Page 104 of Ruthless Enforcer

Boom.

72

CLARA

Emma and I are standing at the kitchen island eating warm cookies straight off the tray when the windows rattle.

A second later, a low, distant boom rolls through the mountains, deep enough that I feel it through the soles of my feet.

Emma freezes with her cookie halfway to her mouth, and we look at each other.

I clear my throat, my heart starting to pound. “That wasn't thunder.”

“No.”

Gabriel.

73

GABRIEL

The blast picks me up and throws me.

For one impossible second, there is nothing but heat and pressure and the sensation of the world coming apart.

Smoke fills my mouth. I roll, find the floor beneath me, and force my eyes open. “Jake.”

“Here,” he says from somewhere behind me.

Fire races across the upper hall.

“Move!” Jake yells, grabbing me and hauling me up.

We don't use the stairs.

Jake hits the nearest bedroom door, and I follow him through. He puts a shoulder into the window.

Glass explodes outward. Cold Montana air punches through the smoke.

We hit the porch roof hard, slide down the pitch, and drop into the snow as another explosion tears through the back of the house.

This one is bigger.

The windows blow outward. Flame punches through the roof.

Luke and Harper come running from the barn as Mason's voice breaks through my earpiece. “Gabriel. Warden. Sound off.”

“We're out.” I cough.

Jake rolls onto his back beside me. “Mostly.”

Luke skids to a stop. “Aw, man. Did I miss the fun?”

I push myself upright.

The Turner Ranch house is burning. Not slowly or accidentally. Fire is consuming it from the inside out, moving through the rooms with deliberate efficiency.

Turner didn’t want to just kill us. He wanted to erase this place.