Free Divide & Conquer by Abigail Roux

place at the wrong time.
    There was one car in the locked lot, an old Ford Bronco with vintage stickers on the windows. Pierce knew who it belonged to: that brazen federal agent who had called him out on the local news.
    Pierce did his research. He even knew the man"s name. Grady.
    Tyler Grady. Pierce sneered as he thought about the newscast. Man had one hell of a nerve to talk shit when he didn"t even have any leads. But Pierce had plans for him now too. He didn"t know why the truck had been left behind, but it would save him the trouble of having to find Grady"s address.
    Grady wasn"t the only thing he"d researched. He"d also Googled how to pick locks, and he was reasonably sure he could do it. The others stayed in the car as he tried his hand at it.
    He could hear them growing more and more impatient, heckling him through the open windows as he struggled with the lock-pick set he"d bought on eBay. Finally he cursed and jogged back to the SUV.
    “I can"t get it,” he told his companions. He pointed at Ross and Hannah in the backseat. “You two stay in the car. If anyone comes by, light a blunt and start making out, got it?” They looked mutinous about being left behind, but nodded.
    He beckoned to Graham, the last member of their enterprising little group, to accompany him. Then Pierce took the equipment out of the back, handed off one of the bags, and carried the other as they made their way over the barrier into the parking lot and toward the first softball field, where all the municipal league games were being played.
    When they got to home plate, Pierce gingerly pulled the homemade bomb from the bag and set it beside him on the ground, smiling at it with no small amount of pride.
    “We have to dig it up?” Graham asked. Even in the shadows it was easy to see the sour look on his face.
    “We have to hide it,” Pierce said glibly. He"d already explained all this, there was no way he was doing it again, not out here in the open when time was of the essence.
     
    50 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux
     
    Graham grumbled and complained as they went to work, digging up home plate. By the time they had a big enough space under the plate for the device to fit, they were both covered in sweat and a fine layer of red dust. They wedged the device into the hole, both of them straining to set it just so. It had to be perfect, or the pressure switch on the top wouldn"t activate unless someone stood on top of it and danced.
    It was a large bomb. Big enough to leave a crater where home plate was and kill everyone in a ten-foot radius even if it was underground when it went off. Pierce belatedly realized that they wouldn"t be able to hide all the excess dirt, and he frowned heavily as he mopped at his brow. The air was cold against his skin, but the adrenaline was combating the bitter chill. Their plan was working so far, and no one was the wiser yet because he planned ahead. That was why, after the first couple of bombs had gone smoothly, he"d set up the dry run at the aquarium—easy enough, since he worked there part time—to check the city"s adjusted emergency response.
    “Start putting that extra dirt in the bag. I"ll set the switch,” he ordered.
    “Can"t we just spread it out?”
    “These are cops, man. They only way they won"t notice if there"s like ten pounds of extra dirt out here in the morning is if they"re high.”
    “Fine,” Graham muttered.
    “Hurry up. And make sure the plate"s straight. We still have one more thing to take care of,” Pierce grunted as he eyed the Bronco in the shadows of the parking lot.
    He"d show Mr. Mysterious B. Tyler Grady what it was like to be kicked in the ass.
     

    Divide & Conquer | 51

Chapter Four
    THE first thing Ty noticed was that it was hot. The air he inhaled, whatever he was sprawled on, what was thrown over him—including a heavy body that lay against him; it was all stiflingly hot. To add insult to injury, when he cautiously cracked one eye open, it was bright and