Arabella’s scream embedded itself in my head like a bullet. I reached for her as we careened down the wooded embankment, the car glancing off trees, glass shattering, and metal screeching. The car bumped over a fallen log, tilted to the right, then slammed into a tree along the side of a deep ravine. We came to a stop, the car rocking with steam pouring from under the hood.

“Arabella.” I grabbed her hand, though it was hard to see her in the dark.

“What the…” She stirred and coughed.

“A truck. It came from behind us, lights off. Are you okay?”

She pulled on her seatbelt, the strap still tight against her chest. “I think so, but I probably have a stripe going across me from this.”

“Better a stripe than something worse.” I pushed her hair from her face. “You’re bleeding.”

She turned to me. “Benton.” Reaching up, she pressed her palm against my forehead. “You’ve got a bad cut.”

“Damn.” I blinked and realized blood had been clouding my vision. “Doesn’t matter. We have to go.”

She shot a look over her shoulder. “Whoever did that will be coming for us.”

An engine idled on the road above us. We needed to get moving.

Arabella unstrapped her seatbelt and felt her pocket. “My phone.” She leaned forward and reached beneath her. “I can’t find it.”

I pulled the shotgun free and leaned down to help her search.

The crack of a shot followed the thunk of a bullet into the trunk of the car.

“Shit!” I grabbed her arm. “Forget the phone. I’ve got mine.”

“Okay.” She grabbed the door handle. “Let’s go.”

I threw my door open and scrambled out.

“Benton! My door’s jammed.”

Another shot and a chunk of pine tree exploded just a few feet ahead of me. I leaned into the car and grabbed Arabella’s upper arms. With a yank, I pulled her across to me. We both tumbled into the dirt, the pine needles not giving enough cushion as I got the wind knocked out of me.

“Come on.” She crawled around to the front of the car.

I followed as another shot shattered the night.

“We have to get to the bottom of this ravine. That’ll give us enough cover to cut across toward the property.” Arabella wiped her sleeve across my forehead. “I have a first aid kit, but it’s in the trunk.”

“It’s not worth it. I can barely feel it.” I gingerly felt around the cut at my hairline. “It’s just bleeding a lot because of where it is. Hang on, I need to tell Porter.” I pulled out my phone.

Another shot thudded into metal.

“Hurry. The longer we sit here, the easier it will be for him to pick us off.”

With only one bar, I speed dialed Porter.

“Yeah?” Country music blared in the background, then quieted.

“There’s a shooter out here on Highway 9 near the main entrance to the property. He ran us off the road, and we’re on the run through the woods. Send whatever deputies you have available.”

“All I heard—shooter—woods…”

“Porter.” I spoke hard into the phone, as if that would help with connectivity.

“Can’t hear…”

“Goddammit Porter, we need help!”

“Can’t hear—damn—saying. Fuck it, I’m going to send deputies over that way.” The one moment of clarity ended as my service died.

Arabella nodded. “Let’s go.” She pulled her pistol. “I’m going to lay down some covering fire. Hopefully, he’ll hide and we can get far enough away. Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.” I hefted the shotgun as my heartbeat surged on pure adrenaline.

“On three.” She maneuvered to the edge of the car and pointed her pistol up the slope. “One, two, three.”

We darted away from the car as she fired three shots. The undergrowth yanked at my calves as I rushed into the dark with Arabella keeping up at my side. She fired two more rounds just as a slug kicked up the pine straw in front of me. He was a good shot. Fuck.

“Left!” I hurdled a fallen tree, then turned and caught Arabella as she came over.

We hit the bottom of the hollow and raced away from the wrecked car. A shallow stream ran between fern-covered banks. We slogged through it, keeping a hellish pace until the sides of the ravine grew sharper, rock outcroppings giving us impenetrable cover.

“Jesus, my feet are frozen.” Arabella stopped, her hand resting against a mossy stone.

I hustled her around to the side of the rock, then pulled her into my arms. We both shivered, the icy water seeping into our shoes and up our pants.

“The cold may kill us before the shooter does.” Her teeth chattered.

“We just have to keep moving. It’ll keep us warm.”

“Right.” She stomped her feet a little, as if to shake some heat back into them.

“I don’t think he followed.” I wasn’t sure, but I thought I’d heard the sound of an engine growing louder, then disappearing.

“If he’s smart, he’ll loop around onto the property and wait for us to come out of the woods.”

“I think it’s safe to say he’s pretty smart. We just need to be smarter.” I gave her one more squeeze then let her go.

“Let’s keep going.” She pulled her coat together and buttoned it.

I took her hand, and we picked our way along the side of the stream, moonlight glinting off the surface as a frosty wind rattled the dead leaves still left on the trees.

“We’re close.” She jumped across the water as the landscape flattened out to our right, the stone embankment growing impassable on our left.

“Yeah, satellite showed the trees thinning out at the edge of the property. It looked like they clear cut the center of the pulpwoods a long time ago and kept it clear. Maybe for cattle?”

“Could be.” She cast a glance over her shoulder. “Probably some old homestead out here or something. No doubt creepy.”

“Let’s hope not.”

Our footsteps seemed too loud, our puffs of breath too obvious. Sound carried in icy air, the rumble of a log truck from the highway making it all the way to us. But we were still hidden in the woods. No need to get stealthy just yet. We tramped along for fifteen more minutes, our steps growing quieter as tall grass began to fill in the open spaces between the trees.

We passed what was left of a decrepit fence, the timbers long since rotted, a feast for the termites and ants.

“I think we’ve been on the property for a while, but this is the clearing I saw on the satellite images.” I slowed and peered through the dark.

“Let’s just stand and listen for a minute.” She pulled me behind a thick pine tree, and we moved so we were back to back. The brief respite of warmth was welcome—for her, too, since she leaned against me.

A small rise blocked my view of what was ahead, but I was scouring the trees back toward the road. If the shooter had come around to cut us off, that’s where he’d be. A few minutes passed, my cheeks going numb as my body heat dropped.

“I don’t see anything.” The words came out on a shiver.

“Me neither.” I turned and pulled her into my arms, trying to give her what little bit of warmth I had. “If he was out there, he would’ve taken a shot by now. I think we’re in the clear, at least for the moment.”

“Jesus, I should have planned this better.” She pressed her nose against my throat; it was even colder than I was.

“We’re all running on adrenaline at this point. And you couldn’t have planned for some asshole to run us off the road.”

“Maybe not, but I should have known he was there. He must have been following us ever since we left Azalea. I was too keyed up to notice.” She shook her head as much as she could. “Rookie mistake.”

“Stop beating yourself up. I’m pretty sure Chief Garvey is going to do it for you later. Give him a fresh target, why don’t you?”

A tired laugh shook her. “You know, when I met you, you were the biggest asshole on the planet. Now, we’re huddled up together and you’re telling me jokes to cheer me up. How did that even happen?”

“Just lucky I guess.”

She snorted. “Come on. Let’s keep going.”

I kept my head on a swivel as we strode to the top of the rise. After narrowly avoiding an anthill that was bigger than a toddler, I turned my gaze forward.

We topped the rise.

Arabella gasped.

I hefted my shotgun and pulled the trigger.