Explosive Attraction by Lena Diaz Read Free Book Online Page A

understand.” She remembered to whisper this time, but her voice shook with each word. “What does that have to do with—”
    He waved her to silence again and crossed to the door. He put his ear against the wood, listening. Nothing,then...another shuffle, a shoe scraping across tile. Whoever was searching the rooms was maybe halfway down the hall. How many doors had he and Darby passed on their sprint from his room? Ten on each side, eleven? Twenty-two rooms to search. Not a lot when there was practically nowhere to hide in each room, other than under the bed or in the bathroom, maybe in the small closet behind each door.
    They were running out of time.
    He rushed back to her and tried to explain. “Daniels was assigned to guard you,” he whispered. “When the lights went out, he should have immediately gone into my room to check on you. That’s SOP, standard operating procedure.” He looked up again, mentally measuring the height of the ceiling. He could easily lift Darby up there. But how would he follow herup? He didn’t want to prop any furniture beneath the hole where they climbed up. That would be like a sign telling the bomber exactly where they were.
    “Should we call Buresh back?” Darby asked. “Maybe he forgot about this SOP thing.”
    “He didn’t forget, and there’s no point in calling him back,” he answered, only half paying attention to the conversation. There, the bathroom door. Ifhe pulled it closed, and braced his foot on the handle, then used the top of the doorframe for leverage, he might be able to pull himself up into the ceiling.
    “Why not?” Darby’s voice broke on the last word.
    Rafe forced himself to focus on what she was asking. “Buresh can’t help us, neither can Daniels.”
    “Why not? Why can’t they help us?”
    “Because, by now, they’re both dead.”
    * * *
    D ARBY STARED AT R AFE in horror. He’d just told her two police officers were dead, and now he was calmly holding out his hand, telling her to climb on his shoulders so he could lift her into the ceiling?
    The man was insane. And he was asking her to do the impossible.
    Climb into that black hole where he’d removed the ceiling tile.
    The thought of going into that darkspace, being cramped between the roof and the flimsy network of railings holding the tiles in place, had her stomach churning with nausea.
    “Darby, we have to go now.”
    She shook her head and backed up a step. She drew in a choppy breath, then another, and risked a quick glance up. No, she wouldn’t do it.
    She couldn’t.
    Rafe frowned and dropped his hand. “What’s wrong?”
    “I just...can’t...I can’t go up there. I can’t.” She ran to the door.
    Rafe grabbed her before she could open it. “We can’t go out in the hall,” he whispered furiously, his blue eyes blazing at her. “He’s armed. I’m not. It’s too risky. Our only chance is to go through the ceiling, but only if we do it now. ”
    “We can call Buresh. Maybe you’re wrong about him.”
    “Buresh told me to followSOP. That was his way of warning me he was under duress. If he could help us, don’t you think he’d be here by now?”
    He didn’t wait for her answer. He pulled her toward the end of the room beneath the opening in the ceiling. “We could wait here for help, but I’m not going to bet my life, or yours, that help will arrive in time.”
    As Darby stared at the small dark hole in the ceiling, herworld began to spin. Black dots swirled in front of her eyes and she had to sit on the floor to catch her breath.
    Rafe crouched beside her, a look of surprised understanding on his face. “You’re afraid of the dark, aren’t you?” His voice sounded incredulous. “Who would have thought a psychologist would be afraid of the dark?”
    She stared at the floor, deeply embarrassed. “It’s not justthe dark. I’m not...comfortable...in tight spaces.” She didn’t dare look at him again. She knew what she’d see—the same condemnation