Page 56 of Burning Truth

Maybe we can meet and you can tell me about it. On the record or off the record. Either one.

Oh, I’ll talk to you soon enough, Addison.

Off to the left, there was a huge blaze of orange, and then a percussive blast rocked the van. Addie stared in horror as the stadium where they were heading blew up.

“Oh, my God,” she breathed.

Severn started yelling at Eric, and then they were bumping up over the curb and heading toward the bright blaze. They were driving through the grass of the school grounds, navigating around the lines of traffic. As soon as the stadium blew, other cars near the blaze started driving into the grass, and she saw a few people running. They were screaming and crying, and Addie could only hope that there was no one inside.

They stopped several hundred feet from the blaze, and she realized it wasn’t actually as big as she’d thought at first. It was a high school stadium, so there were bleachers with an announcer’s box up top, and a clubhouse down at the bottom. The clubhouse was the only thing burning now, but the bleachers had been destroyed. If there had been a game going on, many people would have been killed.

Unfortunately, the clubhouse was attached to the school, so if they didn’t get it under control…

There were two cops standing out in the paved parking lot. One was on his radio, and a female officer was helping an older man through the lot and away from the fire.

Her phone buzzed, and she gathered it from the floorboard where it had fallen as they’d jounced across the grass.

You owe me. I let them live. Next time I won’t be as nice.

Fury raced through her, and she set the phone down. If she responded to him right now, she might make it worse.

They made sure the cops were okay and that everyone was out of the stadium by the time the firefighters got there. Theclubhouse was still burning as Addie reported on the bomb threat that turned into the blaze. It was one of the hardest broadcasts she’d ever done, because she wanted to call Russel Dunn out, live, on the air. She was so pissed. But she couldn’t do that. She would not be responsible for sending him into hiding.

When she was done, Severn angled his phone toward her. It was from Detective Johnson. The undercover team spotted Dunn in the church bell tower a quarter mile away. They apprehended him on the Captain’s orders, and he was in possession of the remote that triggered the explosion.

Addie blinked at Severn. “They arrested him? It’s done?”

Severn shrugged slightly. “Looks like it.”

Addie burst into wracking sobs and curled into Severn’s arms. He held her tight and murmured into her hair that everything was going to be okay.

Severn didn’t havethe heart to tell Addie that it probably wasn’t over. There was no way Russel Dunn would have been caught if he didn’t want to be caught. Severn had a feeling that this was all part of an act.

And he had a feeling it involved Addie.

He held her until the storm of tears was over, then he wiped her face and pressed a kiss to her clammy forehead. “Are you okay?”

She nodded, though she seemed to do it automatically. Then she seemed to become aware of all the surrounding people. Some of them were probably taking pictures.

The building still blazed behind them, and it looked like it had started in on the school, but the firefighters were giving it everything they had.

“We should get the footage back to the station,” she said, her voice subdued.

“I’m not sure where Eric is.”

She snorted, and he was glad to see some life come back into her face. “Sometimes you have to remind him we’re on a timeline.”

Once they got everyone corralled back into the van, things were a little more normal. Dan was excited that Dunn had been apprehended, and they had to give Eric the highlights of what had been happening.

Ron seemed a little subdued as well. They trooped into the editing room, but Ron waved them off as soon as he saw them. “Take her home and make her sleep,” he told Severn.

Without argument, he turned Addie around, and they made their way out to his truck. She dozed off on the way home and only roused when they pulled into her driveway.

“I’m so tired,” she said wearily, and he could see it in her expression.

“I know you are,” he said, taking her bags from her. “Go get a shower, and I’ll be in after I lock up.”

She didn’t argue. Severn Locked up the house and set the alarm and went through the motion notifications on his phone. Mostly the breeze moving something outside the house. Then he headed upstairs.