“I can hear him. Wait here.”
I don’t like that, but Dalton’s already running. We can hear the rustle and thump of the man’s flight, and I’m about to run faster when I then remember Anders. I bang on the door, saying, “It’s me!”
He opens it.
“Guy took off,” I say quickly. “Something you said sent him running.”
Anders comes out after me, telling Yolanda to lock the door. As we run, he says, “I didn’t say anything that would tip him off.”
“Then I guess the sound of a male voice was enough.”
“Damn it. Right. He thought there was a woman inside—Lilith or Gretchen. A lone woman.”
“When he realized his mistake, he bolted.”
We keep running, easily following the sound of Dalton and his target.
“Go ahead,” I say to Anders. “You know I can’t keep up.”
“Yeah, and if he circles back?”
“Uh, armed law-enforcement professional here? But yes, good point. He may have been hoping to lure you out and circle back. I’ll stand guard at the—”
A shot rings out. Then another in quick succession. My heart leaps into my throat, and I bear down, running full out, ignoring the screaming pain in my leg.
Dalton would not have fired unless he had to, which means that first shot wasn’t his. Another shot comes, and I run faster even as Anders takes the lead. He’s racing in the direction of the blast, me right behind him, my leg on fire, both of us ducking and dodging around trees until—
“Hold!” a voice calls ahead of us.
Dalton’s voice.
We both stop and listen, and I can barely breathe, picturing Dalton in a standoff with an armed man. When a figure appears in the moonlight, my hand goes to my jacket, but it’s only Dalton.
I run to him. “Are you okay?” I say, as my gaze sweeps over him.
“Yeah, he didn’t hit me.”
“That was his gunfire? All his?”
Dalton nods. “He shot my way once, and I hit the ground. He kept running and fired two more shots.”
“Backing you off,” Anders says, his own gun in hand.
“Yeah. I didn’t see where the shots hit, which means they were wild. A ploy to stop me from chasing him, and I hate that it worked but…”
“You had an armed man shooting at you. In the forest. At night,” I say. “Backing off was the right thing to do.”
Dalton exhales. “Well, now we know he’s armed. I don’t think I would have caught up anyway. He was pulling away. Same as yesterday. He’s faster than me.”
“He’s wearing night-vision goggles, which gives him the advantage.”
“Yeah. He was dodging trees much faster than I could.”
I look toward the cabin. “We should get back in case this was all about luring Will away.”
Anders snorts. “I almost wish it was. I’d love to see his face if he opened the door and found Yolanda with her gun pointed at his crotch.”
I shake my head, and we return to the cabin.
