On The Run Read Online Free Page A

looking out the window. “But it’s so dark it’s hard to see— Oh, there’s someone with a flashlight coming across the yard. Do you think it’s Charlie?”
    It wasn’t Charlie. Charlie knew every inch of his farm and wouldn’t need a flashlight. “Come on, baby.” She grabbed her arm and pulled her down the stairs. “We’re going out the kitchen door. Be very quiet.”
    A sound of metal on metal at the front door. She inhaled sharply. She had jimmied too many locks herself not to know that sound.
    She had changed Charlie’s flimsy locks when she came here, but it wouldn’t take an expert long to break in. And if they couldn’t force the lock, then they’d find another way.
    “Out,” she whispered, and pushed Frankie toward the kitchen.
    Frankie flew down the hall and threw open the kitchen door. She looked back at Grace, her eyes wide. “Robbers?” she whispered.
    Grace nodded as she grabbed a rain poncho for Frankie from the mudroom hooks, threw it to her, and then grabbed one for herself. “And there might be more than one. Head for the paddock and then the woods on the other side. If I’m not right behind, don’t wait for me. I’ll catch up.”
    Frankie was shaking her head.
    “Don’t say no to me,” Grace said. “What have I always taught you? You have to take care of yourself before you can take care of others. Now do what I say.”
    Frankie hesitated.
    Christ, Grace could hear the creak of the front door as it opened. “Run!”
    Frankie ran, streaking across the yard and into the paddock. Grace watched for a second, waiting. There was almost always a lookout man.
    She didn’t have to wait long. A tall man had come around the house and was running after Frankie.
    She took off after him.
    No gun. She didn’t want to bring the others in the house out here.
    Run. The rain and thunder would mask the sound of her footsteps behind him.
    She reached him as he entered the woods.
    He must have heard the sound of her breathing. He whirled, gun in hand.
    She sprang, the side of her hand numbing the wrist of his gun hand. Then her dagger sliced across his jugular. She didn’t watch him fall to the ground. She turned, searching the shadows. “Frankie?”
    She heard a low sobbing. Frankie was huddled at the base of a tree a short distance away. “It’s okay, baby. He can’t hurt you now.” Grace fell to her knees beside her. “But we have to leave. We have to run. There are others.”
    Frankie’s hand reached out and touched a smear on Grace’s poncho. “Blood. There’s blood . . . on you.”
    “Yes. He would have hurt you. He would have hurt both of us. I had to stop him.”
    “Blood . . .”
    “Frankie . . .” She stiffened as she heard a shout from across the paddock. She stood up and pulled Frankie with her. “I’ll talk to you about it later. They’re coming. Now do what I say and
run
. Let’s go.”
    She half-pulled Frankie deeper into the woods. After only a few steps Frankie was running, stumbling with her through the brush.
    Where to hide? She had scoped out and planned bolt-holes in these woods over the years. Choose one.
    She couldn’t count on Frankie being able to keep this pace for long. She was a child and almost in shock. Grace had to find a close place to hide and wait them out. Robert was on his way.
    Or at least find a way to hide Frankie. She could decide after she saw how many were after her whether she could handle the situation alone.
    The blind.
    Charlie had a hunting blind in a tree not far from here. He hadn’t used it for years, claiming he couldn’t climb the damn tree anymore.
    Well, she could climb. And Frankie was as agile as a monkey.
    “The blind,” she gasped. “Get to the blind, Frankie. Hide there.”
    “Not without you.”
    “I’m coming.”
    Frankie glared back at her. “Now.”
    “Okay, now.” Grace grabbed her hand and tore through the underbrush. The wet foliage slapped her in the face and her tennis shoes sank deep in the mud with