“Let’s see what they left for us to find,” Boone said, striding toward the goods.“We don’t know if they contain explosive material,” he cautioned.
“Understood.”
There was a stack of boxes at the front, and Boone reached up and eased one carefully to the warehouse floor.He hastened a glance at her from the corner of his eye.“See?It pays to have someone bigger than you here.”
Radley rolled her eyes.
The corner of Boone’s mouth curved up, but he didn’t comment.“You want to do the honors?”he asked, raising an eyebrow.“Ladies first and all that,” he said with a smirk.
Pulling a utility knife from her cargo pants, Radley crouched down beside him.“Such a gentleman,” she said.
“Haven’t gotten any complaints before,” he drawled, looking far too amused by their bantering.
Being so close to Boone once more, she could breathe in his musky scent and feel the heat radiating off his big frame.Much to her dismay, everything about him was sexy.Those broad shoulders.The scruff on his strong jaw.Even the way his deep voice wound its way through her.The guy had some raw sex appeal.By the few once-overs that he’d given her, Radley could tell Boone was attracted to her as well.Not that a thing would come of it.
For a flash, she thought about how wild her life was.While she’d had a desk and cubicle back at the agency, she spent little time there.Radley was a woman more comfortable out in the world, making things happen.Getting shit done.She sensed Boone was similar.No one who spent long hours training with his teammates or in position as a sniper would be content to stay indoors from nine to five, typing on a keyboard all day.
And now they were literally searching the warehouse of a homegrown terror cell.
Edging the blade of her knife beneath the top of the first wooden crate, she pried it open.“It’s materials for making explosives,” she breathed, letting out a shaky breath as she peered inside with Boone.“You think they filled every box with this stuff?”
“Nah.Too risky.They’re probably filling the crates as they ship them out.”
“So why are these stacked here already full?”
The realization dawned on them both at the same time as they exchanged a glance.“These are ready to go,” he said, his voice a low murmur.“Son of a bitch.We should try to track them.”
Radley nodded, her mind a whirl of thoughts.“Agreed.We’ll have to go back to headquarters.I don’t have any tracking devices with me.But this....”She trailed off, looking up and counting the boxes.“This is a lot more than would be needed to attack the targets that we’re aware of.And the sites in New York?There’s another weapons cache hidden somewhere outside the city.I doubt any of this is meant for the East Coast.”
“It’s a hell of a lot more than I expected to find,” Boone agreed.“Which begs the question—where are these being sent?”
Thirty minutes later, they still didn’t have many answers.They’d carefully opened a few boxes, photographing the evidence before repackaging them.While they could call in the Feds to confiscate all the materials, they still hadn’t gotten more clues as to the identification of all the perpetrators.Seizing the materials here would only stop part of the plot.There were other weapons caches and targets out there, and neither of them wanted to risk seeing the big picture by playing their cards and stopping this part of the terror cell too soon.
Boone got Holt on speakerphone.
“Leave the boxes as they are,” Holt ordered.“The Feds want us to ID the entire terror cell.If we move in now, they’ll scatter like roaches and plot something else.I want to cripple these assholes and send them all to rot in jail.Let’s set up surveillance to watch the warehouse in addition to tracking the goods.I want photos of the men coming and going.We need to see exactly who is involved in this.”
“What about the cabin?”Radley asked.
“You said it was empty.”
“Affirmative.”
“Then we’ll focus on this location for now,” Holt said.“I want answers, so let’s make it happen.”
“Roger that, boss,” Boone said, ending the call.
They began to move the crates back to where they’d first found them.As Boone reached up to place one high atop the others, Radley’s gaze briefly locked on the muscles bunching in his arms.Damn.He was fit and virile.Gruffly handsome.And as wrong for her as a guy could be.Radley liked her independence.Taking care of herself.And a man like Boone wouldn’t ever be content to sit back and let her have her way.He was a guy who liked being in charge.And her new colleague, definitely making him off-limits.
She glanced away before he caught her staring.“Surveillance and tracking devices will help determine the additional targets.This is a lot more than I expected to find.”
“We’re going to have to head back to headquarters to obtain the equipment.Want to ride in my truck or drive separately?”he asked.
The sound of a car door slamming outside had Radley jolting in surprise.“Shit.Someone’s here.”
Boone stacked the last box, then shocked Radley by grabbing her waist and guiding her toward a smaller storage room in the back of the vast warehouse space.They heard the door to the warehouse rattling as they ran, and she cringed.“They’re going to know we’re in here!”she hissed.
“Nah.We made it look like a pile of boxes fell over and blocked the entrance.”