I shed my protective gear a piece at a time like a gingerbread trail as I ran down the hill toward the park. He was coming after me. I heard his feet pounding on the blacktop, but I didn’t dare look.
Beyond the park, the Coast Guard Academy glowed. If I could get there, I’d be safe. I shed my last piece of equipment, my white lab coat, hoping he wouldn’t slow himself down enough to pick the pieces up.
I stumbled as my speed and the downhill slope of the road overtook my legs. My hands hit the ground, but somehow, I stayed on my feet. I balanced and took off again. He was taller, longer, and faster than me. I could feel the distance between us closing.
The pounding of my heart was making the sounds disappear again, like they had the night before in the safe room, and I had to force myself past it.
He wasn’t shooting. Maybe he was afraid of the sound alerting the police.
Maybe he didn’t want us to be found.
When I reached the park, I headed for the edge near the sea with its line of trees, hoping they would hide me. I did my best to slide behind one and then another, but my breath was heavy and gave me away. The crunch of leaves and branches as I ran couldn’t be hidden even with the crash of the waves to my right.
“You’re only angering me, Miss Banner. Any lenience I might have had for you is now gone,” his voice rang out in the darkness.
The cliff loomed near, and I scurried away, not wanting to chance my footing near it. The Academy had been my goal, but I wasn’t sure I’d reach it. There was too much distance between me and it at the rate he was overtaking me. The math jumbled across my mind, numbers flying through my vision.
A sob escaped me.
I hadn’t realized I was crying, but tears were streaming down my face.
I nearly tripped over a limb, and my body kept moving as my brain registered that I could use it. I turned around, picked up the branch, and hid behind a tree.
Ken’Ichi wasn’t being any quieter than I had been, and when I heard him rounding the tree, I swung with every ounce of force I had left in my body. The crunch of bone as the branch hit his outstretched arm surprised me as much as him.
“Abazure,” he swore, but I heard the metal of his gun clatter against the bark and land with a thud. As much as Ken’Ichi was the head of a crime syndicate, he was obviously not used to doing the dirty work. It was the third time Jada and I had taken him by surprise.
I didn’t give him a moment to recover. I turned and ran, even though my heart and lungs were objecting. I started for the Academy again when Dawson’s voice tore through the night, full of anguish and fear. “Violet!”
Like always when he called to me, it drew me. A lighthouse in the darkness. I switched directions, running out from the trees into the open grass of the park. It was a risk, but now I was running toward Dawson. Toward the man I loved. The missing part of me.
The moon came out from behind the clouds, lighting my way. Dawson became a glimmering hope. My heart leaped. Relief. And a new fear. Fear for him. He was standing at the edge of the park with my lab coat in his hands, searching the darkness. As soon as his eyes landed on me, he was moving toward me. We were running, like those dumb romance scenes, and I would have laughed if the horror didn’t have me breathless in its clutches.
A shot rang out, and I ducked, weaving. Dawson had his gun pointing toward me—no, behind me. I didn’t stop running while my lungs continued to scream at me. My chest hurt. My legs hurt. I could see the spark of Dawson’s gun as it flared to life. Maybe I should have been afraid that it was so close to me, pointing vaguely in my direction, but I trusted Dawson with every fiber of my being.
Another shot came from behind me that Dawson returned just as we reached each other. He wrapped me in one arm, hugging me to him as he fired three more shots in the direction Ken’Ichi was coming from.
Then, he stopped, surrounding me in both arms, pulling me tight up against him and his warmth. I was shivering from head to toe, my breathing ragged and harsh. But I was home.
“Are you hurt?” he said, smothering my hair with kisses.
I shook my head because I couldn’t talk. My throat was all but closed, my heart a tangled mess of knots, and my lungs were trying to catch up.
“Stay here,” he said and let me go.
I hated it. I hated being out of his arms, but I nodded dumbly.
He moved into the now quiet night toward the dark shape that lay on the grass of the park near a playground I hadn’t even registered I’d run past. The swings were swaying eerily even though there was very little wind.
Dawson reached the shape and kicked what I imagined was Ken’Ichi’s gun away before leaning over to check for a pulse. He said something. I could see his mouth moving but not the words. Then he turned, picking up the gun he’d kicked away. He was on his phone as he headed back to me.
The dark shape that was Ken’Ichi moved, stumbling up and toward Dawson.
“Dawson!” I screamed.
He whipped around and shot one last time into the hunched body lunging at him. Ken’Ichi hit his knees and then fell forward to the ground once again.
I flew to him, barely taking in the words that he breathed into the phone. “He’s down. Send the paramedics, but they won’t be needed.”
