Page 107 of Sully

But that was a conversation for another day.

I made my way around the house, my shoes crunching on the ground, sounding like damn cannonballs to my ears.

The basement doors were exactly where Bonnie had said. She’d even mentioned the hose hookup just beside it.

Sucking in a deep breath, I reached for one of the doors, almost not believing my luck when the door lifted outward toward me.

I made my way down the steep steps, smelling the damp, musty scent as I went deeper underground. The cool met me too; this basement clearly not heated.

There was a creak on the floor above, making my adrenaline surge through my veins, wondering if it was one of my men or if it was Will Antone himself.

Once I got to the bottom step, something underneath the dust and must met my nose.

Something metallic mixed with the more industrial scent of ammonia.

Gunpowder.

Under that, though, there was something else. It was slightly sweet and medicinal. As I stepped through the basement, the scent teased at the corners of my memory, just out of reach.

Until a third scent met my nose.

Sawdust.

For stabilization.

That sweet, medicinal scent?

That was fucking nitroglycerin.

The main component in a fucking bomb.

Fuck.

I mean, I was no expert on explosives. But I did know that nitroglycerin was unstable as fuck. In an unheated, damp basement, it was just asking for a problem.

Even just a goddamn vibration could set it off.

One gunshot and we all go up.

Fuck.

Fuck fuck fuck.

I needed to get upstairs and warn Rune and Perish.

I could die. It would be almost karmic. But I couldn’t let more of my men die on a mission I was leading.

I stepped carefully through the room, not sure where the chemicals were stashed, but damn sure not wanting to knock any over.

I tucked my gun away, knowing there was no way I could use it anyway.

Why the fuck hadn’t I packed some other weapons?

It didn’t matter.

Nothing mattered but getting us the fuck out of there.

I was almost to the interior stairs when I saw it.

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