Even if Chris hadn’t recognized David, Noah had to wonder if Chris would have met with some accident later. Clayborne was not who Chris was. He wouldn’t have joined a team that didn’t value human life. He wouldn’t have agreed to do some of the missions they likely accepted from the government. There had been some things Noah and his team had to do while in the Army that they didn’t agree with, but there had been nothing they could do about it. They’d had to follow orders. Out of the Army, they finally had a choice. Chris would have chosen to walk away. But would Johnson have let him?
There were no answers to those questions, so Noah shoved them aside. He was there to do a job. To get justice for Chris and Paul.
Heading to the circular concrete pillar closest to the center of the room, Noah pulled out his roll of duct tape and another homemade device from Rowe. He did not ask how the man had gotten his hands on several pounds of C4. He truly didn’t want to know. The knowledge of how to effectively create a bomb using the explosive material had undoubtedly come from his years in the military. Noah had learned how at one time, taught by the squirrely redhead, but he was sorely out of practice and hadn’t wanted to help make the bombs. But he’d watched Rowe and it was slightly terrifying to see him working with such ease and confidence with the stuff.
It was painfully clear that even after living together for nearly three years, there was still a lot he didn’t know about Rowe that happened between him leaving the Army and Noah’s appearance in his life again.
Again, more questions without answers, but at least he felt like he could implement some kind of sexual torture at a later date and get the information out of Rowe. Okay, three years was definitely long enough to wait. He was going to start getting all the secrets out of Rowe, and they were both going to enjoy the process.
Once the C4 was attached to the column, Noah took a half-step backward. It would have been more effective to drill into the column and place the bomb inside the concrete, but they didn’t have the time or the equipment for something so elaborate. They had enough explosive material to bring the building down or at least weaken it so that it would have to be condemned. Either way, Erik and his goons were going to find themselves homeless.
Lifting his hand, Noah gritted his teeth at the sight of his shaking fingers. Not much rattled him anymore. Between his time in the Army and working for Ward Security, he really felt like he’d seen it all, but he had to admit that it had been a while since he’d worked with a bomb.
He cleared his throat and said, “Setting the first timer on the second floor.”
“Good to go,” Rowe replied.
“Good to go,” JB said.
Slowly releasing the breath he’d been holding, Noah pushed the button for the timer. His heart skipped a beat as he waited for the time to start its countdown from five minutes. Lifting his wrist, he synced his watch up to the bomb timer. They each had two charges to set, and then they had to escape the building, back to his Jeep. It didn’t sound like a lot of time but in reality, it felt like too much time in which things could go so very wrong.
Once he saw three seconds tick off, confirming that the timer hadn’t been damaged by the EMP, Noah walked across the floor to the second pillar that had been marked for a bomb. Using his duct tape, he attached it the column. When the timer on the first bomb was down to four minutes, he set the second charge. If they timed it just right, all six bombs would go off at exactly the same time, which should bring the building straight down.
Well, that was what they were hoping. Not a damn one of them knew anything about the exact science of imploding a building. Noah hoped it didn’t matter too much. The other buildings close to the Clayborne office were several hundred yards away and empty at this hour. The bombs were attached to critical load-bearing columns. It was highly unlikely that innocent people were going to be hurt.
Rowe, JB, and Noah, on the other hand…well, that was a different matter.
As soon as the second bomb was set, Noah paused to write TRAITOR on the wall and ran for the stairs. He didn’t know if anyone would ever see the spray-painted words, but he felt a cathartic joy in putting them there.
Above him, he could already hear the soft scrape of Rowe’s boots as he quickly descended. His lover would be on his heels at any second. JB should also be finishing putting his last bomb in place. They just needed to get out of the building and to the Jeep.