My left side hit something hard. I bounced off of whatever it was and fell another foot before landing on a steep slope and rolling downward like a log. The ground evened out and I came to rest against a knobby fallen tree branch. It took me a second to get air moving in and out of my lungs again, but then I was on my knees, trying to find some cover at the bottom of what I now saw was a dry ravine.
The sides of the gully were steep, and aside from a few clumps of ferns, there was nothing that would shield me from Gavin’s bullets. I pushed myself to my feet and tried to scrabble up the far side of the ravine. A sharp pain in my left wrist stopped me from using that hand, but even with two hands, I wouldn’t have made it very far. Dirt crumbled beneath my feet and I slithered back down to the bottom of the ravine. I tried again, but the same thing happened, and this time one of my flip-flops slipped off my foot.
I reached for it but froze when I heard someone crashing through the bushes above me. When Gavin barreled through the undergrowth and appeared at the edge of the ravine, a cold, sickening sensation washed over me. I was trapped, an easy target.
I opened my mouth to try to reason with him, even though I knew in my heart it would be pointless, but no words would come out. My eyes widened at a flash of movement behind Gavin. Chloe charged through the ferns and drove her shoulder into Gavin’s back.
He let out a grunt of surprise as he lurched forward at the same moment his finger pressed the trigger. I dropped to the ground as the shot tore through the air, and could hardly believe it when no bullet hit me. Gavin bounced off the side of the ravine and tumbled downward, just as I had moments earlier. The gun flew from his hand and came to rest halfway down the side of the ravine, jammed up against a tree root.
I scrambled out of the way as Gavin rolled toward me. Every one of my muscles remained tense as his body came to an abrupt stop on the ravine floor. I expected him to jump up and attack me, but he didn’t move.
“Gavin?” I said tentatively.
I received no response. Warily, I stepped closer to him and put a hand on his arm. He still didn’t stir.
“Is he dead?”
I glanced up to see Chloe standing at the edge of the ravine above me, one hand over her mouth. In the growing darkness, I couldn’t see her features clearly, but I guessed that her expression was as horrified as her words had sounded.
I pressed two fingers to Gavin’s throat and felt a pulse beating steadily.
“Just unconscious,” I called out to Chloe.
“What about you? Are you okay?” she asked.
“I hurt my wrist when I fell,” I said, “but otherwise I’m fine. You?”
“I’m okay. Can you climb out of there?”
“I’m not sure.” I noticed a rectangular shape in the pocket of Gavin’s jeans. Moving carefully—afraid that he might wake up at any moment, still bent on killing me—I slipped my hand into the pocket and drew out his cellphone.
I tucked the device into my own pocket, planning to call for help as soon as I put some distance between myself and Gavin. Cradling my injured wrist against my stomach, I retrieved my missing flip-flop and carefully climbed up the side of the ravine. After progressing a few feet, my foothold crumbled away and I slid back to the bottom.
“Do you want me to come down?” Chloe asked.
“Better not, or we might both end up stuck here.” I reached into my pocket for the phone, casting an uneasy glance at Gavin’s unmoving form. “I’ll call for help.”
Before I had a chance to wake up the device, something crashed through the forest, coming closer and closer. It sounded like a herd of large animals. Chloe swung around just as Kirk burst through a clump of ferns. He flailed to a stop at the edge of the ravine and stared down at Gavin.
He turned on Chloe. “Did you kill him?”
Before she had a chance to reply, he spun around and plunged back into the forest. At the same moment, a shadowy figure broke through the brush and grabbed Kirk. He hollered and tried to break free, but the arms holding him were too strong for him to defeat.
“Ivan?” I stared up at the burly chef, completely stunned.
There was more rustling from the bushes, and a second later Lisa stepped into view. She leaned forward, resting her hands on her knees, out of breath.
“Marley, are you okay?” she called.
Before I could respond, more crashing and snapping of twigs came from the forest behind them.
“Over here!” Ivan bellowed.
The noises grew louder, and two more people appeared at the edge of the ravine. Although it was growing darker by the minute, I could still see enough to recognize Sheriff Georgeson and Deputy Devereaux.
I had no idea how they’d known to come looking for us in the forest, or what had brought Ivan and Lisa—of all people—out here, but my questions would have to wait. Devereaux took charge of Kirk, snapping a pair of handcuffs around his wrists while he let out a string of swearwords.
Ray and Ivan slipped and slid their way down the embankment.
“Are you okay, Marley?” Ray asked as he knelt down next to Gavin.
“I hurt my wrist, but otherwise I’m fine.” As he checked Gavin for a pulse, I added, “He fell down the embankment and hit his head.” I pointed at the weapon lodged against the tree root, barely visible now in the thickening darkness. “His gun landed over there.”
“He was planning to shoot you?” Ivan growled.
“And very nearly did.” I shivered, remembering my terrible feeling of helplessness when Gavin had pointed the weapon at me from up above.
Ray called into his radio, requesting an ambulance. Just as he finished speaking, Gavin stirred. I jumped backward, fear skittering over my skin. I bumped into Ivan, and he put an arm around me to steady me.
Despite Ray’s caution to lie still, Gavin sat up. When he spotted me standing a few feet away with Ivan, he pointed a finger at me.
“She’s crazy! She tried to kill me!”
“What?” I couldn’t believe he was trying to turn the whole thing on me.
“We know that’s not true,” Ivan assured me.
“He and Kirk were behind the meth lab on Mrs. Rideout’s property, and Gavin killed Ida after she found out about it.”
Gavin swore at me, but then his energy seemed to drain out of him and he slumped back to the ground. Ray nodded at Ivan, and he guided me over to the embankment.
“Let’s get you out of here.”
I was all for that plan. With the chef’s help, I made it to the top of the embankment, Chloe and Lisa converging on me as soon as I was up over the edge. They both hugged me while I held my sore wrist close against my stomach so it wouldn’t get crushed.
“I’ve never been so scared in my life,” Chloe said.
“That text message scared me out of my wits,” Lisa said at the same time.
“What text message?” I asked, confused.
“The one you sent me,” Lisa replied as she released me. “All it said was help.”
“I sent that,” Chloe said. “When I heard Gavin force his way into the house, I grabbed the closest phone—yours, Marley, since it was sitting on the table—and tried to send a text to Brett. I guess I hit the wrong name, but luckily it still did its job. Then I called 911, but I was afraid Gavin would hear me on the phone, so instead of saying anything to the dispatcher, I just left the connection open and hid the phone behind the kettle on the kitchen counter.”
I gave Chloe another hug. “That was quick thinking.” I released her and turned to Lisa. “But how did you guys find us out here? And why was Ivan with you?”
“I ran into him at the grocery store just before I got the text. We were heading to your place to check on you when we saw an unfamiliar vehicle come out of your driveway. We followed from a distance, and I used Ivan’s binoculars to see who was in the car. I thought one of the people in the backseat looked like you, Marley, and when we saw the car turn in to the woods, we got really worried, so we called 911.”
“I’m glad you did.” I remembered the flash of blue I’d seen as we left my house behind, and realized that it must have been Ivan’s classic VW bug. “But Ivan keeps binoculars in his car?” I asked after a pause.
“For bird-watching.”
A siren wailed in the distance, drawing closer and distracting us from our conversation. Ivan had rejoined Ray down in the ravine and Deputy Devereaux had switched on a powerful flashlight, keeping one hand on Kirk’s arm. He’d stopped swearing and now stood scowling at the ground.
“Ladies, let’s make our way back to the road,” Devereaux said.
Lisa, Chloe, and I followed him through the trees and undergrowth, the beam of his flashlight making the trip easier in the dark. I thought perhaps we were a long way from the road, but it turned out that the trip took only a few minutes. When we broke free of the tree line and arrived at the dirt road, an ambulance was slowly navigating its way toward us. Behind the ambulance came another sheriff’s department vehicle. A female deputy I hadn’t yet met climbed out of the car and joined Devereaux as he spoke with the paramedics.
Kirk was placed into the backseat of one of the cruisers, the female deputy standing watch next to the vehicle.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” Devereaux told us after he’d broken away from the others. “Talk to Deputy Mendoza if you need anything in the meantime.”
He led the paramedics into the woods, and Lisa, Chloe, and I stood clustered together, watching them disappear into the darkness. Just as the beam of Devereaux’s flashlight faded away, Ivan stepped out of the trees and onto the road.
“What’s happening in there?” I asked him.
“Gavin is still making up stories about you.” I frowned, but Ivan added, “Don’t worry. The sheriff’s not believing a word of it.”
That was a relief, as was the realization that only Gavin’s fingerprints would be on the gun. Plus, I had Chloe to back me up, so even if we needed more than Ray’s personal belief, there was more than just my word to go on. There was even a chance that some of what Gavin had said back at my house was recorded by Chloe’s 911 call.
I shivered and leaned back against the nearest cruiser, the one not housing Kirk. Now that Chloe and I were safe, the cooling night air was seeping into my skin, and the pain in my wrist was getting harder to ignore. Ivan left our group to speak with Deputy Mendoza in the pool of illumination created by the lights of the emergency vehicles. When he returned a minute later, he opened the back door of the vacant cruiser.
“You’re freezing. Sit inside,” he told me.
I glanced Mendoza’s way.
“The deputy said it’s okay,” he assured me.
I climbed into the cruiser and relaxed against the seat, only then realizing how drained I felt.
“You too,” I heard Ivan say.
A second later Chloe slid in next to me.
Ivan and Lisa remained outside, speaking in low voices.
“I could sleep for a week,” Chloe said.
“Me too.” After a minute of silence, I realized I should say more. “I’m sorry for getting you involved in all this.”
Chloe turned her head my way. “You didn’t. None of this is your fault. And I’m glad I was here.”
“You are?” The question came out heavy with incredulity.
“Well, okay, I’m not so much glad I was here for all the craziness as I’m glad that you weren’t alone when it happened.”
“That makes more sense.” I reached over and gave her hand a squeeze. “Thanks, Chloe.”
She returned the pressure. “I just hope our Fourth of July barbecue will be tame compared to this night.”
I laughed. “Same here.”
Then I closed my eyes and focused on nothing but the fact that we were safe.