The faint puff of displaced air sounded. An instant later, Levi stumbled a step and dropped to the ground.

“No!” The single word escaped her in a whisper.

Cassie started to rush forward but stopped herself. Levi told her what to do. She raised her gun to fire off another shot, then lowered her weapon again. She couldn’t leave Levi. There had to be another way.

Another puff of air, this time followed by a cloud of dust rising a few feet from where she now lay. It took only a moment for her to realize the shooter had aimed for where she had been when she’d fired off her first two shots.

Cassie held her breath for several seconds, afraid the mere sound of inhaling and exhaling might give away her position. The instinct to roll again surfaced, but she fought against it. If the shooter thought he’d succeeded, would he leave her alone? Or would he come out to see if she was really dead?

Her grip tightened on the gun handle. If he came out in the open, could she bring herself to shoot another human being? Would she hit her target if she tried?

Her gaze landed on Levi, who lay motionless on the ground. She pressed her lips together as myriad emotions crashed over her, though fear, regret, and panic dominated, dousing the tiny flicker of hope that Levi was still alive.

She blinked against the tears that sprang to her eyes. Levi lay ten meters away. Darius lay in the field forty meters behind her. She owed it to both of them to stay alive, if for no other reason than to see if her prayers for their survival were fulfilled the way she hoped.

Her hand loosened and tightened on the gun grip again. She didn’t know if she was ready for what would come, but she was most certainly waiting.

CHAPTER 44

Levi mustered every ounce of willpower to keep himself from moving. A trickle of blood seeped into the fabric of his pants. Apparently, the sensation of getting slapped had actually been a bullet to the fleshy part of his thigh.

His shoulder throbbed with each heartbeat, but he ignored the pain and focused instead on the sounds around him.

His hand still gripped his gun, and he hoped the shooter would expose himself when Cassie ran away.

No footsteps. Why wasn’t Cassie running? Had their assailant managed to shoot her? He couldn’t entertain such a thought. She had to be okay. He had to make sure she stayed that way.

For several seconds, the only sound was the rustle of the leaves in the breeze. Cassie didn’t move. She didn’t shoot.

A hollowness started in his stomach and spread outward until it encompassed his entire body. Cassie couldn’t be dead.

The thought of living without seeing her every day had devastated him when she’d kicked him out, but that was nothing compared to what the world would be like if she was no longer part of it.