Save Me If You Can by Christina C Jones Read Free Book Online Page A

before they headed out. Already packed up and ready to go, just waiting now to make sure Harrison was stable, and talk to him before they started moving anything or anyone.
    Naomi understood, without asking, that Renata was trying to normalize a completely abnormal situation. Waking up at the butt-crack of dawn to move from one safe house to another, running from an unknown enemy, trying to piece together the dysfunction of this entire situation… none of this was normal, at all.
    But if having breakfast would help them pretend… so be it.
    Naomi handed Renata the orange juice from the fridge, and the other woman proceeded to pour glasses for Taylor and Kennedy. A scowling Taylor snatched hers away, leaning forward to pull the carton from her mother’s hands. “I can pour my own,” she muttered, doing it quickly, then taking her glass to the table, with Kennedy right behind her.
    Naomi looked back to Renata just in time to see the sigh she gave before she turned to the other side of the counter, cracking eggs into a bowl. Saying nothing, Naomi poured herself a glass of juice, snagged a muffin from the basket on the counter, and sat with the girls. Her stomach grumbled – in hunger or irritation she couldn’t tell – until she lifted the muffin to her mouth and began to eat, swallowing every few bites with a gulp from her juice.
    Something isn’t right.
    She felt it in her gut, and the thought made her lower her hand to her stomach. Maybe it was just the stress of the current situation. It wasn’t like her radar for such things had been accurate lately anyway. She took another bite of her muffin, then turned toward the window. A moment later, shattered glass from the huge bay window was raining down around them.
    The old Naomi, the badass that had been hovering just out of reach since the news of her pregnancy, knew exactly what to do.
    Get Taylor and Kennedy down, away from the window.
    Hand them over to Renata, who’d abandoned the making of an omelet to stow the girls in Inez’s pantry, where AR-15s were nestled between cases of seltzer water.
    Pull out her weapon, because even though she was having breakfast, even though she was pregnant, even though Inez’s compound was supposed to be an impenetrable safe haven, she remembered.
    Diligence. Focus. Agility .
    Of course she was armed.
    The words of her mantra never left her, but with everything that’d happened, they’d been impossible to grasp. Now, as she ducked behind the granite slab island with Renata at her side, she found a finger hold, and held tight. Intruders would be next, and they would be armed.
    Canisters on the floor, probably the cause of the broken windows, began to fill the room with smoke. Thinking quickly, she kicked the floor-level button that would activate the huge vent-hood over the island, a new-ish feature Naomi had honestly considered blowing up a few weeks ago when Inez wouldn’t shut up about it.
    Now? It was a blessing.
    The vent worked fast to clear the smoke, but that was a double-edged sword. If they could see their attackers, the attackers could see them. It was pointless to scream, because even if the others did hear them, all the way downstairs, they would be long dead before anyone could spring into action. Pointless to attempt a call, because the reception down in the basement level was spotty.
    Naomi looked at Renata, and the two exchanged a nod.
    They were on their own.
    Wordlessly, they moved to opposite ends of the granite island, weapons pointed. Naomi took a quick, deep breath, then pushed out into the open, staying low, because they wouldn’t be looking for her there. The acrid smell of burnt eggs filled Naomi’s nose as she pulled the trigger, double-tapping the head of every black-clad figure that stepped through gaping hole where the window used to be. She hated guns, hated them so much, and a little piece of her died with every resounding boom in her ear. But if it was between her and them… she chose