Read Online The Deceived by Brett Battles - Free Book Online Page B

her progress.
    “Jenny?” he called out. But the woman didn’t stop.
    Quinn sprinted across the lawn. In the distance, the wail of emergency sirens was nearing.
    When he was only a few feet away, he said in a low voice, “Stop.”
    The woman did just the opposite, moving faster toward the house.
    Quinn closed the remaining distance and grabbed her just below the shoulders, pulling them both to a halt.
    She flailed against him, trying to break free, but he held tight. As he turned her to face him, he realized he was wrong. She wasn’t Jenny. The height had been right, and the hair was close enough to his memory of Jenny’s, but the face belonged to someone else.
    “Please,” she said. “Let me go. I didn’t see anything, okay?” She winced in pain, but she didn’t cry out.
    “What were you doing back there?” Quinn asked.
    She shook her head. “Nothing.”
    “Maybe watching to make sure the bomb got me?”
    “No. Please, just let me go.”
    “You were trying to kill me, weren’t you?” Quinn said.
    “Please. I just want to leave.”
    “Who are you?”
    As she started to speak, a jolt of pain crossed her face. She began to lean down, but Quinn’s grip held her in place.
    “I twisted my ankle,” she said. “Just let me check it.”
    “Slow and easy,” he said.
    As he released his grip, he moved behind her, keeping a hand on her back just below her neck. The sirens were closer now. Perhaps a minute away, no more.
    The woman rubbed her ankle for a moment, then one of her hands slipped under the cuff of her pants. Quinn reached down and grabbed her wrist just as her hand reemerged. She was holding a small pistol. By the looks of it, a .22. Not a lot of firepower, but at close range enough to kill.
    Quinn wrenched the weapon from her grasp.
    “Give that back,” she said.
    He slipped the gun into his pocket.
    “Fine. Keep it. I don’t care,” she said. She turned her head toward the sound of the sirens, then looked back at Quinn. “Can I go now?”
    Quinn knew they had very little time before they’d be discovered, but he didn’t move. “Who are you?”
    “Does it matter?” she said. “Look, they’re going to arrest both of us if they find us here. I didn’t have anything to do with the explosion, and I know you didn’t either or you wouldn’t have been standing so
    close when it went off. Right?”
    Quinn didn’t reply.
    “Can we just get out of here?” she asked.
    “Who are you?”
    “It doesn’t matter.”
    “Actually, it does.”
    He grabbed her by the arm and started pushing her across the yard toward the front gate.
    Quinn found an old Ford Bronco parked on the street with its doors unlocked.
    “Get in,” he said to the woman.
    She looked at him for a second, then climbed across to the passenger seat.
    “Don’t think about getting out and running, because I will catch you,” Quinn said.
    The look on her face told him she understood.
    It took him less than a minute to hot-wire the ignition. As the engine roared to life, he sat up and jammed the Bronco into drive.
    “Who are you?” he asked again.
    She hesitated, then said, “Tasha. Tasha...Laver.”
    Quinn drove carefully, keeping his speed down so as not to draw unwanted attention. “What were you doing in that backyard?”
    “I...I was looking for someone.”
    “Really? Who?”
    Ahead was a stop sign. Quinn slowed, then rolled through it when he saw the coast was clear.
    “A friend. The house belongs to her. But...” She paused, then looked at Quinn. “Who are you ? What were you doing there?”
    Quinn said nothing.
    “I know you weren’t with them, or you wouldn’t have been trying to get into the house.”
    “Them?” he asked as he took the next right.
    “The people in the house. That family. The others. I’ve never seen any of them before. And I’ve known Jenny for...” She stopped herself. “You haven’t told me who you are.”
    “You’re right. I haven’t,” he said, beginning to feel he might