King and Maxwell (Sean King & Michelle Maxwell 6)

Sean looked at him. “Did you really think we just came over to blow a lot of hot air and then let you walk? The FBI used our intel to do their deep dig. They have the evidence to nail you to the wall.”

“You’re lying,” barked Brown.

“Now you know how it feels, Curtis, to have your life ruined,” said Grant.

Brown turned to him. “Did you order the hit on Dana? Are you the reason she nearly died?”

“She was working with these two. And what did you do? Blab to the bitch about Wingo. That was the betrayal.”

“So you were just going to kill her? For that?”

“I’ve killed for a lot less than that. Just like right now.”

Sean said, “Grant, you don’t want to do this.”

Grant hadn’t noticed that Michelle had edged close enough to strike.

She hit him chest-high, her long, strong fingers clamping over the detonator, keeping the button pressed down. But Grant was also strong and agile. He spun around and threw her off. He had not anticipated the next attack, though.

Curtis Brown screamed and hit Grant so hard the two men flew backward and crashed right through a window, toppling into the front yard.

Sean grabbed Michelle from the floor, and they hurtled into the kitchen. He pushed her down and she landed on the floor and kept sliding. Sean threw himself forward and covered her body with his.

When the C-4 detonated it blew out the entire front of the house. The walls collapsed and the roof toppled downward. Glass shards and other debris thick as fists hurtled in all directions.

“Move, move, move!” shouted Sean. He grabbed Michelle’s hand and they burst out the back door, jumped off the deck, and ran across the back lawn. Sean gave her a leg up over the fence and then scrambled over it, too. He landed face-first in the grass on the other side at just the moment when the severed gas lines in Brown’s house erupted.

In a blazing flash the entire house was leveled. The explosion was so huge that it blew out windows in the houses next to Brown’s even though each was over a hundred feet away and there were stands of trees in between. The remains of the destroyed house quickly caught fire.

The fence Sean and Michelle were behind was impaled with glass and metal shards. Part of the top was sheared off.

Michelle helped Sean up. “You okay?”

He nodded, holding his hand at an odd angle. “But I think I fractured my hand,” he said.

She dialed 911 and reported the explosion.

“Is the FBI really on the way?” she asked him.

He shook his head.

She drew a long breath and leaned against a tree for support.

“Is this sucker over yet?” she said, in a husky, drained voice.

Sean shook his head.

“One more to go.”

CHAPTER

84

IT FELT LIKE THE LONGEST walk Sean King would ever have to take.

The hospital corridor was mostly empty. Michelle was not with him. She was waiting outside in her Land Cruiser. She had offered to come with him, but this was something Sean had to do by himself. He had fractured his hand when he’d jumped over the fence. It was in a soft cast. He would take that over getting his head blown off.

He turned down the last hall and proceeded to her room.