Bad Beat
Page 26
“Dan!” Riley screamed again. “Over here!”
He heard her this time and rushed toward her. “What is it? What happened.”
Jacob slowly pulled up and the person below him was revealed. “He’s gone.” His head dropped into his hands.
“What? Alex?” Riley’s eyes darted around in search of an answer, a reason for this. “What happened? I got everyone out. What happened?”
“The window blew out.” Jacob tried to speak through his sobs. “I don’t know how. It just blew and the flames and the glass. They got him. It was like an explosion.”
Riley threw her hand over her mouth and shook her head in disbelief. “I did this. I did it. When I opened the door, I heard the explosion behind the flames.”
“We need a medic over here!” Ward yelled at the firefighters.
“If you do something, he will die.” The words of her half-brother reverberated in her mind. She thought he was talking about Jacob or Dan, or anyone else, but not Alex. “It’s my fault. If I hadn’t opened the door…”
“If you hadn’t opened the door, everyone inside would be dead,” Ward interrupted. “You couldn’t have known this would happen.”
Of course I could, she thought. Riley had freed the men inside the room. Bad men who were criminals and thieves. The one innocent man was now dead. And it was his blood on her hands.
Dennis Ackerman was dead. His two men had just been released from the hospital with minor injuries and were about to be arrested by the County police for kidnapping. Gage Parker, who everyone believed started the fire, was in the wind. That left Eli Foster, the man to whom Silas Levin owed a handsome sum of money.
Silas Levin was being charged with conducting illegal gaming activities and threatening harm to Laughlin and his family. He would serve time, but likely not more than sixty days. The Crooked Horse had burned to the ground. So any hopes he had of paying off his remaining debt to Eli had gone up in flames too.
But Riley didn’t care about any of that. Screw them. Alex Laughlin was dead, and his wife and kids were in the breakroom with the captain right now. She could hear his wife’s sobs.
“Riley, we should go home. Dan said it was okay.” Jacob stood in front of her desk. “It’s almost four in the morning. You must be tired after…”
“I am. I used everything I had to free those men and for what? So another would die? He warned me.”
“Who warned you?” Jacob asked.
“Nothing. It doesn’t matter. You know, through this entire fiasco, I thought it was you who was in danger. The terrible visions I had. But I had been deceived.
Jacob moved to sit in the chair next to her desk. “Riley, what you have is an incredible thing. Understanding why or how it works is a fruitless endeavor.”
“No, it isn’t. I can control it. I don’t know why I saw those things. My own fear of losing you, I suppose. After Carl, well…” She trailed off.
Ethan emerged from the backroom with a coffee in his hand. “Captain says you should go home, Riley. Get some rest. Abrams and Decker just left too.”
“What about you?” she asked.
“I’ll hang here to make sure Laughlin’s family gets settled in. I think Ward wants to take them back home.”
“To their house?” Jacob asked. “If it was me, that’s the last place I’d want to go. Too many memories.”
He was right about that. Riley couldn’t bear it if she was in the same position. Hell, she could hardly bear it now. Of course, Zoe Laughlin hadn’t known she was behind her husband’s death. “Fine, we’ll go. But we’re coming back in a few hours.”
“Okay, then that’s what we’ll do.” Jacob stood and took her hand to help Riley from her chair.
Ethan approached her. “I know you blame yourself, but none of this was your fault. You saved lives.”
She didn’t have the energy to counter his claim. “You should get some rest too.” Riley walked toward him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pulling him close. His heart pounded. He loved her so much, she could feel it throughout his entire body. They’d been through a lot together. “I love you, Ethan.”
He pushed her back gently and peered into her eyes. “If only,” he whispered his reply.
Jacob gathered her things and waited by the door, seemingly unaware of their tender and quiet exchange.
Riley released her embrace and smiled. “I’ll see you soon.” She started toward Jacob and waited while he opened the door. A brief glance back and she saw something in Ethan again, except this was different. It was unknown. And then she recognized it. In the moments between their embrace and his final words to her, Ethan Pruitt had let her go.
“Are you ready?” Jacob said softly as he held the door for her.
She turned back. “I’m ready.”
Riley waited on the other side of the door when Jack Thompson opened it. “Hi, Dad.”
“Hi. Come in.” He stepped aside. “Nate’s in his room. He’s expecting you.”
“I’m sure he is.” Riley started into the long corridor of a home she’d never been to before. A foreign place where her father lived with another family. She knocked on his door and slowly opened it. “Nate? Can I come in?”
He pulled off his headphones as he sat on his bed. “Hi, Riley. Yeah.”
She walked inside and sat next to him. Neither said a word for a few minutes and it wasn’t until Riley decided it should be her that she began. “So I hear you and I have a lot in common.”
THE END
About the Author
Bestselling author Robin Mahle lives in Virginia with her husband and two children. Her Kate Reid mysteries have drawn praise for grabbing hold of the reader and refusing to let go. And the intense, fast-paced style of storytelling led her to create another series, the Lacy Merrick thrillers, which readers have called “Believable, and ripped from today's headlines." Now with the Riley Thompson thrillers, readers will once again be taken on an incredible journey.
With powerful leading ladies and action-packed thrill rides, Robin hopes to continue taking readers on roller-coaster adventures that will leave them breathless.
If you enjoyed Ms. Mahle’s work, please share your experience by leaving a review on Amazon.
Click here to visit Robin’s Amazon Author Page.
Also by Robin Mahle
Force of Nature - A Riley Thompson Thriller (Book 0)
Behind Her Eyes - A Riley Thompson Thriller (Book 1)
All the Shiny Things - A Kate Reid Novel (Book 1)
Law of Five - A Kate Reid Novel (Book 2)
Gone Unnoticed – A Kate Reid Novel (Book 3)
Blackwaters – A Kate Reid Novel (Book 4)
Endangered -A Kate Reid Novel (Book 5)
The Pretty Ones - A Kate Reid Novel (Book 6)
The Last Word – A Kate Reid Novel (Book 7)
Deadly Reckoning - A Kate Reid Novel (Book 8)
To the Bone - A Kate Reid Novel (Book 9)
The Kill Season - A Kate Reid Novel (Book 10)
State of Denial - A Lacy Merrick Thriller (Book 1) - READ FOR FREE!
Shadow Rising – A Lacy Merrick Thriller (Book 2)
First Target – A Lacy Merrick Thriller (Book 3)
Ghost Nation - A Lacy Merrick Thriller (Book 4)
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