Hit and Run by Allison Brennan, Laura Griffin Page A

tools I have.”
    She shook her head. She had too much work to do. She needed to tell Krista that she was okay, then call her brother and enlist his help to ensure that Jason was put into protective custody. She needed to follow up on what Jason had told her, look into Gina’s background, into Mercer, find out what Gina knew that got her killed. Get Jason out of this mess. A cop in prison might as well have a target on his back.
    Jason had come to her for help. And now someone tried to kill her. If they thought she was walking away, they didn’t know her.
    She took off the oxygen mask. Breathed deeply a few times and only coughed once. “I’m okay,” she said. “Really.” Scarlet knew the rules—they couldn’t force her to go to the hospital. The green-eyed paramedic was skeptical, but the woman didn’t have time to argue with Scarlet.
    Detective Kyle Richardson strode toward her, a grim look on his face. Maybe it wasn’t grim. Maybe it was angry. Yep, definitely angry.
    Scarlet supposed she couldn’t blame him, but she stood by the story she and Jason had come up with. That she’d tracked him down here, listened to his story, convinced himself to come in. It might not hold up, and if she had to go to court she wasn’t going to perjure herself, but she hoped it never came to that.
    But Richardson stopped when he spotted Jason in the other ambulance. He went over and spoke to him, and Scarlet wished she knew what he was saying. The conversation was brief, then Richardson spoke for a long time to the two responding officers, before finally coming over to talk to her.
    He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it as if he was too angry.
    “Yeah,” she said. “I know.”
    “You don’t know shit, Moreno!”
    She bristled. “I know that someone tried to kill Jason and me. Then they burned the house down around us, waiting for us to run out. Fortunately, fire response was good.”
    “There’s a body in the cellar.”
    “I told them that. Eric Peterson. Armor Plus. Have no idea who he is or what Armor does or why he was shooting at us.”
    It was clear from Richardson’s expression that he’d heard of Armor before.
    “What? Security, right?” she pushed. The paramedic slapped another bandage on her arm. Scarlet turned to her. “Thank you, you’re done.”
    The paramedic turned to Richardson. “She needs to go to the hospital, but she’s refusing.”
    “She’s going.”
    “Like hell I am.”
    “Hospital or jail. Your call.”
    “I haven’t done anything!”
    “I don’t know that yet. I don’t know anything except you kept information from me in a police investigation, and don’t you dare try to hide behind your family connections.”
    She fumed. “I’m not . I tracked Jason down. I’ve been looking for him since you left Leah’s house last night. I called you and told you we were coming in.”
    He hesitated, just a bit, but Scarlet knew that she had him on that. She pushed a bit harder. “You must have heard the gun shots before I lost the call.”
    He didn’t respond.
    She said, “You have to keep Jason in protective custody. Someone tried to kill him, and there’s at least one cop involved.”
    “Stop.”
    “No!”
    He looked at the paramedic. “Give us a minute.”
    The woman walked away, over to her colleague who was working on Jason.
    “I looked up your record, Moreno.”
    She thought he would, but she didn’t know what he thought about it—or even what was accessible in the files. But she wasn’t backing down on this. “Jason will tell you the truth. He didn’t kill Gina.”
    “The gun found in his abandoned car matches preliminary ballistics to the bullets that killed his partner.”
    “It was planted.”
    “Oh, please, Moreno. You’re not that stupid.”
    “Fuck you, Richardson. You looked up my record? Great. Then you know I was a decorated cop, a detective who closed cases up until I was ambushed and hung out to dry. I walked away because I knew there was no way