She glanced past him, spotted another person crouched in the woods, holding a rifle. “Where did you come from?”
“Boy Scout camp.” He winked. “Listen. Run for Flynn. She’ll get you to safety.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to make sure your mother doesn’t die.” He moved her behind him and took her position at the corner of the house.
Vic was still arguing with Thornwood, who had raised his rifle.
“He’s going to kill her!”
“He won’t,” Dawson whispered. “He needs Luna.”
Who?
Dawson turned back. “Run!”
But her legs wouldn’t work. Not when—
And that’s when she spotted the other brother. He’d parked himself in the barn, in a window overlooking the compound.
“Sniper! In the barn.”
Dawson stood, holding his handgun. “I said run!”
A shot fired, and snow chipped up near Vic’s feet.
She didn’t move. No, no—thiswasn’thappening.
Another shot, and she screamed. “No—!”
Vic’s gaze landed on her a second before another shot.
Vic jerked, falling back against her truck, then crumbled onto the ground.
And then the world simply exploded.
Maybe Dawson sensed her movement, because he reached out for her, but Keely jerked away and ran around the house, screaming.
Dawson shouted from behind her, and she only got a few steps before he tackled her from behind.
She landed in the snow, face-first, as gunshots littered the air. A motor fired up, and she fought Dawson’s grip on her to see the battered red truck peeling out of the driveway.
More shots from the sniper in the barn, but Dawson rolled off her. “Stay down!” He gave her a look that should pin her to the ground.
Indeed, it sent a tremor through her, but more fury than fear.
What was Vic doing here? She shot a look at the woman, unmoving in the snow, and everything curdled inside her.
Dawson told her.Nothing else made sense—the man had betrayed her secret to Vic, which had ignited some inner cop gene, maybe, and—
Shots fired from the woods, and she spotted a man in a sheriff’s uniform emerge from the forest by the driveway, a couple more uniforms from the other side.
They had the place surrounded.
Dawson got up and grabbed Vic by the back of her jacket and pulled her away, behind the truck. Keely ran over to her.
Vic’s eyes remained closed, her breathing slight. But Keely didn’t see blood—
