She waited, kept her breathing steady, her rifle trained on the Douglas fir that hid Sweeney. She could see where the barrel of his rifle stuck out, watched it move up and down as the young deputy caught his breath. She waited. She could fall him with a head shot as soon as he took a step, and that would be the end of Cole Sweeney.

Damn it, she knew Cole’s mother. Jess gritted her teeth, tried to push that fact from her mind. The kid had known what he was getting into, coming here. He’d have no compunction with killing her.

Sweeney made his move. Jess tracked him with her rifle. She didn’t pull the trigger.

The kid hadn’t killed Burke when he’d had the chance.

Damn it.

Sweeney stuck his head out from behind another tree. Emboldened, he stepped out from around it, scanned the forest ahead of him with his own rifle. Jess swore softly and lowered her sight. Put a round through Sweeney’s left knee and watched the kid fall.

You’re getting too soft, marine, she thought. Too damn soft.

Then the forest blew up around her.

*  *  *

Jess was losing her touch.

Harwood had her pegged the second she blew out Sweeney’s kneecap, watched the muzzle flash from sixty feet down the hill and opened fire accordingly, emptying his magazine into the trees where she’d fired from.

Sweeney was down, and from his screams, he was hurting, but Jess hadn’t killed him. He was out of the battle, but that didn’t matter. She’d lost some of her accuracy, apparently, and now he had her pinned down.

Harwood slammed a fresh magazine into his rifle. Advanced up the hill running, maintaining steady fire at Jess’s hiding hole, fully aware that when he stopped to reload, she’d be up again and shooting back, and she still had the advantage.

He closed the distance, hurdling fallen logs and scrambling up wet rock, nearly falling backward but catching himself, squeezing off more rounds, keeping her pinned.

Damn it, but he could have used Joy right now.

He was coming around the side where Jess was dug in, her cover not so great on this side but perfect for Sweeney’s position. Didn’t matter now, except she wasn’t quite set up to defend from this angle, and Harwood figured to overrun her. He was about out of breath when he reached the top of the rise, a couple of fallen logs making a nice little pillbox, and he was just about out of rounds, too. No time to stop now, though. Not with Jess on the ropes.

Harwood pulled out his pistol. Came in over the logs and kept firing, heard Jess open up from somewhere else, and ducked down until he heard her rifle click empty.