Chapter Nineteen
He’d been tossed through the air when the blast went off and slammed into the brick wall. His body ached, but he did a quick check, finding no broken bones.
Melody!
Debris rained off him when he pushed to his knees. He reached out in the dark and when he felt a small foot, he crawled forward. “Melody? Are you okay?”
She groaned. “Grant? What happened?”
“Bomb exploded. I need to get you out of here. Are you hurt?”
“Don’t think so.”
He scooped her up in his arms, ignoring the various aches in his body, and made it to the sidewalk and fresh air. He almost crashed into Ethan Addison.
“What the hell, man? Are you two okay?”
“Yeah. Noah?”
“I’m fine,” he said appearing behind his brother. One arm was soaked in blood and he cradled it against his body.
“Can you take her? I need to go back for Mason.”
“I’ll get him,” Ethan volunteered.
“I know where he is.”
He handed Melody over as sirens wailed. He dashed back inside the burning building. Heat from the fire was intense and the inside was rapidly filling with smoke. “Mason!” No response. He took out his flashlight and scanned the area. He spotted his coworker lying on the ground, covered with bits of brick and drywall.
“Mason.” He dropped down and checked his pulse, relieved to find one beating strong. Blood trickled down from a cut along his hairline. The scent of smoke was strong and if he didn’t get Mason out soon, he’d die of smoke inhalation. He did a quick examination to make sure he didn’t feel any broken bones and then slid him up and lifted him in a fireman’s carry. Normally, carrying the big man wouldn’t be a problem, but his legs didn’t seem to want to work. He’d taken one step when a groan made him stop. Deanna. He’d forgotten about her.
“Help. Me.”
Mason was his priority. He was an innocent victim. Deanna was anything but. She had brought the bomb that caused the destruction. “I’ll be back to get you.”
It was precarious navigating the fallen debris in the dark. He was close to the door when Ethan rushed inside to help with Mason.
“Melody?”
“Wanted, no ordered, me to put her down.”
For the first time all night, Grant smiled.
Two firemen met them at the door. He absently wondered if it was the same crew who battled the blaze at Melody’s house earlier in the day. “There’s a woman inside. On the right about twenty feet, under some debris. Semi-conscious. When you bring her out, make sure to find a cop to arrest her. She’s the bomber.”
The firemen nodded, tugged down their masks and rushed inside. Two paramedics met them with a gurney. They carefully loaded Mason on and they whisked him away. He still hadn’t woken up.
He heard a commotion and glanced up to see Noah arguing about going to the hospital. Melody marched over and with a pointed finger, ordered him inside the ambulance. He looked like he wanted to argue, but he wisely zipped his lips and climbed inside.
Melody spotted him and rushed over. “Grant, are you okay? You’re bleeding.”
“Just a few minor cuts.”
She turned him around to check out his backside. He started to make a snide comment, but she screeched, “That’s too much blood for just a cut.”
She grabbed for the buttons on his cargo pants, but he stilled her fingers. “Mel, honey, we’re in public. I mean, I’m not against a little PDA—”
“You’re bleeding,” she growled. “You might have been shot.”
He patted around on his right butt cheek and winced when something stabbed his palm. “Not a bullet. It’s a shard of glass.” Damn. First the road rash and now this. It’d been a bad week for his gluteus maximus. He was going to have a hell of a time sitting down.
“Leave it,” she ordered when he started to pull it out. “It’s plugging the hole. You need to get to the hospital now.”
“As do you, babe.”
“Do you know Noah was shot five times. Five! His Kevlar vest caught four bullets, but one went all the way through his arm.”
“The perp had an automatic, probably an AK-47. They spray bullets at a rapid clip.”
“What if he’d aimed higher?” Her voice broke on the last word and he eased her into his arms, resting his cheek against the top of her head.
“He didn’t, Mel. Noah’s going to be just fine. You can’t think that way.”
She sniffled against his chest. “A bomb, Grant. Deanna blew up my shop.”
His hands rubbed comforting circles against her back. “I know, babe. I’m sorry.”
Detective Frank Hurley approached him with a grim look. “We caught the shooter after a brief chase.”
Melody spun around, dislodging his head and causing it to jerk back. She clung to his side, one hand fisted in his shirt. “You got him?”
“He crashed his car and tried to flee. The pursuing officers managed to catch up to him and subdue him. After they cuffed him, they were leading him back to their squad car when a sniper took him out with a single tap to the forehead. Blew out his…uh, he’s dead.”
“Damn. I was hoping to get the chance to question him.” Not so much question as beat the hell out of him for trying to harm his girl. “Did you get a name?”
“Andrew Polk.”
The same guy who tried to run her over and he would bet his life savings the same man who ran her off the road and totaled her car. “Did they catch the sniper?”
“No. He’s in the wind.”
#
Melody drug her gaze around the area. It looked like a war zone. Pieces of glass and debris littered the sidewalk and street. Windows had been blown out of the surrounding buildings from the force of the blast. The bomb hadn’t gotten her windows though, an AK-47 had shattered them. Smoke hovered over the block like thick fog. The streets had been blocked off and emergency personnel were buzzing around the scene. Medics were working on people from neighboring buildings who had been injured in the explosion. Thankfully no one currently resided in the apartment above her shop.
Earlier, the firemen had carried Deanna outside on a backboard and placed her on a waiting gurney. Grant and Melody walked over as the paramedics worked on her. She was covered in blood and soot. She didn’t look good.
One of the firemen lifted his mask. “I don’t think you have to worry about arresting her,” he’d said in a low voice.
Melody’s heart had twisted. Deanna might have tried to ruin her business, but she’d been her friend once. She wanted her in prison, not the cemetery.
Deanna’s eyes had blinked open and she mouthed Melody’s name. Melody moved closer.
“S-sorry,” Deanna slurred. “Wasn’t supposed to be real.” Blood burbled out of her mouth, coating her teeth and lips red.
“What wasn’t supposed to be real,” Melody asked her. “The bomb?”
“Y-yes. Fake. Told me it was faaaake.” Her eyes rolled back and her head lulled to the side.
“She’s coding,” one of the medics called out.
Grant had grabbed her arms and pulled her to him as they whisked her to the waiting ambulance and sped away.
Now as she stood looking at what remained of her business, she felt numb. She wasn’t sad, she wasn’t angry. She felt nothing at all. That should probably worry her, but she didn’t have the energy to care. All her stock, supplies, ingredients, it was all gone. Incinerated in the fire caused by the bomb. Any additional supplies had been stored in her house, mostly in the garage, now a pile of rubble and ash. She had nothing.
It would take time to rebuild. The grand opening would have to be canceled and there was no way the infomercial could run when she had no bottles to sell.
Elliot Kingman’s offer flitted through her mind. Chem-Co had the resources and the supplies. They had personnel to assist. Elliot had said she would be completely in charge of the project. If she put a rush order on the packaging, she could be up and running again within the week. The infomercial could run as planned and she would still be on track.
Grant wrapped an arm around her and she melted into his embrace. He could’ve been killed tonight.
“What did she say to you?”
Melody refocused on the scene in front of her. “She said she was sorry and that the bomb wasn’t supposed to be real. She was told it was a fake.”
“Did she say who told her that?”
“She passed out before she could say anything else. Do you think she’s the one who set my house on fire, too?”
“Could be. Or maybe the person who gave her the bomb and told her it was bogus.”
“What if that was a lie?”
“She was in pretty bad shape. Most people confess when they know they’re dying. I believe she was in too much pain to lie to you.”
Ethan came charging over. “One ambulance, no waiting. Come-on, both of you. Time to go to the hospital.”
Mason, Noah and Deanna had already been carted away, along with two other people who’d been injured by the bomb. Grant helped her inside, and she scooted over on the gurney so he could sit next to her, but when he climbed in, he paused. She patted the mattress.
He scratched his chin. “I can’t really sit.”
She jumped to her feet, having forgotten about the shard of glass. “Lie down.”
He eased to his stomach and she moved to the bench. The paramedic clambered in and after securing a strap around Grant, he made sure she buckled up before the ambulance took off.
#
Grant hated hospitals. The smell, the sounds, everything worked together to make him want to run as far away as fast as possible. He’d been poked and prodded and stitched up, but no major damage. A numb butt was a new experience. They’d given him a shot to stitch it up. That’d been real fun. His behind had to look like a disaster zone. That made him chuckle. Perhaps they’d given him some happy juice in his IV. He’d have to remember to tell that one to Kai…dis-ass-ter zone. Though, his brows scrunched, Taylor would probably slug him for saying ass in front of the ten-year-old.
He wanted to get up and leave but Dr. Amelia Howell had insisted he have an IV to replace fluids. He was currently lying on his side, bored out of his mind, worried for Mason and waiting for Amelia to return and release him.
“Grant?”
“In here.”
Melody snuck behind the curtain and his heart picked up speed. She looked exhausted but so damn beautiful it took his breath. “How do you feel?”
“I’m not the one with an IV,” she remarked. “I’m okay, and I had to hurry in to tell you to prepare yourself. Your sis—”
Melody gasped when the curtain was ripped aside and Kaitlyn rushed in like a charging bull.
“Grant? Oh my God, are you okay?” Then she threw herself at him and he grunted. Ben and Luke came in behind her.
“Guys, I’m fine. Just a few stitches. There was no need for you to come here.”
Kait pulled back with a sniff. “You were bombed.”
“Hey, no tears. I’m okay—wait, Mason and Noah?”
“We don’t know,” Luke said. “We came to you first. Logan and Dan went to check on the others.”
Amelia walked in and if seeing his brothers and sister along with Melody crammed into the small examining area was a shock to her, she didn’t react. “You’ve had enough fluids, big guy, so you’re free to go. I went ahead and changed the bandages from the road rash and it’s healing nicely. Keep applying the ointment.” He started to get up. “Wait just a minute.”
“You said I could go home.”
“You can. Just as soon as the nurse takes out the IV.”
“Can’t you do it?”
She rolled her eyes, but she slipped on latex gloves and removed the needle. She placed a bandage over the spot and then pulled off the gloves and tossed them into a hazardous waste container. “Be careful when you sit. You’ll probably need an inflatable donut to ease the pressure.”
“Sure.” No way in hell. He’d endure the pain.
“How are Mason and Noah?”
“You know I can’t discuss patient details with you.”
“Doc…”
Logan and Dan stuck their heads inside. “How are you, G?”
“Good. What did you find out?”
“Noah’s good,” Logan said. “The bullet was a through and through and it missed bone, so he’s stitched up and on the way home. His ribs are severely bruised from the impact of the other bullets, but no cracks. Mason has a concussion and various cuts and scrapes. They’re keeping him overnight, much to his consternation.”
“Deanna?” Melody asked.
With a look of sympathy, Dan shook his head.
Melody gasped and covered her mouth. Grant wanted to feel sorrow, but the woman tried to destroy Melody’s business. Actually, she might have succeeded. With the total loss of the building, all her supplies were gone. And Deanna had tried to kill her. He’d rather she spent her life behind bars, but now she couldn’t harm Melody anymore. The bad news was that with her death, she couldn’t name her accomplice. She’d inferred as much when she said she was told the bomb was a fake on her death bed. She might’ve meant the person who created it, but more than likely, it was another person in on the attacks. Raine? She had the scientific knowledge and the means to build an explosive device.
Ben helped him dress and then after a visit to Mason, who was pissed at having to spend the night, they headed home.