Rapid Fire Read Online Free PDF

dragged
herself to her feet, hauled the girl onto her hip and took two stumbling steps
toward the stairs, toward safety. Her knee sang with pain. Her legs folded
beneath her—
     
    And
strong arms grabbed her, lifted her and half carried her across the road as the
air thickened with dust and fear.
     
    Rough
hands shoved her toward the stairs and a man’s voice shouted, “Climb, damn it!”
     
    Disbelieving,
heart pounding, Maya climbed, aware of being crowded, being hustled, being
shielded as her feet hit the stairs. She stumbled, needing both arms to hold
the girl, and felt strong hands grab her waist and boost her upwards.
     
    The
leading edge of the stampede hit them. A big male bison demolished the lower
stairs, blasting through the two-by-four construction as though it was made of
matchsticks.
     
    With
nothing holding them off the ground, the upper stairs sagged and began to fall.
     
    “Go!”
Maya’s rescuer shouted. He nearly threw her up over the edge, onto the low roof
of the building. Wood splintered and Maya screamed as the stairs peeled away
from the building to fall into the sea of hairy bodies below.
     
    Carrying
the man with them.
     
    She
pulled Hannah’s arms from around her neck, set the girl on a safe spot well
back from the edge and yelled, “Don’t move!” Then she scrambled back to the
place where the stairs had been, lay flat on her belly and poked her head over
the precipice.
     
    She saw a
hand. A forearm. The top of a man’s head. Her rescuer was clinging to the edge
of the building as the herd passed below in a deadly thunder of hooves and
horns.
     
    “Hang
on!” Maya lunged forward and grabbed his arms, his shirt, anything she could
get hold of to help him up and over.
     
    His
muscles were hard beneath her hands, his body powerful as he dragged himself over
the edge and flopped down beside her, breathing heavily, one forearm thrown
across his eyes.
     
    “You
okay?” he asked, voice ragged.
     
    She took
stock. Her body sang with the ache of bruises but not breaks, and when she
glanced at Hannah, she saw that the girl was crying softly but appeared
otherwise unhurt.
     
    As the
rumble of the stampede faded and human shouts and whistles took over, Maya
cleared her throat of the hot, choking dust and the knowledge that without his
help, she would have died. She swallowed hard and said, “We’re okay. I can’t
thank you enough…” She trailed off, wanting a name for the stranger.
     
    “Don’t
thank me. Let’s just say this makes us even, okay?” He dragged his arm off his
face, sat up and turned toward her.
     
    Without
the sunglasses, his eyes were two different shades of hazel, one so light as to
border on amber, the other darkening to green, giving his face a skewness that
should have been lopsided but instead was arresting. Interesting.
     
    Familiar.
     
    “Thorne!”
she gasped, voice sharp with shock and memory.
     
    For an
instant, she was back in the High Top Bluff Police Academy. She’d seen him
across the cafeteria, where he’d stood out from the others because he’d kept
his long, sandy hair tied back in a ponytail, and wore a burnished gold, almost
auburn five o’clock shadow at ten in the morning. He’d carried a casual air
that was part poet, part surfer dude, and was the center of a growing throng.
Maya later learned that people flocked to him, wanting to be included in the
friendly, whiskey-laced charm that hid deeper things.
     
    Darker
things.
     
    A murmur
had run through the room, quick snatches of whispered rumor. He was out in the
field…undercover with Mason Falk’s mountain men…captured…tortured…the drugs
made him a little nuts…he’s teaching psych while he heals…
     
    Uncomfortable
with the sudden buzz, with the intimacy of knowing things about a complete
stranger, Maya had gathered her things to leave, but when she passed the
growing group, she’d glanced over at the man and found him watching her, found
him nearer than