” the man says. “It will need to be somewhere on the first floor, close to the site of the explosives.”

I hiss through clenched teeth. “Sounds easy enough. Anything else? Will it have red blinking lights or some shit?”

“No,” Lex says. “It could be anything resembling an electronic device. Something that seems out of place and yet mundane enough to be overlooked. Keep me on the line. I’ll try to walk you through it.”

“Fine.” I take off and scour the empty lobby, feeling my heart pound in my chest. Talk about a twisted game of hide and seek. Ironically enough, I always sucked at the game as a kid.

Fuck me.

“An electronic device,” I repeat while scanning at least a dozen television monitors mounted on the wall above the front desk. “I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a news station before, but electronics are kind of a dime a dozen around this place. Can you give me any fucking more than that?”

He pauses. “Well, if you were to blow up a building, where would you hide the detonator?”

I scoff at the question. Then, I think again and scour the room. My eyes land on a cell phone lying on a desk—an odd thing for someone to leave behind. Especially in today’s day and age.

One could say it’s downright odd.

“Alright, so what if I find it,” I blurt while inching toward the device. “What the hell do I do next?”

“Well, you’ll need to sever the connection to any potential broadcast signal. Normally, that would mean hacking into it or disrupting the wiring or?—”

“Give me the fucking shorthand version for dummies.”

“Submerge it in water,” he says. “Now!”

Fuck. I hesitate for a second before snatching up the phone and tossing it into a nearby coffee pot, filled to the brim with fresh brew. I don’t know if I’m expecting fireworks or what, but with a sad, thunk, the device hits the bottom of the glass. Whether or not it’ll work, who the fuck knows. Maybe we’ll go up in flames. Maybe not.

“We have five minutes to know if you were right or not,” Lex says, sounding almost cheerful at the prospect. “But it looks like your girl has made the airwaves, at least. We’ll secure the remaining location and then meet you there.”

“Good. Because?—”

Pain rips through my chest before I hear an explosive pop to accompany it. Not a bomb.

But a gunshot.

My ears ring with the sound. I recognize it instantly—but I barely have time to register the shock. It’s as if the world trips into slow motion. As if moving through quicksand, I wind up on my knees, staring at the assailant I didn’t even fucking see.

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