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Four minutes.
“Joke’s over, turn it off. Turn it off, Dumont.”
Fifty seconds left.
“Okay, you win.” Panic crept in. “I’ll talk. Just get this thing away from me.”
Thirty seconds left.
“I won’t tell you until you turn it off. You think you can find them on your own? Good fucking luck. You need me!”
Twenty seconds left.
“Turn it off, Dumont, please! Don’t do this,” he wailed. “I can’t tell you! They won’t just stop at killing me. They’ll kill my family. My friends. It’s not my fault. I wish I never accepted that dare!”
I squeezed my eyes shut as my timer hit ten seconds. I wanted my revenge, but I didn’t need to see a man blow up to get it. Rafael would not touch that button. Wesley sealed his fate.
“I’ll tell you. I will.” Wesley sobbed fit to make other grown men cry. “Please, turn it off. I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”
Five.
Four.
“Please!”
Rafael was unmoved.
Three
Two.
“Noooo! Their name is—"
I dove for the remote—snatching it from him and hitting pause at the last possible second. I fell against him, adrenaline leaving me just as fast as it came.
“Mercy, gorgeous?”
“No,” I said. “I don’t give two shits about his life, but you’re the one who said we can’t be emotional about this. Giovanni and Owen are dead. Levi is out of reach. We can’t kill the only person left who can get us to the Phantom.”
“Once he knows that, he’ll have all the leverage. He’ll be blackmailing us.”
“No, he won’t. Hope you don’t mind, baby, but I’m taking over again.” I kissed him. “You need to cool off.”
“And I hope you know,” he said, shadows dancing on his face. “That either way this ends with him dying. No one hurts you and lives.”
I forced myself to walk away. Dropping down and sucking his dick for being so freaking hot and protective, would not send the right message. I wanted us to protect each other like this, but I didn’t want us to blow up our only chance at finding the Phantom.
I approached Wesley.
“Sin... Sinclair...”
“This is your last chance. The next time I hit this button, there won’t be time to stop it even if I wanted to. Tell us—”
Wesley shot up, gasping. Angry red splotches covered his face and neck, blistering before my eyes. “Sin... clair...”
“Rafael!” I screamed. “Cato!”
My guys raced toward us. I dropped to the ground, grabbing and holding him upright.
“What’s wrong with you? What is this!”
“...name... is...”
Rafael skidded across the dirt, falling down next to me. “Shit. He’s in anaphylactic shock.”
“What? How?” I cried. “I thought he was only allergic to peanuts.”
“Ech... ech... ech...” Wesley rasped, straining to breathe. His lips turned blue.
Rafael slapped at his clothes. “He doesn’t have his EpiPen on him. We have to open an airway. Cato, the car. There’s a knife in the glove box. Get it!”
Cato didn’t move. “Why?” he asked, genuinely curious.
“He hasn’t told us the name yet,” I said. “We still need him, Cato. Please.”
“All right. For you.”
Cato left and Rafael set Wesley down. He grasped his neck to tilt his chin back and stopped.
He raised his hand. Resting on his palm was a tiny tranquilizer dart.
“Luna, there’s someone else here.”
In spite of the warm day, those words chilled me to my core.
“They could be in the woods right—”
Loud, raucous barking rebounded off the trees.
“Cato!”
We ran—stumbling over the same roots, tripping on fallen branches.
Cato lay slumped against the car, rubbing the back of his head. His hand came away tacky with blood. Someone took their chance and hit him when he bent to get the knife.
“Stay with him,” Rafael ordered. “Anyone comes near you, show them these.” He dropped the bag of explosives near my lap. “They’ll be one hundred feet away in ten seconds,” he said, taking the knife.
I wanted to be one hundred feet away in ten seconds. What was going on? Someone followed us from campus? Who? They lurked in the trees, watching us play bomb roulette with Wesley? Why?
Are they watching us now?
Rafael returned as quickly as he left.
“Rafael, no,” I whispered. “Wesley. Is he—?”
“He’s dead, Luna. I was too late.”
I clutched my twisting stomach as I scanned the trees. “You were supposed to be.”
Chapter Eleven
I sat on the front steps that night, gazing up at the sky. My guys would have something to say about me being out alone after midnight. I’d hear it when they caught me. Until then, the ocean of glittering sky jewels calmed me. After an ugly, hateful day, I needed to bask in beauty.
I sighed, slumping against the door. The stars were beautiful. My blanket was cozy. The mug of tea in my hands banished the chill. But it all changed nothing. Wesley was still dead.
My last chance to find the Phantom gone in the time it takes peanut oil to spread through the system.
