You Can Run... Read Online Free PDF Page A

quietly.”
    And cry
, Diana thought as she stood, her legs cramping slightly from the crouching position she’d held so long. She closed the car door, hoping to shut Mrs. Hanson awayfrom some of the noise and smoke. She wished she could just as easily block out the sight of the ruined house.
    She glanced back and saw that she needn’t worry. Mrs. Hanson held her head high and firm. Diana was certain the woman was gazing straight ahead with her lovely eyes—eyes that apparently didn’t need glasses even though she was in her seventies, Diana thought as she tucked her thick, windswept hair behind her ears and tried to walk steadily toward the burned houses.
    “What are you doing?”
    Diana jumped at the sound of Tyler Raines’s razor-sharp voice. She’d been trying to keep her mind off Penny and Willow by thinking only about Mrs. Hanson. She hadn’t even seen Raines striding toward her. She drew herself up to her full five-foot-six frame, but she had to look up at least another six inches to glare at him. “I want to see Penny’s house.”
    Tyler Raines stood firmly in front of her. Sweat streaked his dirty face, soot had settled into three shallow creases across his forehead, and his light blue T-shirt had turned an indeterminate shade of gray and stuck clammily to his wide chest. His damp, longish hair had parted unevenly in the middle and hung below his high cheekbones, almost to his earlobes.
    The man looked exhausted and, to Diana’s mind, surprisingly distressed about people he didn’t know. But worst of all, he looked as if he was going to argue with her. She narrowed her eyes slightly and set her jaw.
    They gave each other long, measuring looks. Then Diana thought she saw a flicker of understanding in Raines’s eyes before he sighed and stepped aside. “Oh, all right, dammit. Go ahead. Be careful, though. Hoses are lying around, everything is soaked—”
    “Which I can very well see for myself. I am not a child. I’m not going to run around willy-nilly—”
    “I’m not afraid of you running willy-nilly. I’m afraid of you fainting.”
    In spite of the situation, indignation flashed throughDiana. “I am not one of those silly women who faint! I have never fainted in my life, and I’ve been on archaeological expeditions to Egypt!”
    “Egypt, eh? Well, that’s impressive, but you weren’t far from fainting when you tried to get out of your car after the house exploded.” Raines gave her a hard stare with his azure eyes, and Diana flushed at the memory. “If you insist on getting a closer look at this mess, though, I guess I can’t stop you.”
    “No, you certainly can’t,” Diana huffed, grasping at her waning bravado. “And I’m not just some stranger who wants to get ‘a closer look at this mess,’ as you put it. My friend Penny and her five-year-old daughter were in that house, for God’s sake!” Diana’s voice cracked but she plowed on. “Do you expect me to just sit in my car for an hour until someone gets around to telling me something like whether or not they’re still
alive
?”
    Diana was almost certain the man flinched. Then his gaze softened a fraction. “Sorry about my wording. It’s natural that you want to see about your friend, Miss . . . I forgot your name.”
    “Diana Sheridan,” she snarled, exasperated with him, furious that again she was on the verge of bursting into racking, useless sobs—just what he’d expect from her. “Now will you stop blocking my way to the house?”
    “Okay, but I’m going with you. I don’t want you falling down and breaking an arm or a leg. People are too busy to stop and patch you up, on top of everything else.”
    “I know to be careful about where I’m walking, Mr. Raines,” she seethed.
    “It’s Tyler. And I’m sure usually you are careful about where you’re walking, but tonight you’re upset and the area around the house is dangerous.” He reached out and tightly closed his hand around her forearm. She