She could feel him behind her. Tracking her. Stalking her.
Scrambling to her hands and knees, Shiloh pushed off, running hard for the very top of the hill. It was then that she remembered her iPhone in her pocket.
Thrusting her fingers into the wet denim, she frantically grabbed for the cell. Would it work out here? She knew during thunderstorms, cells often did not work, the invisible connectors destroyed by rain and lightning. If only it would work! The iPhone wasn’t waterproof.
As she leaped and ran in and around larger rocks near the crown of the slope, she worried the rain had ruined the phone, and that she couldn’t make a call for help. It was one mile down the dirt road from Pine Grove to the main ranch center. She had to run out in the middle of flat land where Leath would easily spot her.
Shiloh’s breath was exploding from her. Lungs burning, she slowed, feeling her legs starting to cramp up from the exertion. She kept looking over her shoulder. Kept thinking she’d seen Leath’s dark bulk appearing out of the gray pall of rain that surrounded her. Gripping the cell phone, her fingers shaking so badly she couldn’t turn it on, Shiloh made a frustrated sound.
It wouldn’t turn on!
Tears jammed into Shiloh’s eyes. She shoved it back into her pocket, lunging for the top of the hill.
A shot rang out.
Bark flew a few feet from her face, the splinters striking the side of her face and neck.
Screaming, Shiloh winced, ducking and running over the crown.
He had a gun!
Sobbing for breath, stumbling, she hit a patch of wet pine needles, her feet jerking out from beneath her. Shiloh grunted, suddenly finding herself sliding down on her back and butt, heading straight down over a small cliff. She threw out her hands, a croak tearing out of her as she flew off into space.
Slamming into the rocks and pine needles twenty feet below, she landed with an “Oomph!”
Terrorized, she looked up the cliff. She saw Leath there, aiming his pistol right at her.
Screaming, she raced toward a huge fir tree.
The bark exploded near her head. And then several more bullets poured into the tree she scrambled behind, cowering, gripping the roots, trying to make herself small enough that he couldn’t hit her.
A sudden bolt of light flashed above her. The whole area went blindingly light. Shiloh gasped, hands flying up to her eyes. She felt electricity tingling throughout her. The next thing she knew, she was being hurled through the air, tumbling end over end. The noxious odor of ozone stung and burned her nostrils. She landed hard, the wind knocked out of her lungs. She lay semiconscious on the ground, the rain pummeling her face, forcing her back to awareness.
Thunder followed.
As she lay there, partially stunned by the near miss of the bolt, the thunder shook the hill like it was Jello-O in a container. Her whole body vibrated with the fierce sounds rolling through the area.
Where is Leath?
Shiloh rolled to her side, forcing herself to her hands and knees. Dizziness assailed her. She heard herself gasping like a fish out of water.
Leath? Where?
Twisting her head, the pall of rain coming down even harder, making her feel like she was enclosed in a curtain she couldn’t see through, Shiloh saw nothing but the torrent surrounding her. Beneath her hands water ran in violent rivulets down from the top of the grove. With a small cry, Shiloh launched herself to her feet, stumbling, running, wobbling down the other side of the slope. She couldn’t see Leath. That meant nothing. He would find a way down that twenty-foot cliff and come after her. The rain was hiding her. She ran brokenly, her legs cramped, pain flaring up into her thighs. If she didn’t run, she’d die.
Another zigzag of lightning sizzled overhead.
Shiloh screamed, throwing her hands over her head, ducking and falling.
The bolt hit somewhere nearby. The hill shook. The ozone filled the air and was rapidly dispensed by the curtain of heavy rain. Shiloh was blinded, unsure of her direction now as she slowly got to her feet. Her calves were cramping so bad that she could feel fist-sized knots in each of them. It hurt to take one step. Biting down on her lower lip, she forced herself to break into an awkward, stumbling trot, continuing down the hill.
The rain started to let up the farther downward she jogged, fell, got back up, and then jogged some more. The wind wasn’t as fierce. Shiloh’s hair was plastered around her. All her clothing was soaked, clinging to her body. She was chilled, her hands feeling numb from the coldness the storm had brought with it.
Suddenly, as she moved around a huge hole in the ground, she saw Leath.
He smiled at her, his pistol raised, no more than forty feet away from her, his back to the hole that had been dug out of the ground.