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“And I do owe you for the shot you took at me the other day.” He flexed his shoulder where the bullet had penetrated. “It was very clever of you to come at me from the water. I didn’t expect it. And clever is something you’ve always been, Eden. Which is just another reason it’s important for you to die first.”
“The minute you do he’ll gun you down like the dog you are,” she said coolly. “It’s worth the sacrifice.”
“Ahh, there’s where the problem comes in,” Salt said. “I’ve got nothing to lose here. The second my heart stops beating this whole area will blow. I’ve got this nifty heart monitor.” He pulled back the sleeve of his jacket to expose the flesh-colored pad and digital readout of his heartbeat. “And it’s connected wirelessly to enough TNT to take out a good chunk of this area the minute my heart stops beating.” He shrugged. “But either way, the two of you die.”
Nate caught Eden’s gaze and in it he saw the finality and acceptance of what was going to happen. There was a good chance that neither of them would come out of this alive.
He heard Cal and Atticus talking on the other end of the earbud, while Cal tried to figure out a way to disarm the bomb and get everyone out alive, but he knew they were worried. The calmer Atticus’s voice became the more worried he was.
“Eden,” he said, seeing in her eyes the sacrifice she planned to make. “Just trust me.”
She nodded once and looked back at Jonah. “If I’m going to die,” she said, “then I plan to drag you with me kicking and screaming.”
Salt let the gun drop down from his sleeve and into his hand, but Nate was ready for him. He shot him in the chest, just to the left of his heart. It was a killing blow that would have him bleeding out in seconds, but it would hopefully keep his heart pumping long enough for them to get the hell out of there.
Salt squeezed off two rounds as he crumpled to his knees, but they went wild.
“Run,” Nate yelled, sprinting as fast as he could for the snowmobile.
Nate grabbed Eden by the arm and pulled her with him onto the closest one. He straddled it and started the engine as she climbed on behind him. There wasn’t time to look back. His only thought was to go as fast as he could and get as far away as possible. He pressed on the accelerator and it took off, spraying snow up on both sides so it hit them in the face.
The sound of another gunshot seemed unusually loud over the engine, and he heard Eden whisper, “Oh, God.” Her arms tightened around his waist. “He shot himself.”
Nate pressed harder on the accelerator and they shot over an embankment. He could see the speck of Devil’s Mining Camp at the base of the hill and he leaned forward, hoping and praying they’d be out of reach.
Seconds was all it took for the earth to rumble beneath them as the bomb detonated. The snowmobile quivered beneath his hands and the ground trembled. The earth seemed to cave in on itself, starting from the bunker and rippling outward, disintegrating everything in its path as it widened.
“Faster, faster,” Eden chanted in his ear, leaning forward as if that would help with the momentum.
The sound of the explosion was delayed, and when it finally reached them the power behind it lifted them and the snowmobile and pushed them forward. They reached the bottom of the hill and sped through the narrow street between the buildings at Devil’s Mining Camp and shot through to the other side. Wood creaked and snapped as what was left of the buildings crumbled into piles of rubble.
And then, as suddenly as it began, everything stopped and the world seemed to go still. Nate skidded the snowmobile to a stop and turned to look at the destruction.
“God,” he whispered under his breath. Not twenty feet from where they stood was a crater in the earth at least the size of two football fields. There was nothing there but a gaping hole of darkness. Truly the end of the world.
“I think I need to tell you something important,” Eden said, still clinging to his waist. He didn’t want her to ever let go. That was much too close of a call.
“Yes, I think we should wait until our wedding night,” he said to lighten the tension. “But maybe we could find a priest tonight. Sleeping in close quarters with you is making me crazy.”
“Idiot.” She choked out a laugh. “I was going to tell you I love you.”
He turned to look at her and cocked a brow. “You can’t take it back. We just survived the End of the World.”
“Wait, she was serious about marriage?” Cal asked through the earbud. “No way is Nate getting married. He swore it off years ago.”
“Shut up, Cyph. I’d like to tell the woman I’m going to marry I love her without your help.”
“Buddy, you need all the help you can get,” Cal said. “Another good man down.”
“Maybe you could send out a helicopter to pick us up,” Nate said. “I’ve got important plans this evening. And I don’t want to be late.”
“Already on the way,” Atticus said. “Glad you both made it out. Oh, and Eden. Welcome to Dynamis Security.”
Nate took the piece out of his ear and tossed it into the snow, and then he pulled Eden into his arms and kissed her. The End of the World was a good place to start a future.
ChapterSixteen
Two months later…
