“Adrian, don’t,” Daniel said, stepping forward from the shadow of the stone archway.

Daniel’s hand was on his holster, his knuckles white in the beam of my flashlight.

“He wired it into the structural support,” Daniel said, his voice dropping an octave.

I shone my light higher, tracking the thick black cables that snaked out from the top of the box.

They disappeared into the mortar joints of the foundation stones, drilled deep into the very bones of the house.

If this device detonated, the entire eastern wing of the estate would collapse into the cellar.

The stone walls would cave inward, burying everything beneath tons of historic rock and earth.

“He wanted to bury it,” I said, the realization settling like lead in my stomach.

“He wanted to bury her.”

I looked back at Caleb, whose eyes glinted with a cold, desperate satisfaction.

“There would be nothing left to find,” Caleb rasped, his chest heaving against Marcus’s grip.

“No papers, no DNA, no cellar.”

“No Lila,” I said, my voice barely audible over the high-pitched hum of the timer.