Hit and Run by Allison Brennan, Laura Griffin Read Free Book Online Page B

secluded. We’re in the hills. It echoes. Even if someone calls it in, it’ll take the police a while to narrow down where the shots came from.”
    She didn’t like that she couldn’t hear anything above them. But she feared if they went up to the kitchen to take a look, someone would be waiting to blow their heads off. Jason must have had the same thought because he didn’t suggest it.
    “Jason—they want you dead. What do you know that someone wants to keep secret?”
    “I have no idea!” He let out a long breath. “Maybe they think I know what Gina planned to tell me. But she didn’t say anything, not on the phone, except that she didn’t trust Mercer.”
    “They don’t know that. They’re playing it safe, taking out everyone who might know whatever it was that died with Gina.”
    “I’m not going to let her die in vain,” he said. “I can’t, Scarlet.”
    “We won’t.”
    “This isn’t your fight. I don’t want you to die because of me.”
    “I’m not going to die. Neither are you.”
    Waiting wasn’t Scarlet’s strong suit. Maybe the remaining shooters had left when they suspected their partner was dead or captured. A dead guy who could be traced would jeopardize their plans. Even someone who was trained against interrogations might give up something. If they suspected Scarlet had killed Peterson, they’d worry that she’d searched him and learned his identity and who he worked for. Even if his employment had nothing to do with this attack, it would give the police a place to start their investigation. The other shooters could have disappeared to regroup and plan. Count their losses. Something.
    She started up the stairs.
    “What are you doing?” Jason asked.
    “Stay flat against the wall,” she said.
    “Don’t,” he said.
    “Just—quiet.” She knew this was a risk, but they couldn’t stay down here forever.
    There was no landing, no way to sidestep the door. A narrow, sagging wood railing prevented a fall, though she wouldn’t want to test it with her weight. She knelt down, then reached up and turned the knob.
    Before she opened the door, she smelled it. But the scent didn’t quite register until she pushed the door open and saw the flames outside the kitchen window.
    “Fire!” she said.
    “Stop!” Jason called as he ran up the stairs and stood behind her. “They could be waiting to shoot us when we escape.”
    “I’m not going to be burned alive,” she said, panic rising.
    They stayed low and crawled through the kitchen and into the living room. The rooms were rapidly filling with smoke. The walls quickly turned to flames , as if they’d doused the inside and outside of the house with accelerant—gasoline by the smell—and tossed matches in every corner.
    Except for the front door.
    “There,” she said.
    “No,” Jason said. “That’s where they’ll be waiting for us. It’s the only wall not on fire.”
    He was right, but she almost couldn’t think through her fear.
    Fire burned loud. And this one increased in volume as the flames spread, making the old wood house moan. A fire here was extremely dangerous—the dry summer, the trees and shrubs all around. The entire Topanga Canyon could go up in flames—
    She pulled out her phone and crawled back to the kitchen. She dialed 911 and didn’t know if it could get through. All the people, the wildlife, the potential loss of property and life because some bastard wanted Jason Jones dead for an unknown reason … The reality sunk in and through her fear, she was enraged.
    She slid the phone across the floor, hoping it would keep its signal. She and Jason needed to find a way to get out, and she didn’t want to risk losing the signal. Dispatch would be able to track the GPS of the phone to locate them. Find the house and the fire and hopefully stop it before they lost anything but Diego’s house.
    Sorry, Diego.
    The fire was hot and growing hotter. Smoke filled the space, sucking up their oxygen, making it