Praying that Katie was still alive.
Kevin saw the gun in the same instant she did and dove for it, reaching it first. He snatched it up and pointed it at her, enraged. He grabbed her by the hair and put the gun to her head as he began dragging her across the lot.
"Leave me? You can't leave me!"
Behind the store, beneath a tree, she saw his car, with its Massachusetts plates. The heat from the fire scorched her face, singeing the hair on her arms. Kevin was raging at her, his voice slurred and raw.
"You're my wife!"
In the distance, she could faintly make out sirens, but they seemed so far away.
When they reached the car, she tried to fight again but Kevin slammed her head onto the roof and she almost passed out. He opened the trunk and tried to force her in. Somehow she turned and managed to drive her knee into his groin. She heard him gasp and felt his grip loosen momentarily.
She pushed blindly, tearing out of his grasp, and started running for her life. She knew the bullet was coming, that she was about to die.
He couldn't understand why she was fighting, could barely breathe through the pain. She'd never fought him before, had never scratched at his eyes or kicked or bitten him. She wasn't acting like his wife and her hair was brown but she sounded like Erin … He started staggering after her, raising the gun, aiming, but there were two Erins and both were running.
He pulled the trigger.
Katie gasped as she heard the shot, waiting for the flash of pain, but it didn't come. She kept running and suddenly it occurred to her that he'd missed. She veered left and then right, still in the lot, desperate for some kind of shelter. But there was nothing.
Kevin staggered after her, his hands slippery with blood, slipping on the trigger. He felt like he was about to vomit again. She was getting farther away, moving from side to side, and he couldn't keep her in sight. She was trying to get away but she wouldn't because she was his wife. He would bring her home because he loved her, and then he would shoot her dead because he hated her.
Katie saw the headlights of a car on the road, moving as fast as a race car. She wanted to get to the road, to flag the car down, but she knew she wouldn't reach the road in time. Surprising her, the car suddenly began to slow, and all at once, she recognized the jeep as it careened into the lot, recognized Alex behind the wheel.
Roaring past her, toward Kevin.
The sirens were getting closer now. People were coming and she felt a surge of hope.
Kevin saw the jeep coming and raised the gun. He began firing, but the jeep kept coming toward him. He leapt out of the way as the jeep roared past, but it clipped his hand, breaking all the bones and knocking the gun somewhere into the darkness.
Kevin screamed in agony, instinctively cradling his hand as the jeep careened forward, past the burning wreckage of the store, skidding on the gravel and crashing headlong into the storage shed.
There were sirens in the distance. He wanted to chase Erin but he would get arrested if he stayed. The fear took over and Kevin began to limp and jog to his car, knowing that he had to get out of there and wondering how everything had gone so wrong.
Katie watched Kevin tear out of the lot, gravel spinning, onto the main road. Turning around, she saw that Alex's jeep was half buried in the storage shed, its engine still spewing exhaust, and she raced toward it. The fire cast its flickering light on the rear of the car and she felt panic rising inside her, as she prayed for Alex to show himself.
She was closing in on the car when her foot hit something hard, making her stumble. Spotting the gun she'd tripped on, she picked it up and started toward the car again.
Ahead, the door of the car pushed open slightly, but it was blocked by debris on either side. She felt a surge of relief that Alex was alive at the same instant she remembered that Josh and Kristen were missing.
"Alex!" she cried. She reached the back of the jeep and started to pound on it. "You have to get out! The kids are out there-need to find them!"
The door was still jammed but he was able to roll down the window. When he leaned out, she saw he was bleeding from his forehead and his voice was weak. "They're okay … I brought them to your house … "
Ice flooded her veins. "Oh, my God," she croaked out, thinking, No, no, no … "Hurry up!" She pounded the rear of the car. "Get out! Kevin just left!" She could hear the raw fear in her own voice. "That's the direction he went!"
The pain in his hand was beyond anything he'd ever experienced, and he felt dizzy from blood loss. Nothing was making any sense, and his hand was useless now. He heard the sirens coming but he would wait for Erin at her house, because he knew she would be home tonight or tomorrow.
He parked behind the other, deserted cottage. Strangely, he saw Amber standing behind a tree, asking if he wanted to buy her a drink, but then her image vanished. He remembered that he had cleaned the house and mowed the lawn but he had never learned how to do laundry and now Erin was calling herself Katie.
There was nothing to drink and he was getting so tired. Blood stained his pants and he realized that his fingers and arm were bleeding, too, but he couldn't remember how that had happened. He wanted so much to sleep. He needed to rest for a while because the police would be searching for him and he needed to be fresh if they got close.
The world around him was growing faint and distant, as if viewed through the far end of a telescope. He heard the trees swaying back and forth, but instead of a breeze, all he felt was the hot summer air. He began to shiver, but he was sweating, too. So much blood, and it drained out of his hands and arm, wouldn't seem to stop. He needed to rest, couldn't stay awake, and his eyes began to close.
Alex slammed the jeep into reverse and revved the engine, listening to the wheels spinning, but the jeep was going nowhere. His mind raced frantically with the knowledge that Josh and Kristen were in danger.
He lifted his foot off the gas, engaged the four-wheel drive, and tried again. This time the jeep began to move, the side mirrors ripping off, debris scraping and bending its body. The jeep came free with a final lurch. Katie pulled futilely at the passenger door until Alex rotated in his seat and kicked at it, flinging it open. Katie jumped in.
Alex turned the jeep around and accelerated hard, gaining the road as the fire trucks pulled in. Neither said a word as he slammed the pedal to the floor. Alex had never been more frightened in his life.
Around the bend, the gravel road. Alex turned sharply, the car skidding out. The rear fishtailed and he accelerated again. Up ahead, he spotted the cottages, lights glowing in the windows of Katie's. No sign of Kevin's car, and he exhaled before he even realized he'd been holding his breath.
Kevin heard the sound of an engine coming down the gravel road and he jerked awake.
The police, he thought, and he automatically reached for his gun using his crippled hand. He screamed in pain and confusion as he realized that the gun wasn't there. It had been on the front seat but it wasn't there now and none of this made sense.
He got out of the car and looked up the road. The jeep pulled into view, the one from the store parking lot, the one that had almost killed him. It came to a stop and Erin leapt out. At first he couldn't believe his good fortune, but then he remembered that she lived here and it was the reason he'd come.
His good hand was shaking hard as he opened the trunk and removed the crowbar. He saw Erin and her lover racing to the porch. He staggered and limped toward the house, unwilling and unable to stop, because Erin was his wife and he loved her and the gray-haired man had to die.
* * *
Alex skidded to a stop in front of the house and both of them jumped out simultaneously, running for the door, calling the kids' names. Katie still held the gun. They reached the door just as Josh opened it, and as soon as he saw his son, Alex swept him up in his arms. Kristen came out from behind the couch and rushed toward them. Alex opened his arms to her as well, catching her easily as she jumped.
Katie stood just inside the doorway, watching with tears of relief in her eyes. Kristen reached out for her, too, and Katie moved closer, accepting Kristen's hug with a blind rush of happiness.
Lost in the tidal wave of emotion, none of them noticed Kevin appear in the doorway, crowbar raised high. He swung hard, sending Alex crashing to the floor and the kids stumbling and falling backward in horror and shock.
Kevin heard the satisfying thud of the crowbar, felt the vibration up his arm. The gray-haired man lay crumpled on the floor and Erin screamed.
In that instant, Alex and the kids were all that mattered to her, and Katie instinctively rushed toward Kevin, driving him back out the door. There were only two porch steps, but it was enough, and Kevin toppled backward into the dirt.