AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ll drive—”
“Don’t you think you’d better stay here and work things out with your father?” she said sarcastically. “How long have you known about this, Chase?” she demanded, knowing she was being irrational, but losing all control of her emotions. “First I thought you worked for Caleb, then I found out that you were his partner, but it’s more than that, isn’t it? You’re his son, Chase. His son! ”
He looked at her as if stricken, his blue eyes filled with shock and rage. “You think this was some kind of plot? That I was involved?”
“Oh, Chase,” she moaned, rain drenching her hair and shoulders, drops streaming down her face. “I don’t know what to think,” she admitted, “but I can’t worry about it. Not now. Not until I find Cody—”
The sound of an explosion ripped across the land, and Chase reached for Dani, pushing her hard against the pickup, protecting her body with the strength of his.
“Oh, God, what was that?” she whispered, clinging to the rough fabric of his denim jacket.
“No!” Chase let go of her suddenly and ran to the fence on the south end of the parking lot.
Her heart slamming in her chest, disbelief and horror wrenching her face, Dani followed him and looked down the hill to her property and saw a blaze of fireworks reaching up to the black heaven. Orange flames stretched upward like a hand from hell and scraped at the black, smoke-filled sky;
“Oh, God . . .”
“It’s the storage shed . . . where you keep the tractor,” Chase said, pulling her away from the terrifying spectacle. “Come on.”
Caleb had come out and was standing on the back porch. “Call the fire department! Send them to the Hawthorne place,” Chase commanded, yelling over the storm. “And find someone to take care of Dani!”
“You’re not leaving me!” she shouted, her eyes round with horror. “I’ve got to go home.”
“There’s nothing you can do—”
“Let go of me!” she hissed, running to the pickup and wrenching open the driver’s door. “Cody might be down there!” She jumped into the pickup and reached into her pocket for her keys.
His jaw tight with determination, Chase climbed in after her, ignoring her protests while he started the truck and drove down the rain-slickened drive toward Dani’s house.
She stared at it with dull eyes, her heart filled with dread as she tried to cling to the hope that Cody was far away from the inferno.
The house was illuminated by the orange and red flames that licked up to the sky.
“We can’t get any closer,” Chase said, maneuvering the truck through the first open gate to a field several hundred yards from the house and keeping the lane free for the fire trucks.
“I’m going up there!”
“No way—”
“Cody might be there!”
“I’ll go look for him! You stay here.”
“Not on your life!” She shoved open the passenger door and Chase jerked her back into the cab, her hair flying into her face, her eyes wide with fear and anger. “Let me go! Chase, I have to—”
“Dammit all anyway!” With a curse, Chase drove up the rest of the driveway. The pickup bounced up her lane and before Chase stopped the vehicle, Dani jumped from the cab. Heavy black smoke filled the air while the rain still poured from the sky.
“Cody!” she screamed, swallowing back her fear and desperation. “Runt!” God, where was the dog? Shimmering heat radiated from the buildings behind the house; even the driving rain couldn’t contain the blaze.
Chase was on her heels as she sprinted up the two steps and raced into the house. Shouting Cody’s name at the top of her lungs, she ran through the rooms. She bounded up the stairs and flung open the door to Cody’s room.
“Runt’s missing,” she screamed at Chase. “Cody must’ve come home—Oh God!” On the bed was the note she’d left on the refrigerator. Beside the note was his backpack, the same backpack he’d taken to school, and through the window ugly flames brightened the sky, coloring the room with flickering orange shadows and filling the air with acrid smoke.
“No!” Dani screamed. “Oh, God . . . Oh . . . God!” And then she fell, feeling Chase’s strong arms arround her before she hit the floor.
Chapter Twelve
When Dani opened her eyes, she had trouble focusing. She felt a sensation of movement . . . and noise, lots of noise, sirens shrieking, men shouting, and stench . . . something burning....
