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room, he found the solution.
    A minute later he had her trussed, hand and foot, with an industrial-weight extension cord. Looking around for a gag and not finding one, he had a brainstorm and whipped off his bowtie. The damn thing was uncomfortable anyway. Just as her big green eyes opened wide, he shoved the bow in her mouth and tied it behind her head.
    She struggled while he began knocking holes as quietly as he could in the wall with the handle of a broom he had been lucky enough to find. Sit around and wait for backup? Hell, no. He’d have the thing located and diffused before the team even got damn communications back in place. And he’d redeem himself and the team for fucking up the training exercise against Kappa at the same time.
    “Bull. What’s your location?”
    Finally. “About damn time, Matt. I’m in what looks like it used to be a bathroom but is now being used as a closet. First floor. Directly off the main room. I’m dismantling a wall that’s been recently plastered, and I think I’ve got one of the tangos and the detonator.”
    “What?”
    “The harpist who wasn’t on the list—”
    “Shit, Bull. No. It’s not her. Listen to me carefully. That list was incomplete. The tangos are the fucking valet car parkers. They weren’t on the list because they’re not on the payroll. They work for tips. And I checked with the manager. The harpist works there all the time. She gets paid in cash so she wasn’t on the payroll either.”
    Matt’s voice—and that he’d just informed Bull he’d made a huge mistake regarding the harpist—was overshadowed by the sound of automatic weapon fire and screaming from the other room.
    “Was that gun fire?” Matt asked.
    “Yes.” Things had just gone from bad to worse. Bull already had his weapon out of the leg holster, although next to fucking machine guns, a .40 caliber handgun wasn’t going to do him much good.
    “Bull, listen to me.” The commander’s voice replaced Matt’s in Bull’s ear. “Stay hidden. You’re our ace in the hole. The bastards now have hostages as well as a possible hidden bomb, but they don’t know you’re there, and that’s a point for us. Hold for further instructions.”
    “Yes, sir.” Bull kept his voice as low as possible. He crept toward the door, gun out, and peered through the keyhole. Good thing old doors had big keys and therefore, really big keyholes. It served Bull’s purpose. He could see pretty damn well. Three men had the hostages lined up against the far wall, in perfect position to be mowed down with one burst from the automatic weapon. And the only person Bull had gotten out of the building was Dickhead.
    He leaned back on his heels with a sigh, took one more look to make sure all eyes were turned away and then flipped the light switch off. There was no way to lock it from the inside without the key and if the bastards made the mistake of opening the door, Bull and his one gun wanted the element of surprise. He couldn’t risk the noise of searching in the wall for the bomb with them right on the other side of the door, so he didn’t need the extra illumination for that. And he really didn’t need the light to see that he had scared the crap out of an innocent young thing.
    If the situation weren’t so dire, he’d be very relieved to know she was as guiltless as she’d originally seemed. Although, the chances of his getting the goodnight kiss he’d imagined were probably slim to none now.
    The one window—too small to crawl out of—allowed in some dim light from the streetlamps outside. His eyes adjusted to the dark and he made his way silently to where she lay on the floor, bound and gagged. It really wasn’t safe to talk, but he had to tell her what was happening. He sat on the ground and pulled her into his lap.
    Gun still out at the ready in his right hand, he used his left to move the hair that had slipped from her ponytail out of his way. He pressed his mouth right up against her ear.