Page 3 of Outlaw Ridge: Reed (Hard Justice: Outlaw Ridge #6)

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Hallie heard the deafening noise, the explosion, a split second before the ceiling above her began to cave in. She saw it buckle, and the plaster started raining down on them. So did the wood beams that had been ripped apart and splintered in the blast.

She instinctively ducked, throwing her arms over her head as chunks of plaster and wood crashed around her. The explosion left her ears ringing, but she forced herself to stay focused. With her heart pounding, her mind racing, and the adrenaline spearing through her, she fired glances around.

Find Reed and Aaron. Get to safety.

Coughing through the thick dust already clouding the air, Hallie’s gaze darted around the room. She spotted Reed just a few feet away, dodging a chunk of the ceiling that was hurdling toward him.

“Reed!” she shouted, her voice hoarse and shaky, just as he bolted to the side. He was unharmed. Alive. For now anyway.

But where was Aaron?

She whirled around, just as something smacked her on the shoulder. A sharp pain shot through her, but she kept looking and finally saw the young deputy.

On the floor. Beneath a fallen support beam.

Oh, God. Was he alive? She had to pray that he was.

Ignoring the pain and the fact that she couldn’t breathe because of the air debris, Hallie rushed to his side, but Reed was heading there, too. Aaron was groaning, and his eyelids were fluttering. So, not dead. But definitely injured which meant he needed an ambulance now.

“What’s going on?” Hallie heard Marcie shout from the front of the house. “Where are you?”

“Stay outside,” Hallie shouted to her. “And call for an ambulance. Aaron’s hurt.”

Hallie ignored the sharp gasp she heard from Marcie, but she knew the deputy was worried about them. Shaw and Declan were, too, because she heard one of them shout out. “What’s your location?”

“We’re in the kitchen,” Reed answered. “But stay back.”

She hoped they would do just that. Hallie didn’t want anyone else in danger, and just stepping into the house could be a fatal mistake.

Together, Reed and she stooped down, took hold of the beam and lifted it off the deputy. In the same motion, Reed picked Aaron up, placing him over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry.

“Move,” Reed shouted, though Hallie had already started to do just that.

She didn’t want to stay in here a moment longer. Too bad it was like moving through a battlefield with debris falling, the dust cloud and the adrenaline spike from hell. They were under threat, no doubt about that.

Someone had intended for them to die here.

But who? And how had they managed this?

In the back of her mind, she realized that an explosive device had probably been placed in the attic or on the roof and then set off with a timer or some kind of trigger. Maybe the device hadn’t been a powerful enough blast to destroy the house, but it had certainly worked on the ceiling.

And if they didn’t get the heck out of there fast, they were going to be crushed.

That realization had obviously already occurred to Reed because he was moving, focused on getting to the front door.

And she soon saw why he’d chosen that escape route.

The backdoor and kitchen windows were blocked with huge chunks of the ceiling, and with the open floor plan, going to the windows in the living room would still mean fighting their way through the falling ceiling that seemed to be collapsing wave after wave.

Added to that, the windows might be stuck or locked while the front door should be wide open.

Well, unless it, too, got blocked before they could reach it.

Around them, the debris continued to fall, splatting down and crashing onto the floor around them.

Something hit her on her back, thankfully not hard enough to stop her because they had to keep moving.

Had to make it out of here. The repeated cracking and snapping of the ceiling told her it wouldn’t be long before the whole thing caved in on them.

The killer had done this. It was too much of a coincidence to believe they had two different criminals at play here. Did that mean the dead couple had been a trap to lure her inside to her death?

Maybe.

But if so, why not just try to gun her down when she stepped from the cruiser or when she’d gone into the police station earlier? Not exactly a comforting thought, but going that route would have been a heck of a lot easier and less trouble than murdering two people to create a fake crime scene.

And that thought twisted at her.

Because this wasn’t just about killing her. It was about making her suffer. Maybe by others dying because of her. Later, she’d need to come up with names of who might want to do that, but for now, Hallie kept moving, kept focusing on getting to that blasted door.

She managed that focus for a few steps anyway.

A massive chunk of the ceiling crashed down just in front of them, the force of the impact shaking the entire floor. Hallie stumbled and felt the hand immediately latch onto her to stop her from falling.

Reed.

Even through the air debris, she saw the fierce determination on his face. He was in the warrior mode now, and he was getting them out of there.

And apparently he wasn’t the only one with that mission in mind.

She cursed when she heard the running footsteps hitting hard on the floor, and Hallie picked her way through the air debris to spot Declan and Shaw. They hadn’t stayed put as Reed had told them.

Of course, they hadn’t.

They were warriors like him, trained to respond to hellish situations like this one, and they wouldn’t have stood by when they could do something to help.

The brothers rushed toward them, batting aside the falling ceiling they came in contact with, and the moment they reached them, they took Aaron, carrying him out as if he were on an invisible stretcher.

Without the extra weight, Reed was able to move fast, too, and he made sure she did the same.

He caught onto her arm and starting running again.

The ceiling didn’t stop raining down on them, but he managed to dodge the falling beams and jagged splinters that would have seriously injured or killed them.

The door was just ahead now. She could see it. But it still seemed miles away.

Hallie felt Reed’s grip on her arm tighten.

Her heart was slamming in her chest and her breathing was way too fast as they sprinted toward the door.

She kept her eyes locked on the exit. They were so close now—just a few more steps.

Hallie gritted her teeth, pushing through the pain and fear, focusing solely on reaching that door.

Still carrying Aaron, Declan and Shaw hurried through it and outside. Reed and she weren’t far behind them. They burst onto the porch just as more of the ceiling slammed down behind them.

Hallie didn’t want to think of how close they’d just come to dying. Right now, she wanted to focus on getting Aaron help and making sure the killer didn’t try to kill them now that they were out in the open.

“Everyone take cover,” she managed to shout, though she was coughing and the dust clogged her throat and lungs. She drew her gun, something she realized Reed had already done.

Declan and Shaw didn’t hesitate. They made a beeline to their cruiser and got Aaron inside it before they drew their weapons as well.

“How far out is the ambulance?” Hallie asked Marcie as the three of them raced toward one of the other cruisers.

“Less than five minutes,” Marcie blurted, her breathing not any steadier than Hallie’s.

Unlike Reed’s. He seemed unshaken. On the outside anyway.

But Hallie knew him well enough to know that his clever mind was already spinning, processing this and coming up with scenarios and key information.

Her mind worked like a cop, but Reed’s was a cop mixed with tech skills and a warrior’s drive.

And at the moment he was very much pissed.

Not in shock. But pissed that they’d been attacked like this on what he would consider his watch. Hallie wasn’t so pleased about it either.

Especially since she had likely been the reason this had happened.

The three of them hurried behind the cruiser, dropping down so they wouldn’t be easy targets for a sniper.

Hallie fired glances around them, looking for any signs of their attacker.

She didn’t see anyone, but the person could still be here, either watching with delight at their sick accomplishments or else looking for the best angle to deliver a kill shot.

In the distance, she heard the wail of an ambulance. Good. Aaron would be on his way to the hospital soon where she hoped he got medical attention in time. Well, he would unless there was another attack that forced her to have the ambulance and EMTs wait until it was safe.

Hallie definitely didn’t want any delays like that.

She continued to glance around and saw that Reed was doing the same. He stopped though, his body going stiff, and she followed his gaze and spotted what she thought was a blur of motion in some trees behind the house. Hallie levered herself up to get a better look.

Just as the second blast ripped through the house.

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