Run: An Emma Caldridge Novella: The Final Episode by Jamie Freveletti Read Free Book Online

She lifted the rifle that she’d taken from the woman and hammered the butt against the glass. After two hits, the glass shattered and fell to the floor. She reached inside, took her pistol and his gun back, and handed the Dragunov to him. “Thanks for lending it to me,” she said.
    Sumner smiled. “Any time. The Jeep’s outside. Let’s get out of here.”
    He leaned over then and gave her a kiss on the lips. “I’ll follow you anywhere,” he said, his eyes dancing with humor.
    Emma placed the woman’s rifle on the desk and left.

 
    And if you enjoyed Run , keep reading for a peek at
    Dead Asleep
    Jamie Freveletti’s latest thriller featuring Emma Caldridge.
    Available Now

 
    1
    E MMA C ALDRIDGE FOUND the bloody offering on her credenza just before midnight. She had been working late preparing samples and organizing slides in the makeshift lab set up in the rented villa’s spacious garage, and returned to the main house for another cup of coffee.
    A small votive candle flickered next to the pile of feathers and hacked-off rooster foot, all arranged in a triangle on top of a pentagram drawn in a red substance that looked like blood. Emma’s lab, Pure Chemistry, was located in Miami, and she had seen Santeria altars before, with their animal sacrifice and elaborate rituals, but this was nothing like that. This was voodoo.
    She stayed still and listened for any sound that might indicate that someone was still in the house. The room was dark, the world asleep. She heard the rush of waves in the distance, the sound of a breeze moving through the trees outside, but nothing that indicated intruders. Her heart thudded in her chest, but she remained motionless, silent. If the intruders were in the house and expected to hear her scream or otherwise react, they would be disappointed.
    Emma was used to facing danger. While she hadn’t been tested in quite a while, her instincts had come back quickly when needed. Now, she remained quiet. The dark arts were a frightening thing, but she knew that the danger in the message wasn’t from the mass of feathers, the dead animal, or the pentagram. In her experience, the danger came from the humans who created the mess and would be part of the corporeal world.
    That she remained still came from a more practical consideration as well. She knew that if the intruders weren’t in the house, it was entirely possible they were outside waiting for her to burst out of the front door and run to her car. Again, they would be disappointed. She rarely acted out of panic.
    Emma pulled a pencil out of a cup next to the phone and used the eraser to lift the mass of feathers. Underneath, she found the doll. Its body was fashioned of hastily stitched burlap that sported brown yarn for hair and two black felt dots for eyes. A toothpick jutted from the center of the doll’s forehead.
    Emma snorted at the crude scare tactic. She was unafraid of ghosts or demons and things that went bump in the night. If it made noise, then a human, animal, or physical element created it. She heard the sound of breaking glass in the distance. The intruder was in the garage.
    She dropped the pencil and ran through the darkened house, out the French doors at the back of the kitchen and onto the lawn. The garage held her work. Work that she needed to keep Pure Chemistry functioning as a going concern. Her heart thudded when she thought of someone destroying it. As she neared the garage she saw the shape of something that may have been a man, standing in front of her carefully prepared slides. He swept something across the table and she watched in disbelief as bottles, jars, and the containers holding a week’s worth of work went crashing to the cement floor. She ran toward him, barely noticing the sharp gravel of the drive on the soles of her bare feet.
    The garage’s overhead light cast a yellow glow over the tables that Emma had set up to form the work space. The man upended the nearest table, sending another set