Nothing made sense.

Morgan jogged through the grass behind Lance and Esposito. They made a wide detour around the house and ran into the small backyard. Embers and debris rained down on them. A pinprick of heat seared Morgan’s cheek as she scanned the back of the house. She brushed the ember off her skin.

“Look!” She pointed to smoke pouring from an open basement window. “Someone must have gotten out.”

Wood creaked and groaned. Then a moan sounded, soft and low. The fire or a person? Lance and Esposito both froze. Morgan strained to listen. The moan came again.

Lance dropped to a knee and touched the ground. “Blood.”

Crouching, he followed it through the tall grass. “Sharp!”

Morgan rushed to Lance’s side, her head pounding from the exertion and smoke. Sharp lay on his back in the grass, unmoving, eyes closed. Was he breathing?

Morgan scanned the yard. Where was Haley? She glanced back at the house, now almost completely consumed by fire. Anyone who was still inside that building wasn’t coming out alive.

Dropping to her knees, she pressed her fingers to Sharp’s throat. Please. His pulse throbbed weakly against her fingertips. “He’s still alive.”

But barely.

His hand clutched a balled-up sweatshirt pressed against his belly. Morgan lifted it and took in the volume of blood seeping out of the wound in his abdomen. She quickly pressed it down again. He needed help. Now.

“I have a first aid kit in my car.” Esposito doubled back and ran toward the front of the house.

Lance knelt on Sharp’s other side.

Morgan took Sharp’s hand in her own. His fingers were cold and bloodless. “Sharp, where’s Haley?”

Sharp’s eyes cracked a millimeter, just enough to show his complete defeat. She couldn’t hear him over the roar and crackle of the fire. Morgan leaned closer.

“I don’t know.” His voice was weak. “She ran.” He gasped. “Isaac.” Sharp drew in another labored breath. “Chased her.”

Isaac?

Morgan had no time to process Sharp’s revelation.

He lifted a hand and pointed to the fence and steep drop-off beyond it. The gate to the lookout path stood wide open. The bike lock was on the ground.

“You stay with Sharp.” Lance wiped soot from his face with his forearm and headed toward the gate.

Sharp tugged on Morgan’s hand and mouthed, “Go with him.”

Morgan put Sharp’s hand on the balled-up sweatshirt. “Press as hard as you can.”

Sharp’s eyes closed.

“Sharp!” Morgan touched his arm.

His eyelids opened halfway.

“Don’t you dare die.” Morgan wiped tears from her face with her sleeve. “Lance needs you.”

“Nah.” Sharp gave her a small headshake. “He has you. Now go. He needs backup.”

Esposito would be back in a minute. He’d have to look after Sharp. Morgan wasn’t letting Lance face a dangerous man alone. But leaving Sharp felt wrong.

Esposito’s shadow appeared around the side of the house. He was carrying a first aid kit and a blanket. Morgan stood and stared at the gate and trail beyond it. Her head throbbed, and nausea churned in her belly.

She’d never be able to catch Lance, not with her concussion. Even if she wasn’t injured, he was just too fast. Whatever was going to happen would be over long before Morgan caught up with them.

But she couldn’t just stand here. She had to do something.

Ignoring the pain in her head, Morgan broke into a run.

Chapter Forty-Three

Haley ran through the gate. Adrenaline had swept the dregs of her sleeping pill from her brain. The fire roared and crackled behind her. Her own heartbeats and footfalls drowned out the sound of Isaac giving chase.

But he was there. She could sense him behind her in the darkness.

Her brain didn’t bother to try and sort out the reason for his attack. She could only focus on surviving it.

She made a sharp left and kept to the narrow path cut into the side of the ravine. Using moonlight, the glow from the fire, and her muscle memory, she moved along the trail at a steady pace.

She might not be big or strong, but she knew the trail. She and her mom hiked down to the overlook practically every weekend.

The trail dropped, and the left-hand side became a wall of rock. Ten feet to the right, the slope fell off.

The roar of the fire faded as she moved farther away. She paused for a breath. The night’s chill blew against her sweaty T-shirt. Her ankle bracelet had begun to vibrate, and she hoped the alarm summoned more police. Rocks shifted on the trail. Isaac was behind her. Somewhere.

She moved faster, determined to put some distance between them. The rocky ground bit into her bare feet, and her lungs burned as she ran. But adrenaline charged through her bloodstream, wiping out all traces of pain.

Pushing off a boulder, she rounded a turn in the trail. On the right, the wooded slope dropped off at a steep grade. If she went over the edge, she’d tumble at least a hundred feet through tree trunks and brush. The slope was too steep to navigate without a rope. Broken bones would be a sure thing.

She went around a stand of trees. Shadows from their branches fell over the path. She picked her way along the trail with care. A twisted ankle would be the end of her. Lungs heaving, Haley slowed her steps to catch her breath and listen again. Her pulse echoed in her ears. She held her breath for a few seconds. Straining, she could hear him scrambling on the trail behind her. Was he farther away now? Had she increased the gap between them?

Hope charged her and lent her speed. She could do this. She could get away.

She might not be an athlete, but neither was Isaac.

She raced around a huge dead oak tree. Its trunk had been split nearly to the ground by a lightning strike. The overlook was just ahead. And beyond it, the trail that led to the road.

And maybe her escape.

Emergency vehicles would be coming up the mountain. There would be people on the road. Surely, once she reached it, she’d be safe. Thoughts of safety and survival led back to Sharp, bleeding in the grass.

Was he still alive?

His blood on her hands had cooled. Her breath caught on a sob, and her toe snagged a tree root. She stumbled but didn’t go down.

Focus.

Nothing she could have done would have helped Sharp. If she had stayed, Isaac would have shot them both. She’d seen the intent to kill in his eyes. Her only option had been to draw Isaac and his gun away from Sharp and hope that someone else saved him.

Surely the fire trucks would be there soon.

Pebbles broke loose on the trail behind her.

Isaac.

With all her attention on the trail, she burst onto the ledge of the overlook. Once she crossed it, she’d start up the other side. The uphill, harder part of the climb would hopefully put more ground between her and Isaac.

But a shadow stepped out from behind a tree, blocking the trail on the other side. Someone was here. She opened her mouth to shout for help, but the word died on her lips. The moonlight glinted on the metal of a gun in his hand. It was Noah’s friend, Chase.

Haley skidded to a stop. The metal barrier of the overlook was on her right, a solid wall of rock on her left. Isaac’s footsteps on the trail behind her drew closer. She spun around, turning her back to the rock wall, as Isaac emerged from the trail and staggered to a halt.

Panting, he raised his gun, pointing it at her head. “You’re done.”

Panic ripped through her bloodstream.

She was trapped.

Chapter Forty-Four

Lance’s chest burned as he moved down the path. The terrain—and his smoke-filled lungs—kept his pace to an agonizingly slow jog. He blocked the image of Sharp and his heavily bleeding wound from his mind. Saving Haley from Isaac had to be his sole focus.

Sharp wouldn’t have it any other way, and Lance would not let his friend down.

But in the back of Lance’s mind was the thought that Sharp was, at that very moment, dying in Morgan’s arms. Would she be able to stop the bleeding?

The trail sloped downward. Lance’s boots ate up the ground. Parts of the trail were narrow. One wrong step and he’d go over the side. Then he wouldn’t be able to save anyone.

A split tree shone in the moonlight ahead. The overlook wasn’t much farther. Lance eased off the speed as he approached.