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

the wreckage of Penny’s face.
    A male paramedic intervened. “She’s not dead, Miss, but she’s sustained some bad burns.”
    “Not just to her face?” Diana demanded in agony.
    “The whole left side of her body was exposed.” The man gave Diana a sympathetic but authoritative look. “The burns are bad. Let’s leave it at that. Right now, it’s vital that we get her to the hospital as soon as possible. The doctors can tell you more later.”
    As they began cautiously moving the gurney toward the ambulance, Diana felt herself going limp. By now, Tyler Raines stood behind her and placed a firm hand under her elbow. She sagged against him, barely aware of his presence, only of his strength holding her upright.
    As the paramedics wheeled Penny away into the hot, smothering darkness, Diana drew a deep breath and called, “Penny has a little girl. She’s five. Have you found her?”
    The female paramedic looked back at her. Their eyes met and Diana knew the answer even before the young woman said, “We’ve found no signs of a little girl. Maybe inside . . .”
    Maybe inside, where the fire had raged in unchecked ecstasy, consuming everything in its ravaging path, Diana thought, including a sweet, innocent five-year-old girl.
    And for the first time in her twenty-eight years, Diana fainted.

CHAPTER TWO
1
    Diana jolted awake as cold water splashed over her face, into her ears, and across the delicate skin of her neck. She opened her eyes to see Tyler Raines holding a large, empty Styrofoam cup and gazing down at her, his head tilted slightly to the right, a vertical wrinkle lodged between his dark eyebrows. They stared at each other until he finally asked, “You all right, Miss I-Have-Never-Fainted-in-My-Life?”
    “I’m fine. Don’t you dare throw more water on me. And I
haven’t
fainted until now!” Diana realized she was lying flat on the ground, legs and arms splayed. She pulled together all four limbs and quickly sat up, wiping at her wet face. “Where’s Penny?”
    “The ambulance just pulled away with her.”
    Diana looked around in time to see the ambulance turning the corner. “I should have gone with her!”
    “No, you shouldn’t have.” Tyler grasped her hand, helping her clamber to a standing position. She pushed her long, dripping hair behind her ears and looked around frantically. “Have they found Willow?”
    “No, but—”
    “Oh my God!” Diana felt as if her chest was tightening,squeezing the air from her lungs. “They still haven’t found her?”
    “If you’d stop yelling and let me finish, I was going to say you were out for only a couple of minutes.”
    “You don’t think Willow is . . .” Diana gestured vaguely at the ruin of a house, unable to look at it, unable to say more.
    Tyler hesitated. For a moment, Diana thought she saw him waver behind what seemed to be only a veil of self-possession. “I don’t know about the little girl,” he said finally. “The mother was outside—maybe the child was, too.”
    “No, she’d just had surgery. She wouldn’t have been—”
    “Don’t reject possibilities. We don’t
know
anything for sure. The firefighters haven’t had a chance to search everywhere. They’re still trying to help the guy who fell into the basement when the floor gave way. They can’t prop a ladder against that crumbling edge of the floor. I think they’re using ropes to bring him up.” Tyler reached out and touched Diana’s arm. “You don’t look so good. You need to go home.”
    “Go home! I can’t go home until I know something about Willow. And if I were going anywhere, it would be to the hospital with Penny!”
    “Settle down and get your breath,” Tyler said sternly. His gaze seemed to grasp hers and hold it unrelentingly. “Now you listen to me. It could be half an hour or longer before they find the child, and there’s not one damned thing you can do for Penny at the hospital besides sit and wait for them to tell you she’s in