Page 73 of Burning Secrets

She turned, and Tristan stood behind the cabin, gesturing.

Right. Okay. Maybe she could call Rio, get some help.

She stumbled after him as they ran behind the cabin, over to the Quonset hut. She spotted a metal gate, unseen from her position on the roof or behind the cabin. Yeah, that might have been a better choice.

Tristan reached it, held it open. Gestured with his hand?—

A gunshot and a bullet pinged off the metal bar.

She ducked, turned.

Jer held a handgun, walking toward them, blood on his arm and face.

“Get back!” Tristan said and leaped toward her, slamming her back against the Quonset hut. Another gunshot broke the air, and with it now, shouts.

“Run!” Tristan pushed her back toward the cabin, along the fencing. “Out the front!”

She turned and headed back into the smoke and flames, sprinting.

More shouts, and she looked over to see the crowd had dispersed even as Viper and Crew still fought, circling each other. A couple guys had peeled away from them, heading toward the cabin.

“Keep going!” Tristan at her back, pushing, and she stumbled. He pulled her up, and she found herself, got her legs under her.

They passed the storage shed, then a discarded school bus, and Tristan grabbed her arm, yanked her back just as she wasabout to fly into the yard. He breathed hard, fast, and only then did she see the gun in his grip.

“Just—” He swallowed, his eyes a little wide, and bobbed his head out, past the bus, as if checking the yard.

Her too.

Nearly screamed. Viper had tackled Crew, now hit him, even as Crew wrestled, getting his leg up, kneeing the man.

Viper spilled over his head, but when Crew rolled over, the guy grabbed his leg, pulled him down. Landed on him.

Shoved his face into the ground.

“He’s going to kill him.”

Tristan leveled the gun at the two, breathing.

“Don’t. miss!” She clamped her hands over her mouth, fighting the scream.

Another shot, this time at the bus, and it pinged as Tristan jerked back.

The sky rumbled. Maybe she simply had been too busy to hear it, but just then, right then?—

Water poured down from the heavens. A deluge that flooded the camp, pounding down upon the yard, the fiery cabin, the chaos. She hit the ground, rolled under the bus, and Tristan followed her.

The water pelted the earth, and for a second, everything stopped.

Then shouts at the gate, and she scooted out from under the bus to see a handful of men enter, shouting, holding guns.

Wait—Vince? And Hammer? And with them, Rio and men in uniform—looked like local sheriff’s deputies.

Tristan grabbed her up and pulled her out. “Go.”

“Not without?—”

“Jo!”

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