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“And we might have forgotten to mention something at first acquaintance,” Gabe said. “We’re not stealing anything from you. We’re the good guys. The Passover Project isn’t leaving this room. If you think for a second that your life is worth more than the safety of the rest of the world, then you’re completely out of your mind.”
“What’s the combination?” Grace asked again, looking at Standridge. “This is your chance to do something right for once.” Rivulets of sweat beaded across his face and snaked into the crevices on his jowls and neck.
Standridge was quiet too long, and Gabe raised the Ruger and pointed it at his other leg.
“No, don’t!” Standridge screamed. “I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you.” Gabe put the gun down and waited. “S…seventeen to the left. Three to the right. Six to the left. Twenty-eight to the right.”
The safe door opened on well-oiled hinges. “Looks like we have a winner,” Grace said, flipping through the thick stack of papers inside. “There’s a lot of cash in here, Doc. What were you planning to do with all that money?”
He didn’t answer, and Grace didn’t press him for one. She shoved the papers back inside the safe and left the door open as she went back to her bag. She jiggled the box of matches to make sure Standridge was watching and swiped the match head against the rough surface on the box. Sulfur and smoke permeated the air, and she flicked it onto the stack of papers and cash and watched as the flame took hold.
“No! Are you insane? Do you even know what the Passover Project is capable of?”
“Oh, we know,” Grace said. “It’s why we’re here.”
“He’s all yours,” Gabe said.
Grace barely spared a glance at Gabe as he pulled the charges out of her bag and dispersed them throughout the house. Her eyes were all for Standridge.
She picked up her SIG, the cold steel comfortable in her hand. “You know, Allen. It never would have worked out between us.” She pulled the trigger and put a bullet right between Allen Standridge’s eyes.
“Let’s ride,” Gabe said.
Grace looked at her shoes on the floor and decided to leave them there. They deserved to be reduced to ashes. She grabbed her bag and followed Gabe out the back door to the black Audi he had hidden down the block. They got inside the car and were just pulling away from the curb when the force from the explosion shook the ground beneath them.
Neither of them looked back.
ChapterFifteen
Grace pulled a black duffle bag from the back seat into her lap and took out a change of clothes. She unbuttoned the halter from behind her neck and peeled the dress down her body.
“Good thing there’s no oncoming traffic,” Gabe said. “I’d hate for some middle-aged stockbroker to run off the road at the sight of your breasts.”
Grace snorted out a laugh as she pulled on black cargo pants. “I hate to break it to you, but breasts like mine are a dime a dozen.”
“Not true. They’re the finest I’ve ever seen.”
Her breath caught at the heat in his gaze, but she turned her attention to putting on her boots. “Did Ethan send you the blueprints for Standridge’s lab?”
A battalion of fire trucks and police cars passed by them in a blur of blue-and-red flashing lights. Grace watched them in her side-view mirror while she braided her hair.
“Yeah,” he said. “The security system isn’t registered with any particular company, so I’ll have to see what we’re dealing with once we get there. We should have plenty of time to get things done. It’ll take a while for the authorities to go through all the legal channels and see that the company that owns Standridge’s house also owns the building where his lab is.”
Gabe took a smooth right off Harvard Street onto Trowbridge and looked for a decent place to park the car. Things would be a little trickier in this neighborhood. The buildings were closer together, and more people roamed the streets since it was so close to the college.
He was in luck. An apartment complex sat to one side of Standridge’s building, and a pizza place sat on the other. Both of the parking lots were packed with cars. Gabe pulled his car into the apartment building complex and parked in the last row. The dense groupings of trees that could be found on every street divided the lots and provided ample cover.
“How do you want to approach?” Grace asked.
“I don’t suppose I could get you to stay here and cover me, could I? I’ll be in and out in ten minutes.”
“Like hell, Gabe. Don’t try to keep me out of the loop. I’m fine and I’m functioning.”
He gave her a long, studying look, but she made sure her emotions were tucked deeply away. “Fine,” he said. “Let’s go.”
He grabbed a windbreaker from the back seat and pulled it on so his weapons didn’t show, and she caught the second one he tossed in her direction. She pulled her black ski cap on to cover her hair and tucked away the stray wisps. Gabe grabbed his backpack and walked in the opposite direction of Standridge’s building.
She followed him into the trees and behind the apartment complex, where a narrow alley housed dumpsters and empty boxes. It dipped lower in the middle for drainage and was cracked and uneven in several places. They stopped when they reached the back entrance to the lab.
