To Tell An Altswood Lie (The Altswood Saga #3)

Chapter 19 - Charge

Chapter 19 - Charge

Debris and fire rained down from above, leaving chunks of the rooftop in the garden and glass shards blowing to our feet.

My hands flew to my ears at the dreadful sound. We cringed back, but it seemed that we were just out of range of the blast. The wreckage didn't touch us.

"Oh my god."

I lowered my hands slowly, gasping for breath.

Where there was once a window looking into Maire's bedroom, there was now a giant, smoking hole that ate half the house. Anything that might have been in there, any evidence, any clue that I might have seen: gone.

"Was there a bomb in the house while you were poking around?" Gabriel uttered, horrified.

The thought terrified me for a moment too, but then I shook my head.

"We heard it ticking before it blew, and I didn't hear anything while I was inside," I whispered. "Whoever tried to bash me over the head planted it the moment I ran out the door."

An inferno was steadily growing. I could feel its thick, smoky heat—a searing warmth that pressed at my skin and tried to crawl into my lungs. The sensations were so overbearing that I didn't hear the police sirens until they were roaring down the street.

"They're here already," Gabriel stated, surprised. "How did they respond so fast?" He looked at his phone. "My call didn't even go through."

The first police car halted to a stop. Frantically, I looked over my shoulder, eyeing the distance from Maire's garden to the tree-line at the end of the street. If I was picturing the correct aerial view of Bottle Island in my head, those forests could lead to the town centre.

"They're not here for the explosion," I said, already moving, dragging Gabriel. "They're here for us. Run."

One of the doors to the police car flew open. A voice on a loudspeaker blared into the night that we were under arrest.

"We're under arrest again?" Gabriel huffed, yanking my sleeve as we hurtled into the trees.

"What did we do this time?" I panted.

We didn't have the energy to complain about anything else after that. We were more focused on not tripping over our own feet.

By now, I had practically gotten used to being smacked in the face by tree branches. Every time I was on a life-or-death sprint through the forests, it was like the low hanging tree limbs suddenly increased tenfold. I would never get this many scrapes if I was calmly walking.

"Stop right now!" a voice boomed behind us. The sirens had faded, but too late did I realise it was because the police cars had gone around, circling by to the other side of the trees.

"Shit," Gabriel muttered, coming to a stop the moment we skidded back onto a dirt road. Police cars were parked in every viable direction. They had trapped us in.

At that point, I was breathing so heavily I had to rest my hands on my knees, gasping for air. We could try bolt again—there were certainly gaps between the cars and another route to the town, but I was so tired. I didn't have the stamina for this.

Agent Tam climbed out of a passenger seat.

"Alright, hands up."

"What happened to custody for our own protection?" I wheezed. "You need handcuffs for that now?"

"That was before we had incriminating evidence handed in to confirm your homicide charges," she shot back. "Hands up."

I complied, because there was really no other option.