Read Fool Me Once (Codie Snow #1): A Romantic Suspense Series for Free Online Page B

holding it like a weapon, and she looked around frantically.  It was dark and the cop car wasn’t flashing the red-and-blues, but she spied the vehicle anyway and ran over.  Codie felt her eyes grow wide but she just stared, feeling like she couldn’t move.
    “Brian?  You in there?”  When she saw Codie, she acted at first like she was going to tackle the woman, and Codie braced herself for it, preparing for a fight, but then the woman suddenly flung her arm so that the pitcher’s contents doused Codie in a cold liquid that didn’t seem to have any smell.
    But it was icy, and it made her gasp while throwing her off guard.  Before she could fully get her wits about her, she heard the woman yell, “I’ll get you out, Brian!”  And then she started running down the street before Codie could even make sense of any of it.  She ran to the edge of the driveway, wondering if it would be smart or safe even to chase the woman, and she was grappling with what to do when she heard an explosion from the house behind her.
    An explosion…and no sign of Pete.

 
     
     
    Chapter Six
     
     
    CODIE SPUN ON her feet to see the flickering of flames off a background of smoke billowing up from the back of the house, and she could hear several dogs barking and howling in the neighborhood.  It was then that she recognized that there was a siren approaching from far off, Pete’s backup whose timing left a lot to be desired.
    Codie decided she couldn’t chase the woman—not with all that was going on.  She instead focused on the house, wondering what happened to Pete.  Was he injured?  Dead?  Had he caused the explosion or just been unfortunate enough to be there when it happened?
    Should she go inside and try to save him?
    Another smaller explosion sending more flames and sparks against the night sky told her she shouldn’t.  But she wanted to know what the hell was taking his backup so damn long.  She had to do something .  She couldn’t just stand there while Pete might be injured or dying or even dead.
    As Codie started running toward the garage, trying to figure out if she should enter there or through the front door, she heard Pete yell her name.  She turned to the left to see him coming around the left of the garage on the dark side of the house.  “What happened?” she asked as the sirens in the distance grew louder.
    Pete placed his hand on Codie’s elbow, gently leading her away from the garage.  “I could ask you the same thing.”
    Codie realized he was talking about her dripping hair and shit.  “Oh, yeah.  Some crazy woman ran out of the house and poured a pitcher of something on me, told the guy in the car she’d find him, and then ran down the road.  Sorry I didn’t chase her.”  Under her breath, she added, “Lunatic.”
    Pete shook his head.  “No, don’t be.  You’re not armed, and you have no idea why she was running.  She’ll turn up eventually.”  Once they were on the far side of the cruiser so that it was between them and the burning building, he said, “I walked in the house, and it didn’t take me long to realize they’re cooking meth, so I was gonna see who else was in there I could arrest.  But before I got to the kitchen, there was an explosion, so I jumped out the back door and made my way around here.”  Codie nodded as he grinned, making her knees feel weak.  “You weren’t worried about me, were you?”
    “What if I was?”
    The whining of sirens grew so loud, there would be no talking at this point, and Codie turned toward the sound.  It was then that she noticed several neighbors standing on the sidewalk across the street, most of them in bathrobes or pajamas.
    A cop car screeched to a halt in front of the house, followed by a firetruck that parked almost in the middle of the street.  When Codie looked back at him, Pete cocked an eyebrow.  The sirens shut off, she was able to hear him when she said, “We probably need to clean that shit off you.