Page 25 of Shadow Burn

“Living room,” Jasper answered.

Garrett appeared, weapon in hand, expression grim. His gaze swept Katherine, the hallway behind them, Jasper’s face.

“Jesus,” Garrett said.

“He went out the bedroom window,” Jasper told him. “He was masked and armed. We need the perimeter checked. He fired at her.”

“His gun,” Katherine said. “I think it’s under the bed.”

“He dropped his weapon?” Jasper seemed shocked.

Katherine wrapped both hands around herself and tried to stop shaking. It didn’t work. “Because of Priss. I fought him, but she tripped him.” Her teeth chattered again. “He fell and dropped it.”

Jasper glanced up. “We need to secure it.”

Garrett’s expression hardened. “I’ll take care of it.”

The sirens arrived outside in a burst of red and blue. The lights flashed through the front windows, striping the room, Jasper, the walls.

Garrett returned, and went to greet the officers.

Jasper stayed with her. Katherine looked up at him. “The file.”

His eyes narrowed. “What?”

“Did he take the file?” Her voice sounded distant, detached.

“No,” Jasper said, and there was something dark in his voice now. Something she hadn’t heard before. “He didn’t come for the papers.”

She swallowed. Her throat hurt. Everything hurt. “Then he was here for me. The way he said my name…”

Jasper lowered himself beside her on the couch, close enough that his shoulder touched hers.

“He came for you,” he said, “but he failed.”

She stared down at her shaking hands. A thin red line crossed her palm. The smeared blood looked too bright against her skin. “I froze.”

“You fought.”

“I froze first.”

“You still fought.”

She closed her eyes. The image came back of the black mask and the eye at the crack in the door. The gun. The window exploding. His hand on her ankle. His fist in her hair.

Her eyes flew open with a gasp. “I hit him with a book,” she said.

Jasper blinked. “What?”

“I hit him with a book.” The absurdity of it made her huff a tight lauch. “It’s about Cold War intelligence failures.”

His mouth moved, not quite a smile. “That tracks.”

Another broken laugh escaped her, and this one became a sob halfway through.

Jasper put an arm around her shoulders. “After we talk to the police, we’ll get your cuts cleaned up.”

Outside, figures moved through the flashing lights. Voices rose and fell. Someone called for crime scene tape. Someone else asked about the broken window.