No Exit by Taylor Adams 2

The worst part of it all? Their sheer, dumb optimism.
These brothers weren’t criminal masterminds. Not even close.
Even if they torched every square inch of this building to
cinders, the Colorado police would find something. A stray
hair. A skin flake. Something distinctive about the Astro’s tire
tracks. A thumbprint on one of Ashley’s steel nails. Or even
some circumstantial detail connecting Sandi to them;
something they’d overlooked in their rush to eliminate her
before she cracked under police scrutiny. They’d been
careless. This entire ransom plot had been naïve and stupid,
and it was almost certainly doomed to fail, but not before
costing innocent people their lives tonight, and to Darby, that
was somehow the most offensive part of it all.
She wiped an oily strand of hair from her face. Dripping
with accelerant, moments from burning to death, she knew she
should be terrified, screaming, hysterical, but she couldn’t
summon the energy. She just felt tired.
The front door creaked — Ashley was walking outside
now. Just a few seconds left. He’d go out behind the visitor
center, and find his keychain in the snow, and then Darby’s life
would become as worthless as Ed’s and Sandi’s. A nail or
bullet to the skull if she was lucky, and a flicked match if she
wasn’t. Either way, she’d die right here, with her right hand
smashed in a door, and then her bones would blacken in this
fiery grave while Ashley and Lars escaped with Jay. The
burning visitor center would be a useful distraction until
authorities discovered the three skeletons inside the wreckage.
By then the Brothers Garver would be hours ahead. Plenty of
time to vanish into an indifferent world.
But this left one unknown.
One final, itching question.
What are they going to do with Jay?
Ashley had been planning to meet Sandi here, to murder
her and sever ties. But what about Jay? If it’s not for a ransom
… then what?