Watching From The Shadows: Trident Security Book 5 by Samantha A. Cole Page B

stay and help dispose of this thing. Once we pull it out, we’ll take a better look at it and see if we can find any signatures, but I’m not counting on it. It was pretty crudely made. A sixth grader could have made it as a science project.”
    Most experienced bombers styled their explosives a certain way, creating their own ‘signature’ into the design. However, with bomb making ‘how-to’ sites all over the internet, wannabe bombers could easily transition to actual bombers. But they weren’t usually as intelligent as the experts, so signatures were sometimes absent nowadays.
    Marco lifted the bottom of his sweat-soaked shirt and wiped his face with it. Brody smacked his upper arm and pointed to his truck in the street. “Come on. I’ll give you a lift to your place so you can shower and change, then we’ll head to the compound.”
    “No, let’s go straight there. I’ve got clothes in my go-bag in my truck. I’ll take a shower in one of the bunkrooms.” He had to reassure himself that Harper and Mara were okay. After thanking his team and the others one more time, he followed his best friend down the driveway. A butterfly came out of nowhere and fluttered around his head before taking off again. Nina had mentioned once that if a butterfly did that, it was a loved one in the afterlife letting you know that everything was going to be all right. Hmmpf . Their roles were now reversed and she was watching over him. Rubbing the remembrance tattoo on his left upper arm, he glanced skyward and said a silent prayer of thanks.
     

C HAPTER 9
    Pacing back and forth in the compound’s parking lot, Harper tried to hold it together. He was safe. Ian had called and said Marco was alive and out of danger, but she wouldn’t believe it until she saw him again.
    Nearby, Kristen and Ian’s fiancée, Angie, kept a close eye on her from the grassy ‘backyard’ which had been created between the last two warehouses in the complex. The building to her right, she was told, housed the gym, training rooms, indoor gun range, and storage. The one to her left had been transformed into four huge apartments. Angie and Ian had the bottom one on this end, with Kristen and Devon’s unit above them. The units on the other end mirrored those, and Ian’s goddaughter, Jenn, had the bottom, while the youngest Sawyer brother, Nick, had the top one, with his partner, Jake. She was happy for the two men. Though she’d only met Nick once, she thought he was the perfect mate for Jake. While Marco’s teammate was a Dom, she’d always gotten the feeling he needed someone as Alpha as himself outside of the bedroom.
    Angie had come out of her apartment and introduced herself when Harper had arrived under guard, a short time after her mother and Mara. She had gotten the older woman and baby settled in her spare bedroom, but Harper declined the invite to rest inside. Upon Kristen’s arrival, the two women did their best to ease Harper’s growing anxiety. Her last panic attack had been shortly before Nina’s death and thankfully hadn’t been in her dying friend’s presence. She’d had them a lot in her teens, but had never been able to pinpoint the reasons for them. They usually popped up when she was stressed, but not always. With the help of a counselor in college, she’d been able to ward them off by concentrating on something or someone she loved. Right now, she kept images of Mara laughing and playing in her mind, and hopefully, it would be enough for her not to break down and start to hyperventilate.
    The compound had been sealed after her arrival, only letting in Kristen and several contract agents from Blackhawk Security. Armed men now had the gates and surrounding fence line covered. Someone was inside the offices monitoring the many cameras, and even Beau was on alert, his ears and nose twitching in search of danger to his humans.
    “Miss Harper? Can I get you anything?”
    She glanced up at the mountainous man, who was