The Gathering Dusk (Killer Instinct 0.5)(15)

“Blake!” Samantha’s eyes were wide. “We need to get out of here...now.”

The redhead was laughing. Her eyes were still closed. Her head was tilted back as if she was just waiting for something to happen.

I couldn’t let anyone else find his prizes.

Oh, fuck. “Run!” Blake roared to Samantha.

She turned on her heel and took off. He barreled into the redhead, didn’t slow, just threw her over his shoulder and kept going. But his touch seemed to ignite her. She fought against him, twisting her body, punching his back.

He ignored her and rushed after Samantha.

The redhead screamed, “No!” She drove her fists into him again. He could see the screen door, still open. “No, no—”

Samantha had gone through the door. She looked back at him, fear on her face. She held out her hand, urging him on.

And he felt the explosion behind him. The house seemed to rock around him, and a ball of red-hot fire blasted from behind him. The force of that explosion lifted him up, throwing him through that screen door. The redhead was ripped from his arms as he hurtled forward. Then the ground came up to meet him as he slammed face-first into it.

The impact sent pain shuddering through him, but he shoved that pain right back. Blake started to roll over and— Samantha was hitting him. Hard, over and over on his shoulders and back.

He grabbed her wrist, holding tight. “What the hell?”

Her eyes were big, so dark and deep. “You were on fire.”

He opened her hand, saw the blisters that were already forming there. He surged to his feet, pulling her up with him. Blake stripped off his still smoldering coat and shirt and stomped at the flames.

The small house was totally engulfed. Broken glass littered the ground where the windows had exploded. The flames reached toward the sky, crackling and hungry.

But over those flames, he could hear laughter. His head turned and he saw the redhead. She was sitting on the ground, her arms curved around her undrawn knees. Her gaze was on the fire. She was smiling.

Slowly, he and Samantha stalked toward her. The woman had just planted a damn bomb—one that had nearly taken them all out, and she was just sitting there, laughing?

Oh, yeah, her lawyer will definitely be using an insanity defense.

When she caught sight of them, her laughter stilled. She looked at Samantha and sadness flashed on her face. “Guess I have to get you next time.”

The hell you will.

But Samantha shook her head. “There won’t be a next time for you.”

The woman rocked back and forth, holding her undrawn knees. “There will be. I’ll find you. I never forget. I never let go.”

Good to fucking know.

“Lady, you are under arrest,” Blake snarled.

Her gaze drifted back to the house. “No one will ever know now. His secrets are mine. My secrets are his. No one will know...”

But Samantha’s golden gaze gleamed. “Don’t count on it.”

*



LITTLE WAS LEFT of the quiet house on the cul-de-sac. As dawn rose the next morning, Samantha stared at the charred skeleton that remained of the home. Ashes drifted in the breeze.

The fire had been very, very thorough. The arson investigator had already told her he believed several explosive devices had been systematically placed throughout the structure for maximum impact.

Their arsonist—a fingerprint check had revealed her real name to be Nina Miller—had been very, very deliberate. She’d wanted to make certain that no evidence had survived the blast.

And she’d nearly made sure that Blake and I didn’t survive, either.

But in the end, they’d made it out.

As she stood there, a Mercedes-Benz slowly pulled around the cul-de-sac. She stiffened because she knew that car. It parked behind her smaller vehicle and, a moment later, Cameron unfolded himself from the luxury sedan and headed toward her.

“Went by your apartment.” He had a bag of donuts in his hand. “When you didn’t answer the door, I figured you’d be here.” He opened the bag and offered her a donut.

She took it. Was it odd to eat donuts at such a terrible scene? Maybe. But her starving stomach reminded her she couldn’t exactly remember the last time she’d eaten.

Cameron leaned back against her car. His gaze was on the charred structure. “Cut that one pretty close, didn’t you, Sam?”

She had to swallow twice before she could force down the bite of donut. “Closer than I would have liked.”

He was still looking at the ashes. “I wouldn’t have liked it if you died.”

His words surprised a quick laugh from her. “Jeez, I don’t think I would have liked it much, either.”

Slowly, his head turned and his gaze met hers. There was no humor in his eyes. “The world would be darker without you in it.”

That just might have been one of the nicest things he’d ever said to her. “Thank you.” Cameron could be arrogant. He could be domineering. But...

He was also a friend, one who knew all of her secrets and still didn’t stare at her as if she were a freak.

And, even better, he didn’t stare at her with pity in his eyes.

“What happened to your hands?” he asked.

She looked at the bandages that covered some of her fingers. “Blake was on fire when he came out.”