Page 94 of Broken Oath

Pain radiated through his shoulder, but everything still moved.

Beside him, Sniper rolled onto his back.

“You alive?”

Sniper blinked at the sky. “Ask me when my ears stop ringing.”

“That’s alive enough.”

Rook rose cautiously and looked over the barrier.

The truck was gone.

Twisted metal burned where it had been parked. Black smoke climbed into the rain-filled sky.

People hurried out of the diner.

The waitress stood in the doorway with a phone pressed to her ear.

No one appeared injured.

The concrete barrier had protected Rook and Sniper from the worst of the blast.

The woman’s warning had protected everyone else.

Rook looked toward the highway.

The black sedan had disappeared.

“They were watching us,” Sniper said.

“And our contact never arrived.”

“You think there was a contact?”

Rook stared at the burning wreckage.

“No.”

The meeting had been bait.

The diner.

The message.

The promise of information about Graves.

Someone had drawn them out of the warehouse and planted an explosive beneath their vehicle while Sniper was inside buying coffee.

They could have detonated it at any time.

Why had they waited?

To make sure both men were inside.

To kill Rook and Sniper together.

His phone had survived the blast.