“Stand up on the pegs,” he said. “Then swing your leg over.”
“Okay.” I put my hands on his shoulders for balance and swung my leg over the back of the seat. He held out his arm, and I grabbed onto it before stepping down, grateful I hadn’t fallen over.
He slung his leg over the bike a lot more gracefully, and pulled off his helmet. After shoving his hair back from his forehead, he turned to me, and I sucked in a breath. Holy hell… how did he get even more handsome?
His dark brow rose, and I realized I still had my helmet on. Reaching for the snap, I couldn’t seem to find it. Taking pity on me, he stepped close and pulled it apart.
“Thanks.” I tugged off the helmet and ran a hand through my hair, hoping it didn’t look too terrible. He took my helmet and set it on the bike with his before turning my way.
“See that alley at the back of the building?”
“Yeah.”
“There’s a window on the fourth floor, just above a fire escape on the west side of the building. That’s the room with the bomb. I’m hoping some of the debris might have shot out of the window and fallen into the alley. With the police still here, that might be our only way to find something you can touch.”
“Oh… okay, let’s go.” At least the police were on the other side of the building, so we should be okay to walk over there.
We hurried across the street and into the alley. “Where’s the window?”
Stone pointed to the fourth floor with the fire escape hanging off to the side.
“You came out that way?”
“Yeah, but the fire escape was still attached when I started down.”
“Sheesh! I’m amazed you didn’t fall.”
He huffed. “Yeah… it was close.” He turned his attention to the debris on the ground. Broken glass, a few bricks, and building material littered the alley.
“So are we looking for wires or something?”
He shook his head. “No… I’ll know it when I see it. But if anything stands out, go ahead and pick it up.”
I wasn’t sure this would work. I needed something a lot more concrete than a piece of the building. But I didn’t want Stone to complain that we were wasting our time. We spent several minutes combing through the junk, but nothing looked promising.
I found a piece of metal that could have been from a desk and picked it up. “What do you think this is?”
Stone came to my side and took it from me. “Looks like part of a chair. You get anything from it?”
I wrapped my hand around the metal rod and waited, but, after running my fingers over the entire surface, nothing came to me. “Sorry… I’m not getting anything.”
“Try this.”
He handed me a piece of wood, but I got nothing from that either. A second later, he picked up a pencil and handed that over. I took it, and got an instant vision of a man holding it between his teeth. It faded away before I could see his face, but I noticed that his bottom teeth were a bit crooked. “I saw something. A man was holding this pencil in his mouth.”
“Was it the guy you saw in the truck?”
“Uh… I’m not sure. I only saw his teeth.”
He raised a brow. “That’s it? Nothing else?”
“No.” I almost apologized, but held back. “It’s possible he didn’t touch anything but the bomb. That would explain why I haven’t picked anything up. If I could get inside the room, I might have a better chance.”
Stone glanced up at the window, and his lips flattened. “Without the fire escape to get up there, we can’t risk it. I guess we could come back after the police are done.”
“Yeah… that’s a possibility.”
“Okay. Then we might as well go.”
