Love Scars - 4: Exposed by Lark Lane Read Free Book Online

screamed, but they were no words I could understand.
    The popping went on, and I knew. It was a gun. I pushed Stacey down toward the tree. Her mom screamed, and the gun fired again. The scream stopped.
    I had to keep Stacey safe. I pushed her up the doggy steps to the tree house Danny had put in then scooped up Trillian in my arms and followed. The screaming went on. My mom was hurt bad. Where was my dad?
    “Close your eyes and cover your ears,” I whispered to Stacey. The shots stopped. I could hear whimpering. I peeked through an opening, and when I looked down the bile rose in my stomach.
    They were all dead or dying. A guy with long filthy hair and black tattoos on his face was reloading a rifle on the other side of the fire. Stacey’s mom was lying next to Danny on the ground, neither of them moving. Mom moaned.
    I spotted Nick hiding behind a bush. He wasn’t hurt, and the gunman didn’t seem to know he was there. Then I saw my dad, struggling to his feet. He lunged for the guy but it was too late. The gun was loaded.
    The guy shot Dad in the face and then shot Mom in the head.
    Trillian started barking and jerked loose. I felt the burn of her leash as it ripped out of my hands. She raced down the doggy steps and charged after the guy, and he riddled her with a spray of bullets.
    “No!” Nick raced out of his hiding place toward the guy. Fourteen-year-old Nick, defending his dead dog. The guy killed him with one shot to the forehead.
    They were all dead. They were all dead!

Chapter 6
     
    I passed through Foresthill and still no word from Brad. According to the GPS I’d be at the dig within twenty minutes. He must still be down in the tunnels without signal. I had to hope that Nora was with him.
    Those readings were better than we’d hoped. We had to keep the data out of MolyMo’s hands until we could make our move with the legislature on mineral rights. I hate politics.
    Finally. Brad answered my call. “Hey, dude, it’s all good. I got the readings. And let me tell you, Jane Marks was about to bust my—”
    “Brad, stop talking,” I said. “Is Nora with you?”
    “Ah, no. She had a bout of claustrophobia. Can’t handle the tunnel. Heron’s going to have to find someone else for his nefarious plot.”
    “Dammit. She may have already done Heron’s work for him. She has Proto 1. You have to get it from her before she turns it over.”
    “She’s gone, dude. Left half an hour ago. Did I hear you right? She has Proto 1?”
    “Nicole gave it to Heron instead of you.”
    A white Jetta passed me going toward Foresthill Road. “Hey, Brad. I should have passed Nora’s car coming out.”
    “Where are you?”
    “Sugar Pine Road.”
    “You’re on a cell?”
    “I’m practical, not paranoid,” I said. “I use cell phones when necessary.”
    “Right. Well, Nora’s gone. She said she had something to do. Face an old dragon.”
    “Crap, she’s going to her old cabin,” I said. Why would she do that on her own? “Where her family was murdered.”
    “That’s a big dragon.”
    “Can you get hold of Lisa and find out where it is?”
    “I can tell you where it is,” Brad said. “At the end of Sugar Pine Road. You’re on your way.”
    “I don’t know how you do that,” I said.
    “It’s called talking to people.”
    “Right. I’ll talk to you later.” I jammed on the accelerator.
    After ten minutes the two paved lanes ended and became a gravel road too narrow for more than one vehicle. The bends were so close together, it was slow going. I will never understand the allure of a cabin in the woods.
    I pulled up behind an empty red Altima parked fifty feet away from a brown two-story cabin built at the end of the road. As soon as I opened my door, I heard the screams. In front of the cabin, a man raised a shotgun and fired nearly straight up in the air.
    “What the hell are you doing?” I said. “Put that thing down.”
    “They’re all dead!” Nora’s voice came from a tree near the