The gunshot scattered dust at her feet.

“Get down!” She tackled her son. Their son.

“Was that a gun, Mommy?”

That was a question she never thought she’d have to answer. Her heart beat a terrified rhythm and then there was a weight on top of her. Jake. He’d dived on her to shelter them.

Cassie needed time to figure out what that meant, but the gunshots continued.

“What do we do?” she asked Jake. Why had she assumed they’d be safe from the killers here? Maybe because coming after them didn’t make sense. Unless they’d come close to finding something. But what?

Finally, the shots stopped and stillness returned to the woods.

The boy started to cry and Jake calmed him. Then he turned to her. “We need to move.”

At Jake’s word, they started hiking, faster, and Cassie kept vigil, looking for a threat she knew was out there somewhere.

Someone had shot at them today and could still be watching even now.

And she was their prime target.