Shadow of a Doubt (Tangled Ivy Book 2) Read Free Page B

the floor in front of me. I followed his gaze. Saw nothing.
    “What is it?” I asked.
    He nodded toward my feet. “There’s a trip wire. Do you see it? It’s transparent. Difficult to spot.”
    I looked harder and after a few moments, I saw it. Barely two inches in front of my leg, it was a hair-thin wire that ran across the entry, but I couldn’t see what the ends were attached to. Not that it mattered. I was sure whoever had done this hadn’t rigged it so that balloons and confetti rained down on the one who triggered the wire.
    “Now what?” I asked.
    “Now we very slowly and very carefully retrace our steps out of here,” Scott said. “And I’ll call the bomb squad.”
    A bomb.
    Scott kept a tight grip on my arm, carefully leading us backward and out the door to the hallway. Moments later, he was on his phone and I heard sirens in the distance. He banged on Beau’s door, ordering him to take me outside and not let me out of his sight, then he began evacuating the rest of the building.
    The bomb squad came, along with a lot of other official-looking people, both in uniform and out of uniform. A few of them wanted to ask me questions, and Scott helped me field those.
    It was a friend’s apartment. No, I didn’t know where he was. No, I didn’t know who would have done that, and so on.
    “Hey, Lane,” a man called out, heading toward us. Scott turned as he approached. “Good job spotting that,” he said. “The wire was hooked to a bomb loaded with shrapnel. Guaranteed to kill anyone within a ten-foot radius and leave nothing but body parts behind.”
    A shudder went through me. I’d nearly set off that bomb. If Scott hadn’t seen it . . .
    “Any prints?” Scott asked, taking my hand in his and slotting our fingers together. It was reassuring and I held on much too tightly.
    “Doubtful,” the man said. “It was skillfully made and triggered. Whoever did that isn’t dumb enough to leave prints behind. But we’ll check.”
    “Thanks,” Scott said. “Has the rest of the place been checked out?”
    “Yeah. We’re giving the all-clear to the other residents now.”
    Scott led me by the hand back up into the apartment. I hesitated at the open door.
    “It’s okay,” he assured me. “If the guys say it’s clear, then it’s clear.”
    His obvious faith and trust in the competence of his friends helped ease my fear. We headed inside.
    I wasted little time in throwing clothes that were salvageable and other necessities in a suitcase. While it may have been safe, the devastation done to the apartment and the yellow police tape that now surrounded it were unnerving. I thought about leaving Devon a note, then discarded the idea. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t see that something had obviously happened. He knew how to reach me, if he wanted to.
    That last thought was bitter, and I realized that some of what everyone else saw in our relationship was beginning to sink in to me, too. I’d been terrorized twice today, by the same man that Devon knew was alive and who had betrayed him once before. Devon had barely spoken to me the other night, hadn’t even asked how I was doing or anything about my life. We’d had sex and he’d left after leaving the money on the counter.
    Speaking of which . . .
    I threw that in the bottom of my suitcase, too, piling my clothes on top of it. If I was going to be playing a cat-and-mouse game with Clive, then I might need that money.
    “Ready,” I said, rolling my suitcase into the kitchen where Scott stood, waiting.
    “Did you want to leave him a note or something?” he asked.
    I tipped my chin up a notch. “No. He’s a smart man. I’m sure he’ll figure it out.” I shrugged. “Or not. Perhaps his current fuck buddy will keep him too occupied for him to care what happens to me.”
    Scott’s lips tipped up in an appreciative grin. “Let’s go then.”
    Beau and his sixth sense had him popping out of his apartment again as we left.
    “You okay?” he