Page 46 of Lone Star Hostage

“What’s wrong?” Billie asked, obviously noticing the change in his body language.

Presley didn’t answer. He lunged at her, hooking his arm around her waist. “Run,” he shouted.

They did. But they only made it a few steps before a blast ripped through the door.

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Chapter Sixteen

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Billie felt herself being hurled through the air, and she landed hard on the ground, the impact robbing her of every shred of her breath. And then the pain came just as it had when a bullet had rammed into her vest.

Presley moved on top of her. Sheltering her, she realized, since there was debris flying from…some kind of blast. Then, she recalled that look on Presley’s face when he’d put the key in the lock. She hadn’t heard anything, but he clearly had, and his fast thinking had likely saved their lives.

Billie shifted a little, just enough so she could look back at the door. It wasn’t there. It’d been blown to bits. So had the frame and the shudder on the window right next to it. There were now gaping holes in the fire station, and thick smoke was billowing out.

“Plastic explosives,” Presley muttered, and somehow he got up and hauled her to her feet. “We need to get out of here in case there are more.”

Billie cursed since she hadn’t even thought of that, but he was right. And this was almost certainly something the kidnappers had left behind. Maybe to be certain any potential evidence was destroyed, but maybe they’d known Presley and she would follow the trail of information breadcrumbs to here.

Where they could die.

With the return of her breath, she got a surge of much needed adrenaline. Presley obviously did, too, because they were able to sprint back to the SUV. Thankfully, nothing seemed to be broken or sprained in her body, but she figured she’d have yet more bruises.

They got inside the SUV, fast, and sped away while he gave the voice command to call Ruby. His boss answered on the first ring.

“Long story short,” he immediately said, skipping the greeting. “I met with my bio-father, Joe Malloy, and he’s the owner of the old fire station where I was abandoned as a newborn. He gave us a key, and when Billie and I came here to check it out, the back door blew up.”

Ruby muttered something that Billie didn’t catch. “Are you both all right?”

Presley looked at her, no doubt assessing that, and Billie nodded. Thoughall rightwas a relative term. They were alive, but, man, she was shaken to the core. Added to that, their clothes were smeared with dirt, grass stains, and ashy like debris from the explosion. Some of that dirt was on Presley’s face. A glance in the mirror confirmed it was the same for her. With the bruises from the ordeal at the creek, they looked as if they’d both had their butts kicked.

“No serious injuries,” Presley said, “but now I need to do some mop up and get the fire department and bomb squad out here—”

“I’ll take care of mop up,” Ruby insisted. “Just get out of there now.”

She ended the call, and with the conversation over, Billie could hear her own gusting breath. She tried to rein that in so she wouldn’t hyperventilate. Thankfully, Presley had already done the reining in. He seemed super focused.

And pissed.

“You don’t think your bio-father set that explosive,” she said.

“No.” There was zero hesitation. “I don’t think he’s in on this. So, either Ellis and Craig left it as a way of making sure to destroy any potential evidence or their boss did.”

That was what she believed as well. She hadn’t gotten any sense whatsoever that Joe had wanted to harm either Victoria or Presley.

“My place is closer than yours,” he said. “Any objections to going there?”

This time, she was the one who didn’t hesitate. “None.”

They’d have to give their statements to the cops, of course, but that would have to wait anyway until the scene had been secured. It was possible the entire area would have to be evacuated so the grounds could be checked for explosives as well. Then after that, the CSIs would be brought in, and hopefully they would find something, anything, to make sense of all of this.

As Presley drove to his house, his phone dinged with not one text but two, and since they appeared on the dash monitor, Billie could see the first was from Angel and the second from Ruby.

Victoria’s being released from the hospital, Angel messaged.Can’t convince her to go to a hotel or to friends, so I’ll be going with her to her estate.

“Hell,” Presley muttered.

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