Baxter growled and pulled on the leash, I held firm with both hands. The hair on the back of my neck stood up and I heard loud breathing to my left.
I felt Seth grab my gun from my waistband. I turned and saw him, his face streaked with tears, aiming my gun with a shaky hand at Stark.
Stark let out a bark of laughter. “Call off your bodyguard, Ms. Fortune.”
“Seth, put the gun down.” I took a step toward him, but Stark shook his head and motioned with his gun that I should stay put. My body felt like ice as I watched Seth grip the gun, my mind playing out every sort of horrible outcome. The safety was still on, and Seth didn’t know how to shoot, as far as I knew. But Stark didn’t know that, and he’d already killed two people who’d gotten in his way.
“Seth, listen to her,” said a new voice. Milo stepped out of the trees toward Seth. He didn’t even glance at his stepfather. “Seth, you don’t want to do this. It will follow you for the rest of your life, believe me. Put the gun down and no one will get hurt.”
“Tuffy’s already hurt!” Seth said.
Milo inched closer to him. “Seth, you’re not a killer. Put it down.”
Seth glanced at me. I nodded. Baxter moaned as if to join in the chorus of reason.
Seth let his arm drop, and Milo stepped forward to take the gun. He put his arm around Seth, who shrugged him off and ran to where Tuffy had fallen.
“You shouldn’t come to the woods at night, Ms. Fortune. You never know what might happen,” Stark said.
This was it, I thought. In my effort to protect my family by sending them on a wild Milo chase, I had left myself open to danger. And since Seth was always with me these days, he was in danger, too. In the distance, I heard something crashing through the forest. And a siren.
“Stark, put the gun away. It’s over,” Milo said. He pointed my gun at Stark.
I heard a ka-chink to my right. Cecile held a hunting rifle up to her shoulder, aimed at me. I wasn’t shocked, based on Tish’s diary entry, but was angry at myself for momentarily forgetting that she was just as dangerous as Joe.
Stark laughed and shook his head. “It’s not over for—” he began.
His next words were drowned out by the sound of a car approaching through the trees, the siren flashing and wailing on top. Tom pulled the wheel hard to the right but too late to stop it from crashing into a huge oak at the edge of the clearing. We were all momentarily distracted by its arrival. The driver’s side was blocked by the tree, but the passenger door flew open, and Mac climbed out. He took a step toward us, his arms outstretched just like in my dream.
I turned to warn him to stay back, and my hand loosened on the leash, which was all Baxter needed. I felt Baxter’s low growl, then the leather leash ripped into my hand as it was pulled out of my grasp. He launched himself at Stark with a deep bark. Joe put his arm up to protect himself and, just as Baxter was about to land on him, the gun fired. Dog and man went down in a pile of fur and stringy hair. Stark rolled out from under Baxter and started crab-walking away, but the dog didn’t move. I heard a deep howl begin off to my left. Tuffy had come around and made the most mournful sound I had ever heard.
The howl was deafening in the otherwise quiet clearing. The car engine hissed, and the headlights lit up the woods to the north of us. The bubble on top spun, and the flashing lights revealed Milo wrestling with Stark for possession of the gun. I caught a glimpse of Cecile running into the trees, but I couldn’t deal with her until I knew Seth was safe and I had checked on Baxter. I signaled Seth to stay on the ground near Tuffy. I saw Stark’s gun drop to the forest floor as Milo slammed his knee into Stark’s gut.
I crawled toward Baxter. He still had not moved. I reached his long body and ran my hand along his chest. It was wet. I looked up to see Mac running toward us, and back at my hand, covered in blood.
Mac ran past me and pulled Stark away from Milo. Stark’s gun lay glinting in the moonlight just a few feet from me. I grabbed it. Seth had moved closer to Baxter, and Tuffy continued his keening. As Mac clicked the handcuffs onto Stark’s wrist, Tom finally climbed out of the police car. Alex and Diana emerged from the trees.
“I tried to text you about Cecile,” Diana said, as she ran over to where I sat with Baxter. “We saw her headed this way with a rifle.”
Stark’s gun lay in my hand, and I could see Sara and then Tish falling to the ground. I shook my head to clear it, and then focused on the section of woods into which Cecile had disappeared.