Chapter 20

Theo froze for what felt like a long minute before he turned, his gaze hunting the clock display on the microwave. It was 4:49 a.m. His lungs released in a relieved huff. Jules didn’t start until five, and she rarely got in more than five minutes early. She hadn’t been in there. She was fine.

“Bosco? You there? Bosco!” The lieutenant’s irascible tone echoed through his phone. “Damn shitty cell reception. Bosco!” The cell went quiet and then beeped, indicating that Blessard had ended the call.

Theo called Jules, listening to it ring as he turned to tell Hugh and Otto what was happening. The other men were already moving—Hugh toward the back door to grab Lexi from the yard, and Otto to the front, where his squad car was parked. The robotic voice of Jules’s generic voice-mail message began reciting her number, and Theo impatiently waited for the message to end before he clipped out, “It’s Theo. Call me as soon as you get this.”

“Was that LT?” Otto asked as Theo hurried after him, catching the door after Otto pulled it open.

“Yeah. The first call, at least. Norman Rounds was shot at the diner.”

“Got that from dispatch.” As they separated, heading toward their respective cars, Otto called over his shoulder, “LT give you any details?”

“Just that Rounds is alive, but barely. He wants us to check for explosives before the crime scene team goes in.” Theo climbed into his squad car and fired the engine with one hand while he called Otto on his cell with his other. As soon as Otto answered, Theo started talking like there’d been no interruption of their conversation. “LT thought it’d be a good retraining opportunity for Viggy.” The dog sat up in the backseat at the sound of his name.

“Good idea.” Otto took the abrupt start to the call in stride. “Who’s in there this time of day? Megan?”

“Yeah. Maybe Vicki, unless she’s running late like usual.” Although it felt slightly stalker-like, Theo had developed the habit of driving by the diner on his way to work—or from work, depending on his shift. If he timed it right, he’d see Jules hurrying into the diner. Megan’s Volkswagen was usually there, but Vicki’s motorcycle was generally absent until she roared into the lot a few minutes after five.

“Not Jules?”

“Not Jules,” Theo repeated firmly, trying to reassure himself as much as Otto. There had to be a good reason why she wasn’t answering her phone. They would have already evacuated the building, of course, and the lieutenant would’ve told him if anyone else had been injured, but he hated that she was nearby if there was any possibility of danger. Although he didn’t want Megan or Vicki to be harmed in any way either, Theo couldn’t stop obsessing about Jules. He’d feel better when he got on scene and was able to see that she was safe.

And she would be safe, he told himself as he called her again. Of course she would be safe. He couldn’t consider any other option. He just wished she’d answer her damn phone.

By the time he’d pulled up to the diner a few short minutes later, he’d left three more messages on Jules’s voice mail. Before getting out of his car, he shot her a quick, Call me now text, and then rushed over to the lieutenant.

“Everyone’s out?” Theo asked.

Blessard gave him an are-you-insane look. “What are you going on about, Bosco? Of course we’ve cleared the building.”

“Good.” Theo scanned the parking lot as he spoke. The rising sun had painted the sky red behind the mountains, silhouetting the patrol officers working on setting up a perimeter. “I’ll—”

His words and heart stopped at the same time when he saw the Pathfinder sitting on the far side of the lot.

“Where’s Jules?” he demanded as he frantically searched for her among the small crowd of people milling around outside of the perimeter.

“Who’s Jules?” Blessard asked, but Theo was already jogging toward the SUV. “Bosco! Get back here!”

Theo was so focused on the Pathfinder that he barely heard his lieutenant’s yell. Before he even reached it, he knew it’d be empty. The second he’d spotted her SUV, he’d known in his gut that she was inside the diner. Why, though? Why hadn’t she been evacuated? Turning, Theo saw Blessard had followed him.

“What’s going on?” the lieutenant demanded. “Is there someone still inside?”

“Jules.” Just saying her name made his stomach cramp with fear. “Julie Jackson. She’s a waitress here. That’s her vehicle. Who cleared the building?”

Instead of answering him directly, Blessard turned and shouted at one of the uniformed officers erecting a traffic barrier across the entrance to the diner’s parking lot. “McNamara!” The cop lifted his head. When Blessard waved him over, McNamara started walking toward them. Unable to stand still, Theo strode to meet him.

“You searched the diner?” At the other cop’s nod, Theo continued hammering him with questions. “Was there a woman in there—early twenties, dark hair, about five-four, one-twenty-five?”

“Uh…no, sir,” McNamara stammered, clearly intimidated. “No one was in there—except Rounds, of course.”

“You checked everywhere? Bathrooms, kitchen, closets?”

Even before he answered, McNamara’s shamefaced look told Theo what he needed to know. “Well, I…I looked around and called out.”

Whirling around, Theo jogged for his squad car. His heart was pounding, and there was a buzzing under his skin.

“Now what are you doing, Bosco?” His lieutenant sounded cranky, as usual, but there was a note of worry underlying his voice. Theo had worked with Blessard for years, and his LT knew him, knew that Theo was not likely to overreact. In the past few months, the problem had been that Theo wasn’t feeling anything, and he faced every situation, dangerous or not, with the same impassive facade. Theo’s reaction now was akin to another officer’s hysterical screaming, so Theo didn’t blame Blessard for his concern.

“Grabbing Vig,” he said. “If it goes well, he’ll let me know if we have any explosive materials to worry about. If it doesn’t go well, he’ll at least help me search for Jules.” Opening the back of his car and attaching the leash snap to the middle ring on the dog’s harness, the spot that told Viggy it was time to work, Theo took a breath, trying to steady his breath—and heart and stomach and brain. “He likes her.”

“Sounds like he’s not the only one.” The lieutenant gave Theo a sharp look. “You okay doing this? If you’re not up for it, I’ll grab someone else. No shame in being too involved to keep a clear mind in the field. That’s what your partners are for.”

Even though Blessard’s words were well meaning and considerate—at least for him—Theo felt a flare of impatience. If there was any chance that there were explosives in the diner, he needed to get in there and get Jules out—now. “I’m fine,” Theo snapped, and then softened his tone with an effort. “Thanks, LT.”

Blessard studied him. After a second that felt like an eternity, the lieutenant gestured toward the diner. “Go get her, then.”

The command released his legs, and Theo grabbed Viggy’s plush penguin from the front passenger seat, jammed it in one of his BDU pockets, and jogged toward the diner. As if he knew something important was happening, Viggy trotted at his side rather than being hauled behind.

“Please find it,” Theo muttered under his breath, sending the dog a sideways glance. Even though they’d had a breakthrough, they didn’t have anywhere close to a solid partnership yet. And they need that to help Jules. “If there’s something to find, find it. And help me find her before something bad happens. Please.” Viggy glanced up at the sound of his voice, wagged his tail a single time, and then faced front again.

Pushing the door open, Theo set his jaw. He’d let Don down when the other cop had needed him, and now Don was dead. He wasn’t about to do the same to Jules. Whatever her secrets, there was something between them, something new and exciting and incredible. He was going to keep her as long as he was able, and even a bomb wasn’t going to stand in his way.

Glass crunched under Theo’s boot, and he bent to pick up Viggy so the dog wouldn’t cut his unprotected paws.

“Here we go,” Theo said.

Carrying his new K9 partner, Theo stepped into the diner.

* * *

Jules woke with a start, going from unconscious to conscious in one painful jerk of her head. She opened her eyes, but it was still dark. For a moment, she wondered if she’d lost her sight, and then reason set in again. She was just in a dark room. A dark, cold room. When she tried to move her hands, she felt resistance, and metal clanked against metal before pain radiated up her arms.

A greenish glow across the room was familiar, and she blinked blurry eyes a few times to bring it into focus. The glow-in-the-dark shape was the emergency release handle she’d yanked off when Vicki had trapped her in there. Megan must have fixed it. That and the cold that had already seeped into her skin and muscles and was working on chilling her bones made her realize exactly where she was. Sherry had knocked her out, dragged her into the cooler, and handcuffed her to a shelf.

Panic started crawling under her skin, and Jules forced it back, taking long, shaky breaths until she could think again. She couldn’t allow herself to freak out. All that would do was waste time and ruin any possible chance of getting out of there. Despite her pep talk, she could feel the irrational fear building, pushing against her lungs and not letting her get enough air.

Breathe, she told herself, biting the inside of her cheek until the pain shocked her out of her panic. There is plenty of oxygen in here. There is nothing to be scared of. Sherry and her gun were gone, and Jules was still alive. The worst was over.

Why, though? If Sherry wanted to make Theo pay, why hadn’t she shot Jules, killed her? Jules had been unconscious, at Sherry’s mercy. Why wasn’t she dead? As nauseated as this thought made her, Jules forced herself to think, to figure out what Sherry was planning.

Her gaze settled on the cake box, the same box Sherry had brought into the diner. Her mind jumped to the barn, to the reverberations of the explosion shaking the ground, to the leaping flames consuming what little was left of the building. Jules couldn’t take her eyes off the innocuous-looking box.

“Crap.”

* * *

“Jules!” The lowered blinds cut off all the rays from the rising sun, so only the low lighting kept it from being pitch-black inside the diner. His gaze hunted for Jules even as he moved away from the broken glass and lowered Viggy to the floor. “Jules!”

There was no answer. He needed to find her. First, though, he needed to find the bomb—if there was one. There was no sense running around, blindly searching for Jules and getting all three of them—Jules, him, and Viggy—blown sky high in the process.

“Search.”

Viggy stared at him, crouching a little, his tail starting a slow descent between his legs. As the dog’s tail lowered, so did Theo’s hope. He crouched in front of Viggy and slid his hands over the furred head and down to his scruff. Theo buried his fingers in the fur and loose skin on either side of Viggy’s neck.

“C’mon, buddy.” He laid his cheek flat against the top of his dog’s head, felt the ridge of his skull and the movement of his heavy, nervous panting. “I know I don’t deserve it, that I’ve sucked as a partner. Do it for Jules, though—for Jules and Sam and Ty and Tio and Dee, okay? They need you to come through for them right now.”

He lifted his head to see Viggy in almost the same position, although he’d stopped panting. The dog stared as Theo stood, trying to pretend his legs weren’t shaking as he walked over to one of the booths and pointed to the side of the bench seat. “Search.”

Viggy didn’t move. The two stayed locked in their frozen positions, staring at each other, and a bead of sweat trickled down the side of Theo’s forehead to sting his eye. When the dog took a step toward him, Theo had to force himself not to jump. Instead, he stayed still, his pointing finger shaking with adrenaline and tension.

With each of the dog’s hesitant steps forward, Theo held his breath. Finally, finally, Viggy was close enough to touch. Theo didn’t put out his other hand, though. Instead, he remained locked in place, muscles quivering with tension, as Viggy, his partner, stretched to sniff the seat where Theo was indicating.

“Good.” The word came out in a shaky rush of relief—more than relief. “Good dog.” Theo moved to point at another spot, this time on the bench across from the first, and Viggy checked it but didn’t signal that he’d detected any trace of explosives. Steadily, they moved around the room, searching, and Viggy’s tail started to rise, then wag. By the time they reached the counter, Viggy was acting like he had when he’d played ball with Dee—a happy dog that loved what he was doing.

When Theo moved to point at one of the cupboards lining the wall behind the counter, Viggy didn’t follow. Instead, he stayed by the door to the kitchen, looking at Theo and dancing impatiently.

Theo didn’t hesitate. He shoved open the door and let Viggy into the kitchen. Without waiting for any direction, the dog moved quickly through the kitchen, heading directly for a heavy door in the wall, snuffling along the bottom.

It took Theo a few seconds longer to weave through the workstations, shelves, and bins to get to the door. He yanked on the handle. At first, he thought it was locked, but then the heavy door reluctantly released its seal and opened.

Cold air flowed out of the small, dark room, and Theo reached for the flashlight on his belt as Viggy rushed inside.

“Viggy? Is that you? Theo!” It was Jules’s voice coming from the shadowed corner of the cooler.

Utter relief flowed through him at the sound, and he directed his flashlight so he could see her huddled form. He took what felt like his first full breath since spotting her Pathfinder parked outside. “Jules, what are you doing in here?”

“Hugh’s crazy-pants no-longer-possible-future girlfriend shot Norman and locked me in here!” Although she huffed a laugh, it sounded more than half-hysterical.

He frowned, confused, and felt for the light switch on the wall outside the cooler. “Who?”

“Sherry!”

His hand froze before his finger could push the switch to the “on” position. “What? Sherry? She’s not Hugh’s girlfriend.” Of all the ricocheting thoughts in his head, that wasn’t the one he’d expected to come out. “Did you say she locked you in here?” He turned to inspect the door he’d just opened. “It’s not locked.”

“No, but these handcuffs attached to this shelf sure are.” There was a rattle of metal against metal, and Theo jerked out of his paralysis. Grabbing a nearby bin, he yanked it over, wedging it against the frame so the door wouldn’t close.

“Let me see,” he said, sweeping the beam from his flashlight across the floor in front of him as he crossed to the back of the cooler. As he got closer, he fanned the light across her feet and then her legs, bent in front of her as she sat on the floor. She twisted her face away from the glare of the flashlight.

Theo frowned. Viggy was sitting next to her, as he’d expected, but he wasn’t focused on Jules. Instead, he was facing the opposite shelf, every muscle in his body alert, staring at a cardboard box on the second shelf.

Viggy wasn’t just sitting. He was signaling. There were explosive materials in that box.

“Good boy, Vig!” Theo praised, trying to force his voice to sound pleased, rather than panicked. His fingers were numb as he dragged out the stuffed penguin from his pocket. “Good dog!” After the shortest game of “tug” in the history of domesticated dogs, he tossed the penguin through the cooler door into the main kitchen. Viggy bounded out of the cold space after it.

Theo looked at the top of the box Viggy had been focused on, but the flaps were folded over tightly. “What’s in this box, do you know?”

“Sherry brought the box into the diner with her.” Jules’s voice was thin and high.

“Sherry brought it?” His brain was refusing to make connections, to draw lines between facts and reach conclusions. How could he accept that Sherry, Don’s surviving daughter, had shot a man and then locked Jules—his Jules—in a walk-in cooler with a bomb?

Pulling a pen from his pocket, Theo stepped over to the box that had held Viggy’s interest. He gingerly lifted one of the flaps just enough for him to point the flashlight into the box. As soon as he saw the wires, his last hopes that it was all a misunderstanding dissolved, and he lowered the flap carefully.

Jules shifted, drawing Theo’s attention in time to catch her wince. “These cuffs hurt. Do you think you can get them off?”

“Let me see,” he said, crouching next to Jules so he could shine the flashlight on her bound wrists. He needed to get her out of there, away from the bomb. Anger built in him as he ran his finger along the edge of the cuff where it dug into Jules’s skin. Sherry hadn’t bothered to double-lock the cuffs, so they’d tightened to the point that they were cutting off circulation to Jules’s hands. Moving as fast as he could without scaring Jules, he pulled out his handcuff key and tried to fit it in the lock. “Fuck.”

“What’s wrong?”

“These cuffs are an off-brand.” He resisted the urge to swear again, and maybe throw something. “My key won’t work on them.”

“Oh.” Her voice came out small. “How can I get out of them, then?”

“We’ll get Fire out here with one of their cutting tools and snip that chain. Once we get you outside, they can work on taking off your new bracelets.” He turned on his portable radio. After the initial beep and two seconds of silence, Lieutenant Blessard’s voice echoed through the walk-in cooler. From his tone, which was just short of a yell, Theo had a feeling Blessard had been trying to reach him for a while.

“…your status? Goddammit, Bosco, turn on your fucking radio and tell me if you’re alive or not!”

Theo rattled off his unit number. “Can I get someone from Fire to meet me at the front entrance with some heavy-duty bolt cutters? Something that’ll cut through a cuff chain.”

“Fire Rescue One copies,” a new female voice responded over the radio, a siren echoing in the background. “We’re three minutes out.”

The lieutenant spoke again. “I’ll send them in as soon as they arrive. Where are you in the building?”

“Negative!” Theo snapped, and then repeated more calmly, “Negative. Do not enter the building. I will meet you at the front door to get the cutters.”

After a momentary pause, Blessard asked in a controlled voice, “Did the dog find something?”

With a quick glance at Jules who, even in the dim light, Theo could see was looking more and more terrified, he muttered, “Affirmative.”

“Get out now, Bosco.”

“Working on it, LT.” When Jules made a small, scared sound, he crouched down next to her again and cupped the back of her neck in a clumsy attempt at comforting her. He vowed to himself that he would get her out. Whatever it took, he’d get her out alive. “I’d recommend moving the perimeter back another two hundred feet.”

“Out now, Bosco! The bomb squad is on its way.”

“That’ll take too long. It’s an hour drive, and I bet they haven’t even left Denver yet.” The lack of response confirmed it. “All three of us will be out as soon as possible.”

The silence that time was even heavier, but all Blessard said was, “Copy.”

Viggy trotted back into the cooler and dropped his penguin next to Theo’s right foot, then looked at him expectantly.

Trying to keep calm, Theo ran his gaze over the shelving the handcuff chain had been looped around. It was welded metal, and cutting or dismantling that would take longer than waiting for Fire to arrive and snip the chain.

“Fire’s on their way to the door.”

At Blessard’s words, Theo stood, grabbing the end of Viggy’s leash. “I’ll be right back.”

“Don’t.” Her mouth shook, and the flashlight beam reflected off the tears gathering in her eyes.

“I have to leave you for just a second,” he explained, guilt clawing at him at the misery on her face. “I’ll be back as soon as I grab the tool we need.”

“No,” she said, her voice catching on the word. “Don’t come back. Leave. I’ll wait for the bomb squad. Don’t sacrifice yourself for me.”

In response, Theo took her face in both hands and kissed her hard. “No. That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. Be right back.”

“But…” Her words sputtered out behind him as he left, tugging Viggy with him. There were a couple of figures shaped like firefighters in bunker gear silhouetted against the glass door. He lifted Viggy and sprinted for it, arriving just as they opened the door.

“Thanks.” He thrust Viggy into the arms of one of the startled firefighters and grabbed the long-handled cutters. “Take Viggy and get back.”

“Wait—what…” The fireman bobbled the dog, surprise keeping him from holding on. Viggy squirmed free, jumping out of the startled man’s arms. He darted back into the diner, nearly knocking Theo down on his way back inside.

“Fuck!” Theo grabbed at the dog, but Viggy slipped out of reach and tore behind the counter. Frustrated, Theo watched the end of his tail disappear. He moved to follow the dog, tossing back over his shoulder a final “Go!” to the firemen.

Shoving open the door to the kitchen with his shoulder, Theo almost tripped over Viggy as the dog slipped through the doorway with him.

“You decide now that you want to be around me?” he muttered, running through the kitchen toward the propped-open door of the walk-in cooler. Jules was staring fixedly at the box, tears running unchecked down her cheeks.

“Get out, Theo!” she cried. “It made a beeping sound. I think it’s going to blow up. Please go.”

As if to punctuate her words, a quiet tone sounded from the box. He turned toward it, not liking that noise. He was torn, not sure if he should see if he could diffuse the device or if he should just cut her loose so the three of them could run like hell.

He was no explosives expert. Although he’d been trained in the basics, it was mostly in identifying explosive components and learning the protocol. If he was told something was a bomb, then that meant he treated it like a bomb by evacuating and calling in the bomb squad. Disarming an explosive device was not his forte.

“Cut and run, then.” He turned toward Jules. “Lean forward.”

She obeyed, and he set the flashlight on the shelf next to where her hands were secured. He tried to maneuver the blunt head of the cutters so it could clip the chain, but the way Jules’s hands were linked to the shelving made it awkward.

“Pull your hands to your left, as far as you can.” This gave him another half inch of chain to work with. Sweat beaded on his face, even in the chill of the cooler. It stung his eyes and made it harder to see, especially in the dim and uneven light. He finally was able to ease the chain into the opening between the bolt cutter’s jaws.

The box holding the bomb gave another beep, making Jules jump. Her movement jerked the chain out of position.

“Jules.” He tried to keep his voice calm, although in his head, he was screaming. “Stay as still as possible.”

“Sorry,” she apologized in a small voice, moving her hands back to their original position. He lowered the bolt cutters again, working them around the chain until they were in position. “I’m really sorry if I get you killed, too.”

“Not your fault.” It was his. Once again, he’d been blind. Don, Sherry…who else was hiding their true desperation behind an amiable mask? He gritted his teeth as he squeezed the handles together. He’d missed the warning signs, and now Jules and Viggy could die.

The chain resisted, and Theo pressed harder, twisting the cutters from side to side until Jules gave a pained yelp.

“Sorry,” he told her, wiping the sweat from the side of his face onto his shoulder. “I can’t get a good angle.”

“No, I’m sorry.” Even in the bad lighting, her face looked too pale, almost green. “I’ll stop whining. Try again.”

Instead, he put down the bolt cutters and examined the chain. There was a small dent, but it wasn’t even close to being severed. The cuff around Jules’s right wrist had tightened even further, digging deeply into her flesh. A line of dark-red blood streaked the metal bracelet.

Theo swallowed a torrent of curse words. The cutters weren’t working. The way Jules was chained to the shelving prevented him from getting a good angle, one which would allow him to put enough pressure on the chain to cut it.

“Plan B,” he said, running a gentle finger over Jules’s purpling wrist and turning away. He was just going to have to use his rudimentary explosives knowledge and disarm the bomb.

No problem.

“Plan B?” Jules sounded a little panicky, but Theo figured she’d earned it. So far, she’d been pretty calm for a person chained in a walk-in cooler with a beeping bomb. “What’s plan B and how quickly can it get us out of here?”

“I’m just going to shut this thing down,” he said, still trying to use his calm voice. As Hugh and Otto had both told him many times, however, comforting people was not part of his skill set.

“Okay.” Her voice was higher-pitched than normal. “That sounds good. Shutting it down would be very good, especially if you can do that before it blows up.”

“Yeah.” He snorted, shocked that he could experience even a second of amusement, considering the situation. “That would be good.”

Using the same pen as earlier, he lifted the flaps slowly, one at a time. There were so many ways to trigger an explosion. Even removing a cardboard tab inserted in the electrical switch could set it off. Once he’d managed to get the box open, he blew out a slightly shaky but thankfully silent breath.

It was a good-sized bomb, homemade by the look of it, and the blasting cap was obvious. This would be simple. All he’d need to do was disconnect the blasting cap, and there would be no explosion—at least until the bomb squad took it away and did a controlled blast.

He pulled his multipurpose tool out of his BDU pocket and reached toward the box, but then paused, his hands hovering. The position of the blasting cap bothered him. It was too obvious, too glaring—almost like someone wanted him to find it.

There had to be a secondary one, one that would be triggered if the current running through the first was cut off. With the flashlight in one hand and the tool in his other, he gingerly moved aside wires, peering into the depths of the box to the piece of plywood at the base.

There! Almost hidden by the bundled explosives, a second blasting cap was tucked in the shadows, deep in the box. He kept searching, looking for a third, but he couldn’t find any more. If he could remove the second one from the circuit—assuming there weren’t any motion sensors or other traps—then he might have a chance of disarming it.

A bone-deep tremor vibrated through him. If he screwed up again, if he made a mistake that cost Jules and Viggy their lives, killed them just because they were connected to Theo… The thought was unbearable. Glancing over his shoulder, he couldn’t resist a final look at Jules. As bruised and scared and mussed as she was, Jules was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Viggy sat next to her, his eyes on Theo, that silly penguin at his feet. For them, for these two who, for whatever misguided reasons, loved him and trusted him, he’d do this. He’d fix it, fix what his mistakes and inattention had caused.

Pulling out the wire cutters in his multipurpose tool, he took a deep breath and reached in with surprisingly steady hands. The beeping had accelerated, making his heart pound in sync with its rapid rhythm. This was it. He detached the hidden cap, carefully snipping it clear. As he squeezed the handles on the wire cutters, he held his breath, half expecting that disconnection to trigger an explosion.

Instead, the beeping stopped.

All remained silent. Letting out a harsh breath, Theo removed the hidden blasting cap from the box, placing it on a shelf as far from the explosives—and him—as he could reach. He disconnected the first cap he’d noticed, again waiting for the boom as his cutters sank into the insulated wire. The beeping had stopped, but Theo didn’t know if he’d successfully disarmed the bomb.

“Did you do it?” Jules whispered, as if a too-loud voice might set off the explosives.

“Think so.” He returned to crouch by her feet, picking up the bolt cutters again. “But we should get out of here anyway.”

Jules huffed a half laugh. “I’m all for that plan.”

Theo slid the tool next to her hip, reaching the handcuff chain from underneath. With this new angle, he was able to get a better grip with the cutters. Pulling the long handles together, he made the heavy blades bite down on the links until the metal parted with a snap.

With an inhaled gasp that sounded very close to a sob, Jules threw her arms around his neck and hugged him, hard. The remains of the handcuffs dug into his upper back, but Theo didn’t mind. It reminded him that he was alive—and so was Jules. Something damp touched his arm, and he looked down to see Viggy trying to insert the bedraggled penguin into their embrace. Theo dropped a hand to the dog’s head and rubbed his ears.

“Let’s get out of here,” Jules said, her voice muffled against his chest. With a glance at the bakery box that held such deadly contents, Theo gave that plan his enthusiastic agreement.

“Agreed. Let’s go.”