Page 83 of One More Chance

“We can help you. Both of you.” Jax’s arms were tight by his sides. “Please.”

Lorin walked to a panel on the wall that lit up like a tablet screen, which he tapped several times. Selecting something. The lights in the house flicked on, glowing red, and the alarm came back on. The overhead speakers broke off the low chime long enough for the voice to say, “Thirty seconds.”

“Thirty seconds to what?” She looked at Lorin, realized they didn’t have time for him to type an answer, and said, “Walter! What are you doing?”

“Leave. Now.”

Jax tugged on her arm. “We have to get the others.”

“The doors will unlock,” Walter said. “When the time runs out, don’t be inside the house.”

“Come with us!”

Jax tugged her to the hall, then in the direction of the front door. Tears streamed down Kenna’s face.

Doors opened on either side, and the men they’d come with stumbled out. The older men from the retirement home, Gregorio and all his guys—one of whom had a wet red spot on the side of his shirt.

“What happened?” She swiped at her face, tugged along by Jax.

They started to slow as a group. Gregorio said, “Some of us let their frustration get the better of them.”

Overhead, the voice from the speakers said, “Fifteen seconds.”

“What’s going on?” One asked. His nose was bent, and blood dripped from his nostrils.

Four went over, lifting his hands so his thumbs were on either side of One’s nose.

“We don’t have time for that,” Jax called out. He dragged the front door open. “We have to get out of here.”

The voice on the speakers began a countdown from ten.

“Come on!” Jax drew her outside ahead of the rest of them. One of Gregorio’s guys stumbled off the porch step and landed on the gravel on one knee.

Four shoved him aside and started running down the drive.

One, Three, and Five ran after him.

Gregorio helped up his friend, and another of his associates helped the injured man.

Jax set the pace, moving swiftly away from the house. She had to almost run to keep up with him.

Gregorio called out, “What did you find?” He was eyeing the stuff in her hands.

“Hopefully, a way to find Nicola.”

They had just reached the end of the drive when the house erupted into a fireball that blew out all the windows. But none of the glass shattered. Windows blew out in one piece, landing on the ground around it. She saw the frame of the house bow out with the force of the blast.

The roof lifted off the house, and a massive smoky fireball was tossed up into the sky.

Chapter Twenty-Three

“Where are we going?”

Jax let go of the steering wheel with one hand, reached over, and held hers. “The FBI office. Everyone else split, but we need to make this official. Cops and FD are going to show up and take care of the house.”

“We need Maizie.” That was the only way they were going to get information off this hard drive in her hands. So why was she still shaking? They were more than a mile from the wreckage of that house. The others had all run off, jumped in their cars and split, leaving Jax and Kenna to deal with the fallout.

But they couldn’t exactly do that and continue to be free citizens. They’d broken into the house. They either had to face the truth or figure out how to spin this.

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