Kate sat alone in the darkness, the salt of her tears stinging her lips. She no longer cared about the stalker. She was worried about Andrew and Buttons.

She heard walking, but it could have been Andrew. Buttons had stopped barking. She thought of the old dog running recklessly into the woods and getting lost – or even worse, stumbling across the stalker and being hurt.

From off in the distance, there came another “Ahoo.”

The crickets silenced.

The night went perfectly still.

The only sound in the cottage was Kate’s soft sobs.

There came a pointed click, the sound of metal against metal.

Kate held her breath.

The explosion of gunfire sounded like the end of the world.

Chapter Nineteen

Andrew sat in a hardback chair in the tiny dining room, the new Remington 783 on the table. Dawn had finally come, but he didn’t feel as if he could exhale just yet.

“I’m so sorry, honey,” he said.

Kate was on the bed, heavily sedated. After he’d come back into the house with Buttons, the pallor of her skin and look in her eyes had rocked him to his core. She’d refused to go to the hospital, insisting she just needed to make sure he was okay and to take a sedative to calm down. She had a scrip for anti-anxiety pills (if anyone had reason for anxiety, it was Kate) that she didn’t use very much. He found a pill after dumping the mason jar on the bedspread. She’d been pretty zonked out ever since.

“Huh?”

Her eyes were only half-open, the corner of her mouth slack. Thank God, she’d gotten some color back in her cheeks, though kissing her forehead a few minutes ago had told him most of that color was coming from the returning fever.

Andrew didn’t bother her, watching her eyes slowly close all the way.

Once it was light enough to see well, he was going outside…without the rifle.

Firing it last night had scared the hell out of him. He hoped that if he wasn’t now a murderer, it had frightened off the lunatic who had been harassing them for good. He’d been so goddamn angry, the whole thing was just a big, black blur. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to give a firearm to a guy with anger issues.

He hadn’t thought of getting the rifle until he spotted the firearms case at the sporting goods store the next town over. He’d stopped by to pick up a small life vest, realizing that if he drowned, there was no one left to properly care for Kate. Ida would have been proud of his very grown-up decision.

And then he’d gone and done something to erase that pride.