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He took his pliers, said a prayer, and pulled one prong out of the explosive clay. Then he pulled the other out.
They were still standing, in one piece.
“Are you done?” she whispered.
“Almost.”
He couldn’t risk the prongs sparking, even outside of the C-4. Limited chance of exploding, but it was possible. He put the pliers down on the desk, then reached in and detached the device that was attached to the C-4 and removed it from the box. Put it down on the desk. The level was flat, the prongs sparked, and that was it.
“Okay,” he said.
“Okay?”
“Give me the box.”
“You’re not just saying that?”
He took the box from her arms and put it on the floor. “See? The C-4 is just clay now. It doesn’t spontaneously explode.”
“I saw those spark.” She looked at the desk.
“But they were no longer in the C-4.”
“It’s okay? Really?”
Kara had been a rock, but Michael just now realized how terrified she’d been. With all her jokes and flirting and banter, she was scared to death.
“I promise. You owe me a beer.”
She stumbled, and Michael caught her. She was shaking. She hadn’t been shaking when she held the box, but now that the crisis was over, she let it out.
“You have a lifetime of beer on me,” she said and spontaneously hugged him.
“You were amazing,” he said. “Not everyone could be that still for that long.”
“I didn’t want to die,” she said simply. “And I knew you would fix this.”
Michael liked Kara a lot—she was hot, she was smart, she was a great cop—but they’d had some heated arguments. About whether when they caught the Liberty Lake killer if Michael should have let him die—he couldn’t, he had to save him. But Kara had shrugged it off as if it didn’t matter.
He made his bed...
Then when they were both undercover, he didn’t understand how easily she could play a lie, pretending she was something she wasn’t. Lying to people she liked, even for the job. The lies he had to tell while undercover kept him up at night. Still did, sometimes.
He’d heard from Catherine of her concerns about Kara and her process and that she might put the Mobile Response Team in jeopardy. Catherine was certain Kara took unnecessary risks, and declared that her record showed a clear death wish. She had asked Michael to talk to Matt about Kara, that Kara wasn’t a good fit for the team.
And he’d been considering it. He liked Kara, he worked well with her, but some of what Catherine had said resonated because of his conflicts with Kara.
Yet, when push came to shove, there was no one else—other than Matt Costa himself—Michael would prefer to have his back. She was loyal, she was smart, and while sometimes she crossed lines Michael was uncomfortable even brushing against, she was a good cop. She’d risked her life during their case in Patagonia, but only for others. Not because she was a thrill seeker.
And she doesn’t have a death wish.
That was abundantly clear to him now.
Kara stepped back. She was still unsteady. “May I?” Michael asked, offering his arm in support.
She grabbed it. “We need what’s in that box.”
“I know. I’m going to let the ATF Bomb Squad remove the bomb components first, then it’s all ours. Let’s get out of here.”
