Turning Point (The Kathleen Turner Series) by Tiffany Snow Read Free Book Online

eyes met Kade’s.
    “Well, fuck,” he said.
    My reaction wasn’t quite as calm. My mouth went dry and, for a moment, I was frozen.
    Kade leapt to his feet, grabbed my arm, and yanked me with him, running for the stairs. Immediately we saw that we’d have to turn around. Flames licked up the walls, eagerly consuming the wooden steps. I could feel the heat in waves.
    “That’s unfortunate,” Kade said dryly.
    “You think?” Panic made my voice shrill.
    “Don’t be bitchy,” Kade chastened me.
    I ground my teeth.
    We ran back into the loft, Kade scanning the room—for what, I didn’t know. I started looking, too. Something caught my eye—a scrap of a Post-it peeking from underneath the couch. I grabbed it just as I heard the shattering of glass. Kade had thrown a chair through a window.
    “We can’t jump!” I cried. “It’s at least fifty feet down!”
    “Wasn’t planning on it, princess,” Kade said. “What did you see when we came inside?”
    “You’re quizzing me
now
?” I couldn’t believe it.
    He dragged me to the window. Dropping from this height was enough to kill us.
    “I’ll give you a boost,” he said. “Grab onto the window frame and climb up to the roof.”
    “Why are we going up?” I protested. “We need to be going down.”
    “Just do it,” he ordered in a tone I dared not disobey.
    Trying not to look down, I angled my body out the window. Kade grabbed my waist, hoisting me up so I could grab on to the concrete above the window. His hands moved to my rear, pushing until I popped up high enough to scrabble onto the roof. A few seconds later, he appeared next to me.
    “Come on,” he said, grabbing my hand.
    We ran to the opposite corner of the roof, and I saw it. A fire escape ladder hooked to the side. Kade must have spotted it before we’d entered. He jumped down to land on the platform, then held his arms open for me. An explosion sounded behind me, and the roof above the office collapsed.
    I jumped.
    “Always have an escape plan, princess,” Kade said when I landed. “No time to climb down.” He grabbed me around the waist and yanked me to him. “Hold on.”
    I obediently wrapped my arms around his neck.
    He stepped out onto the ladder, grasped the edge, and pulled. We began sliding downward at a dizzying speed, the rusted metal groaning and clanking as the ladder unraveled after years of nonuse.
    We came to a bone-jarring halt ten feet from the ground.
    “Slide down,” Kade ordered. “That’ll get you closer.”
    “What about you?”
    “I’m tougher than you are.”
    Okay, no arguing with that.
    I released my death grip on his neck and began a clumsy slide down his body. His shirt was slippery and I lost my grip, yelping in dismay as it tore. I caught hold of his waist and looked up. Kade was hanging by both hands now, the muscles in his arms straining under our combined weight.
    “You’re heavier than you look,” he ground out.
    He was so going to pay for that remark.
    I shimmied the rest of the way down, holding on to his ankle before I let myself drop the remaining few feet to the ground. Barely had I regained my balance than Kade was next to me. We ran. Moments later, Kade was flooring the SUV and we were racing away, leaving destruction in our wake.
    After the complete chaos and panic of the last few minutes, the silence inside the car seemed bizarre. I looked over at Kade, who caught my eye.
    “That was fun,” he said.
    “That’s not the word I’d use to describe it,” I said when I finally caught my breath. “What happened?”
    His grin faded and he looked back at the road. “It was a trap. A setup. Whoever went looking for information on Sheffield was going to get roasted alive. Everything was wiped clean.”
    “Not completely,” I said, digging in my pocket. I unearthed the crumpled Post-it, looked it over, and handed it to Kade. “Saw that under the couch.”
    “Rob,” Kade read. “And a phone number. Looks like you’re more than