Fatally Yours

Chapter 50

•INDIANA•

The next morning, I found myself dressed head to toe in black, a hoodie pulled low over my head and dark shades concealing most of my face.

The streets were unusually busy for this early hour, the hustle and bustle masking my movements as I blended into the crowd, heading toward the building the DC cartel would gather in today.

I'd made up a quick excuse to Dominik and the others this morning, saying I had a personal errand to run but would meet up with them later. It wasn't unusual for me to disappear for a few hours, so no one asked questions—at least not yet.

Time was against me, though. I had less than an hour to get in, delay the bomb timer, and ensure the cops my uncle sent in for security detail could get out in time.

Keith had assured me the bomb squad would guide me through it. I adjusted the small earpiece in my ear, his voice already a steady presence.

"Detective, you there? You're approaching the building now."

"Loud and clear," I whispered, dodging past a group of construction workers loitering outside the block.

The building loomed ahead of me—glass, steel, and grandeur—but all I could think about was what lay hidden inside. Bombs that could turn it into rubble and take the cartel, the cops, and anyone else nearby with it.

I slipped inside through a side door, knowing exactly where to go. Lee had gone over the blueprint yesterday in painstaking detail, marking the bomb locations with confident circles.

The memory of that meeting flickered in my mind. I hadn't expected Dominik to step in the way he had, to shut Lee down so fiercely for me. The anger in his voice when he made Lee apologize wasn't something I could easily forget.

It had shocked me, sure, but it had also made something shift inside me.

I didn't want to admit it—not to myself, not to anyone—but I was beginning to like Dominik. And not just because he was fiercely protective of me or that his kisses made me forget my own name.

There was more to him—things I hadn't expected to see in someone like him. He made me feel seen, and that realization was dangerous enough to make my chest tighten as I crept through the dimly lit hallway.

"Detective," Mark's voice crackled, pulling me back to reality. He was part of the bomb squad. "First bomb's location should be just ahead. Storage room to your left."

"Got it." I slipped into the room, quiet and careful, my boots making no sound against the concrete floor.

The air was stale, and the low hum of the HVAC system was the only sound as I scanned the room. There, tucked behind an old filing cabinet, was the first device.

My heart picked up speed, but I shoved the nerves down. I'd seen bombs before, but handling one was an entirely different thing.

"I see it," I murmured. "What now?"

"Pull the timer display panel toward you carefully. Don't jostle the device. I'm going to walk you through the override process to delay the countdown."

I crouched down, reaching for the panel with steady hands. My fingers grazed the edge of the device, and for a split second, I thought of Dominik—where he was now, probably planning for the today's carnage.

Would he ever forgive me if he knew what I was doing?

Does it matter? a bitter voice in my head whispered.