Chapter Twenty-Five:
Brenna maneuvered around the collapsed wall and finally saw the two shadowy figures. There was another person or something shaped like a person lying on the floor. Jay, probably. And that meant that John and Leighanne were standing.
Did the woman have a gun, and was she holding it on John? Maybe Leighanne had managed to sneak up on him while he was trying to take care of Jay. Unfortunately, that was a good theory because neither of them was moving. Maybe that meant Leighanne had a gun pointed to John's head.
Brenna didn't call out John's name. She tried not to make a sound, just in case it wasn't too late to have the element of surprise on her side. With the wood strip gripped in her hand, Brenna charged forward. Only to come to a complete stop.
When one of the shadowy figures dropped to the floor. Her heart dropped, too and she heard herself cry out John's name.
"I'm okay." John told her.
She didn't believe him because her mind was still racing with so many thoughts of what Leighanne might have done to him. Brenna stopped and forced her eyes to focus in the darkness. She finally saw John. He was standing. But he was the only one of the three who was. Jay was on the floor to his left. He was moving, his chest pumping as if he were fighting for every breath. And directly in front of John was Leighanne. Not moving. Not breathing. Judging from her limp body, the woman was dead.
John heard Brenna yell for him, but before he could answer, Leighanne staggered forward and collapsed against him. She was shivering and clutching her chest. He saw the blood spatters on her clothes and face. God, what happened to her?
"What were you doing in what's left of that stairwell?" He asked. "You set the bomb, didn't you?" She moved her mouth, trying to speak. But it sounded as if she were drowning in gravel.
Brenna raced toward them, and he looked up to catch her gaze so she could see he was all right. The eye contact was brief because both of them turned their attention back to Leighanne.
"Jo—hn." Leighanne mumbled. "I'm sorry."
The last syllable had hardly left her mouth when she went limp. There was no final breath. No other sound. He saw the life drain from her body. John stood there, trying to absorb what's just happened and even after several long moments, he still didn't know what was going on.
How had Leighanne gotten onto the stairs of the service entrance? He'd had a man guarding them from the lobby since long before the explosion. Unless she'd slipped past earlier, and then…what? Set the explosion? That made sense. Well, it made sense as much as it could with Leighanne involved.
Brenna stopped and put her fingers to Leighanne's neck, checking for a pulse. She wouldn't find one. Leighanne had literally staggered out of what was left of the service stairwell and collapsed against John. She'd tried to speak. But John hadn't understood what she'd tried to tell him. That's because within moments after coming from that stairwell, she'd dropped dead.
"She's not breathing." Brenna whispered.
Her voice was shaky, and that gave John something else to be concerned with. All of this might launch Brenna into a panic attack.
"I thought she was going to try to kill you." Brenna said, standing.
"I thought the same thing." He touched her arm, just to let her know that he was there in case she needed him. "Leighanne must have been injured in the explosion."
She lifted her eyes to meet his. "So, you didn't do this to her?"
He shook his head. "I think she might have set the explosion. Maybe it went off before she could get out of here."
Brenna's breathe shuttered. "And if so, that means she was trying to kill us."
"Yeah."
John left it at that, because they both already knew she had motive. Though he'd never, never understand the obsession Leighanne had had with him. She'd endangered a child that she was partly responsible for creating simply so she could get back at him. Later, he'd try to terms with that, but right now, he had a more pressing matter. Jay needed an ambulance.
"Did you find the cell phone?" John asked Brenna.
"No. it's still back there by the suite door, somewhere on the floor."
He leaned down and checked Jay. Unlike Leighanne, his pulse was steady and strong. He was also unconscious. But judging from what Jay had told him right after John got to him, the man had some broken ribs. Maybe even a collapsed lung. If all that weren't bad enough, he was bleeding from a deep gash on his arm. He was losing way too much blood.
"You think you can put a tourniquet or something on Jay's arm?" John asked Brenna.
She nodded, though she didn't look certain. He could understand why. A dead woman. An injured man. This had to be giving her some serious flashbacks of the death of her parents. That's why he had to hurry. He didn't want her alone any longer than absolutely necessary.
John started to make his way in that direction when the lights came on. Not the overheads, but the smaller light sconces on the walls. Someone had obviously turned on the backup generator. And that gave John his first real look at what had happened.
It looked like chaos. There was debris everywhere, scattered along the entire length of the corridor. But only one guest room had been damaged. The one closest to the explosion. Thankfully, the impact hadn't gotten anywhere near the suite where Aidan was. He needed to get all of them out of the hotel. Even though the threat from Leighanne was over—permanently—he didn't know if the hotel structure had been compromised by the explosion. Plus, he didn't want Brenna and Aidan to have to be in this mess any longer than necessary.
John hurried past the debris. He needed that phone, though he was almost certain that by now someone in his crew or the hotel staff had called the police. Still, he could speed things up by requesting an ambulance.
He dug through the chunks of drywall and finally located the cell phone. He turned it on, staring at the screen, waiting until he could press in 911.
"John." He heard Brenna say.
He immediately heard the panic in her voice and wondered if this was all too much for her. He shouldn't have left her with Leighanne's body.
"I'm here." He said, standing so he could go to her. But John only managed a step before he stopped in his tracks.
Brenna was there, at the end of the corridor. Leighanne and Jay were still on the floor. But there was someone standing behind Brenna. And that someone had a gun pressed to her head.
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