Stranger on Raven's Ridge by Jenna Ryan Read Free Book Online

access hall next to a boarded-up stairwell.
    She’d felt this way in her nightmares, many times. Off balance, terrified and out of step, both with herself and with the circumstances that spun like a mad kaleidoscope around her. Was it possible, she wondered, for the lunatic gene to be passed down through blood?
    “Turn left,” Aidan directed from behind. “One more corridor and we’ll be in the butler’s pantry.”
    Or in deeper trouble than before if the hallway dead-ended, because she could hear the footsteps pounding along in pursuit.
    Thankfully, the corridor did open to a pantry. Steven pointed sideways. “Decoy,” he said, and vanished with noisy intent into the dark.
    Aidan grabbed Raven’s hand. “Come on.”
    She didn’t object, merely glanced back once, then ran with him through the door.
    Outside, the cliff rocks loomed large and menacing. The wind swirled in fitful circles, picking up and spitting out leaves at random.
    When she started to skirt the house, Aidan caught her arm and gestured at the woods. “Do you know where the Ravenspell campsite is?”
    “Yes.” Her breath came in spasms now, and not entirely from fear.
    “Get to the site and stay there. I need to know who’s after us.”
    Even through the gloom and the hair that kept flying in her face, Raven saw his expression. She’d called it his cop look and found it amusing way back when. Now she wanted to punch him.
    Or kiss him.
    He decided the matter by yanking her forward for a kiss that made her go hot and tingly from the top of her head to the tips of her toes.
    One, two, three seconds’ worth of delicious, soul-stirring kiss. Yet even as her mind and body reeled, he repeated, “Campsite,” spun her toward it and vanished.
    “Well, Jesus.” Raven took a precious moment to finger her lips in disbelief before common sense kicked in and she ran. Along the dirt path, into the woods and down the trail to the clearing.
    Only Aidan would know she’d find it. Only he would understand that she had an internal GPS better than most tracking dogs. He would also know that, although panic wasn’t a foreign concept to her, she possessed the ability to think and act her way through it. Or she did until a single gunshot brought her to a halt on the wooded trail.
    The sound echoed and pulsed and strangled the breath in her lungs as she swung to face it.
    That single resounding shot had come from Blume House.
    * * *
    A IDAN HEARD THE SHOT and pulled his own gun from the waistband of his jeans. Goodbye Connor, hello trouble.
    A dozen deadly possibilities whizzed through his head, but in spite of them, he had to believe that Raven would reach the clearing safely. It was imperative that he discover who’d invaded Blume House, how many were there, and why they’d gone inside.
    His instincts were rusty. He accepted that. But his resolve to protect Raven hadn’t changed. Nothing and no one was going to hurt her.
    He crouched for a moment in the rubble of the ruined west wing. Wind whistled around chunks of what had once been a large addition to Blume House. Already, the early-evening light had vanished. With the exception of two emergency floods in the courtyard, darkness, broken only by the daunting silhouette of the house, ruled.
    Holding his position, Aidan watched the perimeter and listened for anything out of the ordinary. The barely discernible crunch of rock and plaster to his right qualified. Planting a knee, he pivoted toward it.
    Both the crunch and the person who’d made it froze. Luckily, so did Aidan’s trigger finger.
    Raven’s eyes flicked from the tip of his gun to his shadowed face. “I heard a shot.”
    A flood of emotion too deep and raw to separate rushed through him. Reaching forward, he brought her to the ground.
    He started to point out that this was not the Ravenspell campsite, then thought to hell with it and set his mouth on hers.
    He wanted to devour her, to lose himself and the nightmare of his current life in her. For