The whisper ping of a bullet sliced through the air, followed by another and then another.
Ethan yelped and collapsed to the floor, grasping his knee. “What the fuck!”
“I told you to get down,” she said. “Cover your ears.”
Dani held her breath and waited, instinctively knowing what would come next. The exterior doors of her home were solid steel, but her interior doors might as well have been made of balsa wood. The same big boot that had come through the window crashed into her room, practically knocking the door off the hinges. Dani didn’t hesitate and unloaded a shotgun round into the darkened doorway.
A low, tinnitus-like ring whined in her ears in the aftermath of the shotgun blast. The explosive scent of gunpowder and metallic blood filled her nostrils, but it was another smell that caused her to take pause. Smoke. A soft orange glow.Fire. Her house wason fire.
“We need to move!” Dani tossed down the spent shotgun, hoisted Ethan up off the ground, and threw his arm around her shoulder. Dark plumes of smoke billowed into her bedroom as smoke alarms bleeped their too-late warning. She didn’t know where the intruder was or if she had even shot him, but one thing was clear: they couldn’t stay in the room for another minute. She unlocked her bedroom window, opened it, and she and Ethan disappeared into the night.
“Get in.” Dani threw open the passenger door to the old F-150 and helped hoist Ethan up into the seat. The truck was hers, purchased with cash four years ago as part of her early retirement plan. The beat up old Ford would have been useful in her new life in the mountains for moving firewood and tools and for driving over dirt roads. Now it would have to serve as an unlikely escape vehicle.
Dani kept her secret second vehicle parked in her next door neighbors’ carport for just such an emergency situation. It was a good plan; she got to keep the truck hidden in a nearby, accessible location in exchange for checking on things when her neighbors Jack and Judy McGee were out of town. The truck made the house look lived in when her snowbirds neighbors were up north, and she was able to keep a secret escape vehicle. Now, as flames licked out of her master bedroom window, she wondered if the McGee’s would even have their winter residence to come home to.
Once Ethan was safely inside the passenger seat, Dani hurried to the driver’s side and retrieved the keys from under the front tire well. It had been a while since she took the truck out for a spin, but she always kept it gassed up and well maintained. In the back seat she kept a go bag packed with clothes, food, water, medicine, cash, and more weapons.
As she pulled out of the McGee’s driveway and sped through her neighborhood for the last time, Dani didn’t think about the danger she had just put them both in. She didn’t think about her house and everything in it burning to the ground or even the fact that she was being hunted again. She didn’t think about the life she was going to leave behind. All she was focused on at that crucial moment was getting away and getting Ethan to safety.
“Here.” Dani reached into the back seat and pulled a plain white tee from her backpack. “Wrap this around your knee.”
“What the fuck just happened?”
“I knew it wasn’t safe for you to be around me,” she said. “I’m so sorry. I’m going to get you to a hospital.”
“Was it him? The stalker guy?”
“I didn’t see his face. I don’t know if it’s him,” she said. “I’m so sorry you got wrapped up in all of this.”
“They fuckingshotme!”
“I know. I’m really sorry.” Dani neared the guard station at the entrance to her neighborhood, not bothering to wait until the gate raised. Her bumper smashed through the red and white barrier, splintering it to bits as she pressed harder on the gas. Her gaze flicked to the rearview mirror, and she gritted her teeth as a pair of headlights flashed back at her.
“We’re being followed,” she said, cutting the headlights. “I need to lose him so he doesn’t know which hospital I take you to.”
“What?”
“Get down.” Dani pushed his head down and pulled off the road into an abandoned gas station. She rolled in next to the building out of view from the road, cut her engine and hunched down in her seat. She held her breath and watched as the pair of headlights that had been following them raced past the gas station toward town. When the sound of the car faded into the distance, Dani exhaled and turned to Ethan, who was still crouched in his seat.
“I think it’s clear now.”
Ethan sat up, his breathing still labored. “You wanna tell me what that was really about?”
Dani leaned back, keeping her eyes on the road.
“The man I was telling you about? Matt Vickers? He didn’t just stalk me. He killed my friends and then he—” Dani cleared her throat. “He killed my parents. Then he tried to kill me.”
“You’re serious? That really happened?”
“Dead serious,” she said. “There’s a fringe group online that’s dedicated to smearing my name. I took down one of them today, but there must be more out there.”
“This is the craziest … Dani, I’m so sorry.”
“I’m the one who should be sorry. It was irresponsible for me to be around anyone. I shouldn’t have put you in danger.”
“What do you mean? You couldn’t have known this was going to happen.” Ethan winced. “Ow.”
“That’s just it. I knew someone was watching me again. Iwantedthem to find me.”
