“It’s for your safety…”
“I know.” She flipped the bread with sharp movements. “I know it’s necessary. I know those shooters are still out there. But understanding something and feeling it are different things.”
The coffee maker gurgled its completion. Valeria pulled two mugs from the cabinet and poured coffee while the French toast finished cooking. She slid the food onto the plates and brought everything to the small table.
“My bear is going crazy,” she said, sitting down hard. “She needs air, space, something besides these walls.”
They ate in silence for a few minutes, but Valeria found herself pushing pieces around her plate more than eating, her leg bouncing under the table.
“My fathers probably got half the department looking for me by now,” she said abruptly, setting down her fork. “The police chief’s daughter disappears from a crime scene. Shell casings everywhere.” She wrapped her hands around her coffee mug. “He’ll tear this town apart.”
Dom finished his last bite. “He won’t find this place.”
“You don’t know him.” She stood, unable to sit still any longer, and carried her half-empty plate to the sink.
“I need fresh air,” she announced. “I need to move, to think clearly.”
“It’s not safe. The shooters from yesterday…”
“A walk. Just around the cabin.” She was already moving toward her boots. “You can hover all you want, but I’m going outside.”
Dom watched her lace up the boots with sharp, agitated movements. “Don’t get cocky.”
She couldn’t suppress the small smile as she stood. “I still need fresh air.”
“Fine. Ten minutes.”
Chapter
Eighteen
Dom checkedhis sidearm and radio before opening the cabin door. The morning air was crisp, and the scent of pine filled his nose. His enhanced senses immediately began cataloging the forest baseline. The bird calls, wind patterns, and the rustle of small animals in the underbrush.
Everything seemed normal.
Valeria stepped outside and breathed deeply, her shoulders dropping as tension flowed out of her. “God, that’s better. I was starting to feel like the walls were closing in.”
Dom positioned himself between her and the tree line. The forest stretched in all directions, thick with evergreens that could hide a dozen shooters. But Valeria needed this, and he could give her ten minutes of fresh air.
Dom kept pace with Valeria as they followed the deer trail behind the cabin. She stepped over roots and ducked under low branches without breaking stride. A jay scolded them from a pine branch, and she laughed.
“This is nice,” she said, pausing beside a large pine tree.
Dom nodded, though his attention remained split between her wellbeing and security. The morning sun filtered through the canopy, painting everything in gold and green. Under other circumstances, it would have been perfect.
That’s when he noticed the change in the atmosphere.
The bird calls stopped. There was no rustling of small animals. Even the wind seemed muted, as if the forest itself was holding its breath. Dom’s wolf went rigid with recognition. There were apex predators in the area. His hand moved automatically toward his weapon.
“We need to go back inside,” he said quietly, not wanting to alarm her but needing her ready to move.
“Why? What’s wrong?” Valeria’s cop instincts kicked in immediately, her posture shifting from relaxed to alert.
Dom’s enhanced hearing picked up the faint scrape of someone adjusting a rifle position. His blood turned to ice as the picture became clear.
“Get down!” Dom roared, launching himself toward Valeria just as the first shot cracked through the morning air.
The high-powered rifle round splintered bark from the tree where she’d been standing a heartbeat before. Dom slammed into her, driving them both behind the thick trunk as more shots erupted from the tree line.
