The Reed Security Relationship Manual: A Reed Security Romance - Giulia Lagomarsino (best book club books of all time TXT) 📗

The girls were fine for now, but if Cole was in that truck, there was no way he was still alive. Cap raced to the driver’s side door, ready to rip it off its hinges, but the flames were burning too hot.

“Cap, get back!” I shouted, racing to the other side of the truck. I couldn’t see anything inside, but if anyone was in there, they were already burned up. I ran around to the other side, watching Cap panic as he grabbed his hair, on the edge of fucking losing it.

“No,” he shook his head. “No, this…it can’t be.”

“Cap, are you sure it was him?”

He swallowed hard. “That’s his license plate.”

The utter devastation on his face was crippling. I didn’t know what to say or do. All I could do was watch him.

“Cap! Over here!”

I spun around, seeing Craig point into the ditch. He climbed down as Cap and I raced over there. He was kneeling beside something, but we couldn’t see with the tall blades of grass that filled the ditch. Then he was pulling a body up and relief shot through me. It was Cole. He wasn’t in the truck.

Cap ran over to him, practically throwing himself into the man’s arms. It was a slight overreaction in my opinion, but what the hell did I know?

“What the hell happened?” Cap asked, looking Cole over.

Cole shook his head. “I was just following them like Knight asked.”

“Like Knight asked?” Cap shouted. “Why the fuck would he have you follow them?”

“Because he couldn’t. He had to stay with Kate.”

“Why would he need you to follow them? They were just going to a conference.”

Cole shook his head slightly. “You know Knight.”

And that was really all that needed to be said.

Chapter Thirteen

Cap

“What do you mean, Knight had you follow the girls? Why would he do that? We checked out the venue ahead of time. We had them follow a strict route that would have the least amount of traffic. Hell, we even checked out everyone that was attending first!”

Cole shrugged. “You know Knight is paranoid.”

“But why would you agree to do it?”

“Because Cara was going. I was a little worried about her freaking out, so I went along. But apparently, I didn’t have anything to worry about because she fired a fucking grenade at me.”

I did a double take, narrowing my eyes at him. “She did what?”

He huffed out a laugh, “Yeah, I saw the window open and a grenade launcher in her hands, and I bailed out. I didn’t even think twice about it.”

“You could have killed them,” Rocco pointed out.

Cole laughed. “They were the ones holding the grenade launcher. I’m just saying, it was either I dive out of the truck or be blown up. And today didn’t feel like a good day to get blown up.”

Sean had just pulled up, jumping out of his car and racing toward us. “What the hell happened?”

“You know,” I laughed humorlessly. “Just another day at Reed Security.”

“What did you get involved in this time?”

I held up both hands. “Nothing, I swear! This was a total freak accident.”

“Well, it wasn’t really an accident,” Cole grumbled.

“Is that your truck on fire, Cole?” Sean asked.

“It is.”

“And why is it on fire?”

“Oh, that would be the freak accident that Sebastian’s talking about.”

I rolled my head to the sky, praying for patience. “Look, let’s just go find out why they fired a grenade at you.”

“Whoa,” Sean stopped me, placing a hand to my chest. “What do you mean? Who fired a grenade?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” I spat, turning to walk back to the girls’ vehicle. Stomping over there, I could feel the tension in my shoulders with every step. Just once, I would like to have a normal day, where nothing exploded and no one got hurt. Was that really too much to ask?

The girls were all climbing out of the SUV, and Hunter was still checking them over as the ambulance pulled up. A bag fell out of the back, spilling the contents all over the pavement. Groaning, I rubbed at my face.

“What the hell is that?” Sean asked, picking up a black device. Examining it way too closely, I hid my smile when Cara chimed in.

“That’s my bullet. You know, my sex toy?”

Sean dropped it quickly, wiping his hand on his shirt. “Why are there sex toys laying on the ground?”

“Because we were coming back from a sex toy conference,” Cara said, her eyebrows raised in challenge.

“You were where?” he asked, anger seething off him.

“Alright,” I said, stepping in front of him. “Let’s all calm down. Sean, you already knew that the girls started this venture. Is it really surprising that they would go to a conference about them?”

He glared at the offending objects on the ground, and a few that seemed to be stuck to the windshield. In fact, as I looked past him, it seemed the whole SUV was littered with sex toys. Clenching my fists, I took a deep breath. I had bigger issues to deal with than the fact that it looked like a porn shop threw up on the road.

“How about we discuss what happened here.” I crossed my arms over my chest, using my most authoritative voice. “Why did you fire upon another vehicle?”

“Because we were being followed,” Emma piped up.

“Yeah, and we couldn’t lead them back to Reed Security,” Raegan said.

“So, we took them out,” Claire said excitedly. “Man, you should have seen it. It was just like the last time, flying down the road, the wind in our hair as we outran the bad guys. Of course, there were no railroad tracks to get stuck on. Thank God, am I right? I mean, that train barreling down on us last time was scary as hell. But to have the gun in my hands again, and feel that firepower thrumming through my body, it was like my best fantasies with Derek come to life. I mean, without the sex.”

She flushed bright red as we