They drove through the darkness a while longer, until the big, barn-like structure of Flatt’s Ranch Supply appeared in the headlights off to the left. No cars in the lot, and the interior was completely dark behind the windows. Kade pulled around to the back and killed the engine, turned off his headlights, but left the parking lights on. No sign of anyone moving around.

Ellie checked the time on her cell phone. Three minutes to midnight. Kade turned off the dome light before he opened the door and stepped out of the truck. Ellie got out on her side of the pickup.

She could see a hay shed, bales stacked six high under the metal roof. As she and Kade approached, a small, rotund man in boots and a beat-up cowboy hat stepped out of the darkness and started toward them. In the glow of the parking lights, his face had a sickly yellow tint.

He was ten feet away when a rifle shot rang out, and Earl Dunstan went down.

Ellie pulled her Glock, Kade pulled his Colt, and both of them hit the ground. More shots rained down from a spot in a cluster of trees on the side of the hill, some of them pinging on the metal struts holding up the building. She and Kade split up and crawled to cover, Kade back behind the pickup, Ellie behind a stack of gray cement blocks.

Another shot rang out, drilling into the truck near where Kade crouched behind a front tire. Ellie fired two return shots, then started moving, darting behind the base of a big pine tree closer to Dunstan, who lay unmoving on the ground. While Kade laid down a barrage of gunfire, Ellie eased into the deep grass and crawled toward Earl.

A shot thumped into the dirt a few feet away from him, and Kade fired again in the direction the shots had come from. Ellie caught a glimpse of Kade running low, circling around to the shooter’s position in a copse of trees on the side of the hill.

Her heart was pounding with fear for him and worry for the man on the ground. When no more shots rang out, she crawled over to where Earl sprawled in the grass. She could hear his shallow breaths as he gasped for air.

“Everything’s going to be okay, Earl. I’m Ellie. I’m with Kade. I’m calling for help.” Quickly she punched in 911. “A man’s been shot in Phippsburg behind Flatt’s Ranch Supply. Whoever shot him is still out there shooting at us.”

“What’s your name?” the female dispatcher asked.

Ellie tucked the phone between her neck and shoulder, opened Earl’s bloody jacket, then tore open his shirt. In the dim glow of the parking lights, she could see he’d been shot in the chest, and it was bad.