Page 86 of Fatal Mistake
“What?” Tara’s voice rang to the ceiling of her room before she controlled it. “Why?”
“There’s a woman wearing a bomb around her neck. If Cal hurries over to her, he can disarm the bomb and save her life.”
Tara’s mouth fell open. June didn’t know about the necklace bombs. Only the team and Tara knew. So who could have told June? Cal needed to know that word has gotten out, and he needed to know about the bomb call.
As Tara hurried toward the door, she asked, “Who told you about the call?”
“Oren.”
Tara’s feet stilled at the doorway. “You spoke to Oren. When?”
“He’s here at my house.”
No. Oh. No.
Fear for her aunt trickled down Tara’s back, and she couldn’t think straight. Cal would know what to do.
She turned the doorknob. “Another tech can handle the woman so Cal and I can come over there.”
“No! Don’t send anyone over here.”
“You’re making no sense. I’m going to get Cal right now, and we’ll be there soon.” She opened the door.
“Stop! Oren put a bomb around my neck, too.” The words came shooting out like a high-speed projectile.
Oren had put a bomb on June. June! Her aunt, the woman she loved.
“If you tell Cal and he shows up here, Oren will detonate it,” June added.
“But Cal needs to know.”
“Once you tell him, we both know he’ll rush right over here, and Oren will make good on his threat. Promise me you won’t say a word.”
June spoke the truth. If Tara told Cal about Oren, Cal would force Oren’s hand. But what else could Tara do?
She softly closed the door and sank onto a chair to think. To find a plan of action, but what? She wasn’t prepared to handle this alone. Not at all.
Think, Tara, think!
“Hello, Tara.” Oren’s voice slithered through the phone like an asp with its tongue ready to strike.
Oren. She was talking to Oren. The bomber. The killer. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Probably a good thing because she’d likely spew her anger at him.
“You must realize by now that I won’t hesitate to detonate June’s necklace if you don’t follow my directives.” He laughed, a high, pitchy, almost maniacal sound. “And the other woman…I will trigger her bomb, too. And if that’s not enough of an enticement to do as I say, she lives near an apartment building, so if her bomb goes boom, there will be other casualties. Who knows how many people will die if you don’t obey.”
Acid rushed up Tara’s throat, and she swallowed hard. “But you love June. You can’t kill her.”
“When you have a calling higher than yourself, sometimes others must pay even if you care about them.”
“No,” Tara snapped, and frantically tried to come up with a solution.
“Go ahead and be stubborn and stupid like you’ve always been, Tara. Your aunt and the others will suffer.”
“How do I know you’ve put the bomb on her? For all I know you’re holding a gun to her head and making her lie to me.”
“I thought you might ask about that, so I’m sending you proof.”
Her phone signaled the receipt of a text, and she tapped on the video he’d sent. June’s face filled the screen, an ugly white pipe wrapped around her neck. A skull and crossbones had been drawn on the front of the device with black marker, further ratcheting up Tara’s anxiety.
