He pulled Isabel close to his body and threw the ballistic blanket over both of them while running toward the door.

A millisecond later, he heard the first shots ring out. Several of the mercs opened fire, and he could tell by their screams that the results were as he had expected.

He dared not look back or stop, but he could hear flames igniting and the pressure of the fire building and growing, its hunger almost palpable in the air. They needed to get out of the building before it became a giant pressure cooker. But he also didn’t want to take any chances, and so he had retrieved a standard road flare from beneath the truck’s seat. As they reached the sliding door, Isabel pulled it open while Burke ignited the flare and tossed it toward the back of the flatbed.

The world became fire.

A huge rushing pressure wave spread across the room as the truck exploded and shot into the air, landing on one of Loria’s prized collection. Even beneath the protection of the blanket, the heat was unbearable. They fell through the opening in a heap on the ground, and Isabel quickly closed the door behind them.

Coughing and breathing heavily, Burke said, “Come on. We need to get away from the building.”

Isabel looked at the doors and hesitated, as if she were debating running back in to make sure that Kruger met his end in the flames.

“Constable!”

Reluctantly, she helped him off the ground, and they retreated toward the house. Burke heard the gas tanks of the cars inside the building catching fire and exploding. It hurt his heart to think of those works of art being lost, but he supposed that it was much like Carter’s wife and her burning parties, people were more important than material things. And miraculously, he and Isabel had both survived this trial by fire.

He heard the men inside screaming. Some of the mercenaries had jumped out of windows and ran across the yard, still burning, pain destroying all rational thought until they fell to the ground in piles of burning flesh. More explosions and the sound of twisting and buckling metal added to cacophony.

He and Isabel merely stood there and watched it burn. Then a much larger explosion tore the building in half, the concussion wave knocking them both back to the ground.

Chapter 101

After throwing the knife, Kruger knew that one of the American mercenaries would shoot. They were ignorant and undisciplined. Although, he supposed many would have said the same about his actions. Maybe he shouldn’t have killed Yoshida. Maybe he should have let things play out a bit longer. But he knew the outcome would have been the same, and he wasn’t about to walk away without his money while leaving the man responsible for all his troubles alive.

Within a second of the first shot, the world inside the building became a picture of Hell. Flames, explosions, chaos, men burning alive.